Boobs, Ballgames, and Beer: What A Week I Had!!

Whew! I thought being a lacrosse mom was hard work!! Now he's off to college and I'm an empty nester, with the exception of my fur babies.

So, when I'm not delivering training, I'm writing and developing training, and keeping up with Lax Twitter on my phone. When I AM delivering training, I generally keep my phone off so I'm not distracted by it. Easy to do when I've been working remotely for 19 months now.

Why am I even mentioning that? Well, because it's going to lead to what started out as a typical week, and ended up with me scratching my head and saying to myself, "Self? How did you get here?"

So Monday last, I was supposed to be delivering training. No, wait. Let me back up further than that. In August, the weekend before I took The Boy to college (yes, college now...) we went to a Premiere Lacrosse League (PLL) game in Albany, NY. While we were there, between games, we went to a merch tent for Shootout For Soldiers. I had peripherally heard of this organization but didn't really know what it was about. They are a charity organization that, "uses lacrosse as a platform to support American veterans and foster community engagement." You can read more about them here. Well, for obvious reasons, this org is right up my alley, right? Super interested in them and you should be, too.

Now, if you're back from reading up on them, shall continue. So, I bought The Boy an SFSLax shaft. Their shafts are made by Epoch lacrosse and are really really gorgeous shafts. So, we watched the next game, then afterward caught up with some players for pics (Tyson Bell and John Ranagan) and got his lax shaft signed by the Cannons goalie.

Fast forward a week or so, and I see someone talking about meeting Alexis Brandolini, one of the directors out of Baltimore. I jump in the conversation, mention the stick, and wonder how we missed each other (Alexis and I) in Albany. We start following each other, which led to Erik Mineo (their program manager) to follow me and so on.

So, now move to Monday last. I was supposed to be delivering training, but my class was canceled. So I checked my lax twitter and that is when I saw it. A tweet from Alexis. HELP!! They had a lax shaft signed at the PLL championship game in DC by the 2020 MVP, Matt Rambo, and it was raffled off as a fundraiser. Unfortunately, the person in possession of the shaft had an emergency, couldn't get the shaft back to the group and next thing you know, they are at the airport and the shaft was confiscated at the security checkpoint. (An aside here: You can't fly with a three-foot-long metal shaft as a carry-on item. That shit can be used as a weapon, and if you've seen the news lately, NO ONE wants someone losing their fucking mind in the cabin of a 757 while wielding a titanium shaft.) So, I messaged Alexis and told her I'm on it. A few phone calls and hours later, I get a call that the shaft has been retrieved and we can pick it up the next day. Shoutout to TSA right here! Their customer support manager, June, heard the story and she is ALSO a military retiree. She went out of her way to locate that stick.

Next thing you know, it's Tuesday and Alexis is playing real-life MarioKart on 295 from Baltimore to DC and I'm driving like Mad Max from Annapolis at the same time. Props to that crazy woman. I left 15 minutes behind her and she beat me by 40 minutes. Holy shit!

We meet up at the airport, pictures are taken, hugs are exchanged and the shaft was on its way home to be shipped to the winner.

After that, the CEO of Epoch lacrosse started following me. ME. THE CEO OF EPOCH FOLLOWS ME!! I was like, holy cow!! Truly honored to have all these new lax followers. Truly.

So, a couple days after the excitement and getting my 15 minutes of Twitter fame, I come across a company called Re-Lax Sports Company whose mission is to, "inspire environmental and economic sustainability in the lacrosse world." They have a program called, GetOneGiveOne. You buy one head and they will send another head to a lacrosse organization of your choice. I chose Kenya Lacrosse. So I buy this as a surprise for The Boy. Lo and behold, he messages me that HE just ordered a head from the very same company and almost the exact same time. (He chose Taiwan Lacrosse, btw).

WHY do I mention this? Well, I tweet that I ordered the head and mesh. It's liked by one of my favorite pro lax players, Adam Ghitelman. WHAT? I know, right? THEN, I'm getting a text from customer service that's like, "Hey, so I see two orders going to the same place. Want me to send them in one box? For helping us reduce our carbon footprint, I'll throw in some swag..." So I'm all excited, and I tweet that "someone from customer service" texted me. (I really hoped they wouldn't get in trouble for giving him a free t-shirt...) Well, probably not. Because that customer service person named Colton? Oh, he's only the FOUNDER of the company!! WHAT?!?!?! I know, bananas, right?

So to wrap up my week, I wound up getting followed by a DIII football coach that's HILARIOUS and doesn't follow many people (he's famous in the DIII football world), wound up getting followed by basically all of the SFS staff, a lax player, wait no, TWO players on the Danish National team (James and Thor), another lax player from Scandinavia, AND I got pics of the boy in his college lax uniform.

That's a pretty big lacrosse week for some random chick with an interest in a charity and lacrosse, wouldn't you say?

Oh, I won't forget you all. You got me to where I am today...