Dress rehearsal to a big week

Well, this has been a crazy day. And for the most part, I was in a suit. But alas, the Indian summer heat made me sweat like a lady in need of an impregnation. Yes, on that day, 26 August, 2006, a few days before the Fall semester at the Beach returned, I spent a day out by myself, watching volleyball, walking, resting at a coffeehouse, and then taking the bus to a dinner for convention staff before writing this blog.

First, I spent the yesterday watching a football scrimmage at LBCC, and then I took the bus to watch Long Beach State’s women’s volleyball team begin its 2006 campaign. The first opponent was the Missouri Tigers, ranked 13th in the nation. At the beginning, I thought this was going to be an easy match because I thought these Tigers weren’t ranked at all, and they were at the same level we played. For the first two games, it looked that way. The crowd knew the cue when the opposition was serving, and we were going to counter with the kill: “GOOOOO….BEACH! LONG BEEAAACH…STATE!” Every time we scored a point, I danced, looked at the crowd knowing we made a good play, or looked at my fellow students when the kill came on cue after our cheer.
In the third game, Missouri actually tried to put us on the brink. They got swept, 3 games to 0. Only when I got back home did I realize they were ranked 13th in the nation, so this was a very good start for us.

The next day, donned in my suit (and sweating like a mofo in it), I returned to the Walter Pyramid to watch the 49ers take on Alabama State, whose volleyball team would make even my high school’s freshman squad laugh.
Before I go into the game, I have to say a few things about the changes to the Pyramid, including during this game. One, spaces for the banners underneath the scoreboard are all filled, since we won the Commissioner’s Cup last year, we have a banner for the seasons we won it. I suspect they will be filled in time, if we got the right players on our team to lead us to the Promised Land: the highest-scoring point average at the end of the season. Two, there is new text in the banners for the Beach on the north side, since some of our teams won titles, and/or have participated in tournaments. Three, and this is a bad one: the buzzer. It sounds like a horrible farting noise that not even Miu Matsuoka in that onsen episode in Strawberry Marshmallow can duplicate. When that buzzer sounds, I make an ugly face, act like I have a heart attack, do the orz formation, or scream in agony. That buzzer needs to be fixed or replaced immediately. I don’t want my precious Walter Pyramid to have a notoriety of having The Buzzer From Flatulatonia for the rest of this season. Never!
Fourth, and this is for this game: they operators put in “Alabama” instead of “Ala St.,” “Alasu,” or even “Bama St.” Hello? We’re not facing the freaking Crimson Tide here! If that were the case, we’d actually have a game on our hands. (Coincidentally, Villanova would give that close game to the Beach, albeit they got swept, but not before a tightly contested first and third games. I’ll give respect to the Big East for giving their all, but they could not steal a game from the Big West’s best team [at least according to the media and coaches].) That Alabama team won the Academy Sports Invitational this weekend, defeating Alabama A&M and Kansas while losing against Miami, and was predicted to finish second in the Western Division of the SEC behind LSU.
Which brings us to the game itself. It was nothing more than a glorified practice before a few committed supporters. I could not bring my flags, mainly because one of the sticks snapped when I got home last night, and so I had to make to by using my Beach jacket as a rally towel. The ladies, led by Alexis “Big Lexy” Crimes (I call her Big Lexy because she’s 6-foot-3, a good frame, and packs a punch when she’s at her best), didn’t have to break a sweat. In fact, incoming transfer Michaela “Misha” Hasalikova (which I was able to recognize because of her trademark short hairdo [perhaps typical of great volleyballers from her region, I don’t know], signifying that she plays like a pro when she’s at her best) led the way in kills with 11, and she made them look easy. Effortlessly. She could close hr eyes and still make the kill. As for the Hornets? Their leader had only 4 kills. Hello? My high school lost a volleyball game last season, and the top person had more that 4 kills in the effort. Either these folks weren’t ready for the Beach, they just started playing volleyball, they simply weren’t even trying…I will never know the reason. But every time we made a point, I yelled at the ladies, “Again!” and when they made the point after that, I yelled “Again!” like that fake Chinese master in that beer commercial where he’s trained to pour it like a real bartender should. I think that took little over an hour to complete.

At the end of the match, I felt that the Hornets had guts to come over to “Volleyball U” to take on the 49ers, and they should be commended for their courage. Otherwise, Alabam,a State, who was expected to finish next-to-last in the Eastern Division of the SWAC (a conference in which is specializes only in football and marching bands, and baseball if you’re Southern, and senseless rhythmic booty-shaking, which Alabama State would win the Olympic Gold Medal in) simply had no right to be here. Period.

Disgusted, I took the bus, and the long way, over to Cerritos. I had plenty of time to kill, so I tried looking for a bookstore in Los Cerritos Center, in hopes that I would find Strawberry Marshmallow Volume 2 in English. Unfortunately, B-Dalton moved, and there was no bookstore in sight, so I wandered over to the nearby Starbucks, where I had an impromptu conversation with a troubled drunk. I was able to fix up my glasses at the Lenscrafters, though.

This lady basically told me that she worked in the ranches in the Midwest when she was young, and did a lot of stuff when she moved away from the ranches, but her husband became mentally ill years after he was honorably discharged from the Vietnam cause. Her son was also mentally ill, and a destitute. She also fears that her daughter, a social worker in Orange County, was murdered by some crazy guy in Huntington Beach. She talked in a much accented slur, probably from episodes of drinking, smoking, and drugs for many years. After I changed back to my suit, she left. I was going to say thank you for showing me a side of American life that is very dark, and must be avoided.

I then waited for the bus, and headed to the Prince Seafood Restaurant, where the Anime Expo Staff Appreciation Dinner would be held. I was able to sign on a photo of the convention area, and I waited a while, until my squad leader, and a few others from my team on Registration, came in to chat. This was some very good company, and the slideshow that started the dinner really fueled the fires of my return to the Registration lines next year in Long Beach. When I voted for my squad leader to get an award weeks ago, I knew he was going to win that award. Our squad, nicknamed “Aizen” performed better than any squad on Registration, and he had experience, too. As always, those who performed well beyond the call of duty got the highest awards, while I had to settle for a couple of DVDs of the event itself. I think I’ll be able to fit those DVDs into my iPod, but I’m not sure.

Anyway, it was a great event, and thus concluded this day. Bring on the fall…and football. Speaking of which, the Vikings are going to go at it next Saturday against Ventura at Vets. This coming week’s going be a big one.