Thrown to the wolves, the blind leading the blind...

My apologies for the assault of tired cliches...

I started officiating high school boys lacrosse this year. I was thinking about 1) reffing basketball or 2) umpiring high school baseball, but I got a letter on Christmas Eve from a brand new lacrosse officiating organization inviting me to join. Needless to say, they had me at hello.

I signed up and attended their all-day clinic and all, passed the exam and participated in a scrimmage. OK, fine. Officiated a doubleheader (junior varsity and varsity) with a veteran official. No problem. Good learning experience.

I find out yesterday that I'm actually supposed to be the referee at the game I'm assigned to work today instead of the umpire. In boys lacrosse, there isn't that much difference between the two, but the referee announces penalties and the umpire doesn't, so the referee is basically the boss of the umpire at the game. I thought "OK". The thought of jumping into the leadership role made me a little nervous, but I figured they'd pair me with a veteran lacrosse official who could tell me what I'm doing wrong and I could learn from it.

I get there and, lo and behold, I get a brand new lacrosse official who hadn't even had an actual game yet. He did one scrimmage in which he was shadowing another official (which was the same deal I had in terms of the scrimmage). So now, I had to try to guide along someone who had nearly the same lack of experience I had. What fun.

Fortunately, I was able to step up to the challenge of correcting him gently when he did something. He didn't blow his whistle before signaling an out of bounds ball would go in whichever direction it was. I called an officials time out and walked over to him, then I put my hand on his shoulder and explained that and another mistake patiently.

And I thought I was inexperienced when I became an editor back in '06...

 

I just remember finding it strange the first time I saw a men's lacrosse game and seeing the referees with penalty flags.

I had thought there were only flags for football.

 

My apologies for the assault of tired cliches:
I just moved to the southwestern United States. So southwest that, like Sarah Palin, I can see a foreign land from my living room.
Living in my new location has not lessen my desire to consume food. So I read up on the different kinds of food that would be available to me in my present location. I decided to go to lunch with an experienced co-worker who would show me the ropes. Lo and behold this co-worker does not speak the dominant language of the area and almost always orders the same thing. Talk about the blind leading the blind. I even corrected him that it was pronounced cho-REE-zo, not chore-i-zo. But thankfully, he was a good sport and we both enjoyed some authentic salsa from Pace. And I thought I was the only ignorant Gringo who lived down here.

 

Sausage makes me shit something awful.

 

What about all the steroids?

 

Those, too.

 

I use the same flags for lacrosse that I'd previously bought for football.