baseball and stress levels

my stress levels have gotten too high of late. i actually called my umpire assignor and asked to be moved down to lower levels of baseball so that i had less people griping at me over every decision. when you're an amateur umpire you have 50% of the people around you mad at you every 15 seconds. that's a reality. i asked for no games with 18 yr olds or older because they're more likely to be too smart-mouthed for my taste. now i just have to adjust to the parents and coaches who regularly forget that they're adults and behave too badly in public.

i'm very much ok with that decision. Wendy understood why i was doing it. my buddy Tom checked with me to be sure i was ok after i made that decision too. he's a good man.

so last night i was moved to a game of 12 yr olds. man those guys are short. an umpire has to squat 200 times in a 2 hr span and these old knees don't like how much squatting is required so that i see a strike zone for a 4 foot something kid. no worries though, i prefer this actually.

we'll have our seed group meeting tonight, that'll be good. generally i try to be out for baseball every night i can get a game with the exception of Wednesday nights so that i can go to seed group or member's meetings at our community. the baseball season is short so i only have to be busy with baseball into July (if i include playoffs). anyway, tonight should be a nice night off.

Wendy has been taking it easy on me. she sees my anxiety with parts of my life and she has been noticeably trying not to burden me with stuff. when i think of the fact that she's had to deal with migraine crap, mood stuff, diet stuff, and life stuff on top of the fact that her husband can be a bit of a basketcase sometimes then i'm all that much more grateful that i have her and that she finds her way to loving me like she does. i was at a ballgame til 10pm last night and wasn't able to do the dishes. Wendy didn't say boo about it though (the dishes are MY job) and didn't mention how that must've inconvenienced her a great deal. i'll make sure to get that done tonight hon.

believe it or not, baseball is good for me. it pushes my buttons and stretches my boundaries. stress ain't fun though. i'm just glad that i'm loved and that i can do the things i love to do.