From the Sand Court to Quartyard

Besides taking off work & going to shows here & there, Kate & I sacrificed a lot of Friday & Saturday nights with friends.  I grew to like to the industry hours, though & was no longer feeling the FOMO of the weekend.  

But when my neighbor, Dan, needed an extra player on his VAVI (local intramural sports organization) volleyball team I quickly agreed to play.

"Perfect.  It's $90 for the season, eight to ten weeks & we play Sundays at 10AM," Dan explained.  

Mad Munch still had dates on the calendar on Sundays through August, but this was sand beach volleyball, right at the end of our street, two & a half blocks away.

On our first week of the season, we were to setup at Quartyard in East Village, (downtown San Diego) about eight miles from home.  I figured I'd have plenty of time to get home an shower before our setup there at 4pm.

So, I got to bump, set, spike & serve in the sunshine for a couple hours before the teams were rewarded free pitchers at Mother's Saloon in OB.

"C'mon, Zach, we can't drink these pitchers by ourselves," Dan said.

"Sure," I agreed & walked over there with them.  A couple beers wouldn't hurt, right?  I was the new guy so I was trying to get to know my teammates.

We got through our pitchers but I got to talking shop with Jason, who was doing a campout music festival that he wanted Mad Munch to cater.  He grabbed me another pint, handed me a flyer & explained the details.  

"Well, I gotta be honest," I told him.  "Getting out there [back country San Diego] for two nights on a weekend might be tough.  And how many people are you expecting to show?"

"Over six-hundred," Jason said.

"Well, OK, I'll have to talk to my girlfriend about it."

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Long story short:

I stayed at the bar too long, barely had time for a shower & Kate had to drive us there.  We got to Quartyard on time & the setup went smooth enough.    

The photo she took sure looks nice, but doesn't do justice for the homeless characters that we had to keep an eye on the entire time there.  

On top of all of that, Kate wasn't interested in doing, "some music festival out in the boonies," as she described it.  My post-volleyball-chance-business meeting never amounted to anything.