I’ve always been of the opinion that, in my line of work, the only way you can leave sick is if you’re actually too ill to sit in front your home computer, either. All things being the same, one is very much like the other and it’s just as well to earn your pay while feeling crappy and staring at a screen as it is to use sick leave and feel crappy while staring at a screen.

I was out sick for most of today. I spent the greatest share of the time lying either on the couch or my bed, usually sleeping. Finished the Maltese Falcon. (I still like Chandler better than Hammet, but I like Hammet a great deal more having finished the story than I did when I started it.)

Being out gave me the chance to watch one of Justin’s indoor soccer games (most of them start before I’m off work). These games are played on smaller feilds with pretty good synthetic turf, and they are FAST. Crazy-fast. Any one of the kids can, with a good kick, take the ball from one end of the field to the other and direction changes are as common as dirt. Justin was in the net for the whole game. They were playing a team that plays on this surface all the time.

Let me say that the 6-1 loss is misleading on paper. Justin had a very nearly 9 to 1 save ratio — the other team pretty much shot on him at will in the second half and he played absolutely outside himself — I’ve never seen him play so well in the net and it was a absolute blast to watch, tempered only by the fact that he had very little support from the defense.

My personal favorite: a 3-on-1 breakaway leads to a high, hard kick that Justin stops with both hands just before it smashes into his face. The ball rebounds right in front of him, but the first shooter has tumbled into him — he’s going over sideways and can’t drop on the ball. A second opponent fights around one of the defenders and pokes at the ball that’s now just laying in front of the net. Justin is falling sideways and away from it and, with nothing else available to him, snakes his foot out as he’s going down and kicks the ball up and over the back of the net as it rolls over the toe of his shoe.

All this happened in the time it took me to type “my personal fav--”. When he doesn’t have time to think, Justin plays some of the smartest ball I’ve ever seen.

So, I felt like crap today and haven’t written so much as a word on Hidden Things yet but I got to see Justin play a really good game, so I’d have to call it a good Monday.

Update:
And thanks/curses to Seki for providing me two new places to procrastinate instead of working on the story (run by Michele and Annette, respectively.)