OK. I lied. Only one post is going up today, beacause it’s late. The other one can come tomorrow.

So this weekend was the 27th Annual W-Town Memorial Day Tournament. And oh man, it was great. It’s for fourth graders, but my aunt and uncle run the W-Town Soccer Program, so my cousin and I always work there, doing… whatever needs doing. It’s not perfect. I hate the parents who are so sure they know what to do their first year volunteering when we’ve been here for 5. I hate the annoying siblings of players who do just the STUPIDEST stuff (today we had to kick a kid out of the concessions stand because he kept on dumping out bottles of water, filling them with purell, and putting them back in the cooler to sell).

But I do love aspects of it. I love the lunch rush when we crazily put cheeseburgers in buns rushing them out to people who are waiting, usually impatiently. I love the late afternoon when things are winding down and the dads in charge of grilling let us take over and we totally mess around and grill buns to perfection and make ourselves the absolutely perfect burgers. I love being in charge of recording the scores and making the score charts impossibly neat. And, strange but true, I LOVE trash duty.

Basically, my cousin and I, and a friend of mine who was helping out, had to go around and periodically empty each of the ten or so trash cans so they didn’t overflow too bad. Which usually is ok. Except right after the lunch hour, or right at the end of the day when everyone leaves, and all of a sudden all the trash cans are just filled to the brim, with boxes and folding chairs and whole extra bags next to the trash cans. Then we have to lift and carry the full bags all the way across the field to the dumpster, praying all the while nothing will break open. Sounds disgusting, but it’s actaully a lot of fun. There’s something about trash that makes people bond. Random nice people thank you, help you, make wise ass comments. And there’s a certain satisfaction to seeing all the trash cans empty and pristine at the end of the day, with a full dumpster behind you.

So that was my weekend. A blur of soccer games, trash cans, and burgers. But it was fun. The tournament always is.