volleyball knees.

My knee is gross. I got a raspberry, which didn't seem to want to heal. It turned into a quarter-size festering wound that gathered blue jean lint and finally scabbed over. It will probably scar. I went to a wedding last weekend and was faced with the prospect of having a scabby knee peeking out from under my skirt. It reminded me of the song from The Sound of Music where the older, proper nuns are complaining because Maria always has skinned knees under her habit. I wondered if the people at the wedding would sing "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sandra?" I wore pants.

Still. I'm quite happy about my knee. I got it from sliding on a gym floor. No, not really, because if I had slid on the floor, I wouldn't have gotten the injury at all. No, I got it from dropping to my knees, intending to slide, but then realizing that the floor was not conducive to sliding. What happened then is that my knees stopped sliding (except for a little skidding around inside my kneepads) and then the rest of my body was propelled forward towards the general direction of the floor.

I don't even remember why I started talking about my knee.

Oh, wait, I do. It's because I wanted to tell you all that I've started playing volleyball. I joined a local adult league, because I was tired of feeling like I never did any physical activity. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I now engage in physical activity exactly once a week. Progress!

If you've never played volleyball, perhaps you do not know how truly wonderful a game it is. I also played basketball in high school, and I never really liked it. It was okay. It was fine. But I was never really invested in being any better at it and I haven't played it in years. I've tried to figure out the difference between volleyball and basketball, what makes one of them so ho-hum while they other has me chomping at my kneepads. I think maybe it's the contact aspect. I was never interested in pushing anyone around, while the other girls hanging out with me down near the net were very interested in that. But volleyball is more turn-oriented. You have a turn and you make the best move you can. You have three hits to recover from whatever they threw at you and then throw something back that hopefully they can't handle.

I started playing over the summer, which meant I played beach volleyball for the very first time. It was an interesting new experience. The best thing about beach volleyball, aside from the fact that you can go barefoot, is that you can do some really amazing digs without hurting yourself. You can toss yourself all over the sand like a crash test dummy and it won't even hurt. You will get sand in your pants (and hair and eyes), but you will look awesome and cool because you sacrificed your body for a save. The worst thing about beach volleyball is that you can't run and jump on the sand. I mean, some people can. I have apparently not reached that skill level. Mostly I just move the sand under my feet to some other location near my feet. Someday, I hope to be able to run and jump on the sand like a real, live boy.

A couple of weeks ago, the fall season started. The captain of our team emailed us and told us all to bring our kneecaps, which makes me wonder if he can take his out, and if so, if removable kneecaps are a useful feature. I had to buy new kneepads, because my mother had very inconsiderately thrown out my high school pair which probably still stank of sweat from seven years ago. I had enjoyed beach volleyball, really I had, but when I found myself in a pair of kneepads on a squeaky gym floor, perched on the balls of my feet and waiting for the serve, I really felt back at home.

Later, when I got home, my kneepads around my ankles, I thought about having volleyball knees again. They may not always have a raspberry, but they will probably be bruised. And one night a week, they'll smell like a locker room. Volleyball knees make me happy. I used to participate in activities that I cared nothing about so that scholarship committees would think I was well-rounded. Now it's a relief to just do something because I enjoy it. It's funny - it makes me feel like a well-rounded, more interesting person. A well-rounded person with bruised knees.