RHIAN SOCCER JOURNALS           

CSA AGREEMENTS, CABS AND CATS  10th June 2011

These have been days of mixed emotions. Carolina released to the press today that she will be staying until 2012, while the CWNT players announced that we have negotiated an understanding with the CSA up until the end of 2012. Taxing as these issues have been, we have also had the roster announced.  This is always a horrible time for everybody as friends are cut from the squad and you know how hard they have worked. For all of us, it is hard to know what to say.

We were given Friday off - a rest from practice. I took full advantage by going into Rome. I didn't do much while I was there, if you count shopping or sightseeing, but I did do some people watching. It was restful, entertaining and I enjoyed myself.

Then, with Mel Booth, Robyn, Sinc, and Diana we took a taxi cab home. Whatever our thoughts had been previous to entering the taxi, they were soon dispelled. We had the "best" cab driver I have ever met. When the road was blocked ahead of us, he accelerated, turned on his hazard flashers, and drove up on the sidewalks. When the traffic light turned red, he pretended he hadn't seen it. When he had to turn, he pretended to go straight and then cut across whole lines of traffic. ...... I was FREAKING out.

The best part was that during the whole drive, he was talking on his cell phone placing bets on upcoming soccer games. I readily admit that I had to shower once I got home - I was terrified. I honestly thought I was going to die - on the upside, though, we did arrive home quickly.

Today was a double practice day, and these are always a great welcome back from a day off. The sun was out, as it always is here, and we were hard back at work. In the afternoon,  most people napped while I also tried to catch up on homework. I was distracted a bit though by pitiful meowing sounds coming from outside.

It took me longer than I care to admit to actually go to investigate. It turned out that a kitten had climbed up into the engine of a car. The owner of the vehicle, and a few other men, were trying to scare it out as they were trying to leave the parking lot. It took a long time but eventually spritzing it with water and banging on the car scared it out, only for it to sprint off and climb into another car, this time the one owned by Maura, our doctor. The little guy was beyond freaked out, but we couldn't exactly leave him in there.

It again took ages to spook him out, and we felt awful doing it but it seemed important to scare him away from the cars. It turns out however that this was not one of the smarter cats in the area. We heard later that he had run to the other side of the hotel and climbed into a car's engine over there- this cat has already used up three of his lives, not sure how many he has left by this point.