Leap Year Day

Four years ago to celebrate Leap Day, I went on a run that began as Big Ben struck 8 PM. It was a crazy fun night to be out, and a good way to mark a day that comes only once every four years. This year? It was squash and a night at the club...

I didn't quite finish what I needed to for work before I had to rush out to be on time for the game (why do I procrastinate so much?), so I threw my laptop in my squash bag, thinking that I would finish up after the game.

I met my friend Doro at the squash courts right on time, even though my hacking cough was driving me a bit mad. I do hope it clears up soon. We had a good two games, although she beat me at both, as best I tried to keep the score somewhat close. (13-15 and 14-16, for those keeping score). I guess I've been so used to playing with Sophie that it was quite a challenge to play with somebody actually better than I am, as Doro had me rushing to the front wall and really killing myself for points.

After our game, as we came up the stairs we ran into a friend of Doro's who I also know, who upon seeing me all a sweaty mess, said, "I hope you won't mind if I don't kiss you until after your shower!" Fair, to be sure, although made me feel like even more of a loser for having so obviously killed myself only to lose the game.

I showered, but couldn't seem to quite actually get dry. It was like the steam of the shower, and the heat of the room, just constantly kept making me continually sweaty. So there I was, hot, overheated, and feeling ill, but there was nothing for it. Time to go be a good social hostess!

When I got to the bar, there were quite a few people there already, and a few faces I was able to recognise and introduce to others. One boy bought me a drink, and although I could have gone with just water, I got a glass of wine. Lesson for next time, ask for the water.

The evening passed in a bit of a blur, as people kept coming up and saying hello to me, and I was either frantically trying to remember their names, or was thinking, "Do I know you?" And I was just so hot...why could I not manage to cool down? I just kept feeling so flushed and feverish, trying to be a good hostess and chat to people (saw one guy looking lost and so pulled him into the group conversation), but just felt like my head was swimming.

So perhaps this poor state of affairs is to blame for what happened next. While I was standing at one part of the bar, I hear somebody's phone go off. When I turned around, it was apparently the guest of a member, and the others were admonishing him to put it away (I think he might have dared try to answer it). So then, when after a short pause, the phone rang AGAIN, I just kind of lost it, and absolutely yelled at this guy from across the bar (there were no staff members in the bar at that time to discipline him), and made sure he shut it off!

Of course, now most everyone was looking at me for ripping into this guy, and one obnoxious drunk guy made a comment that had me whirling on him, "Don't get me started!" (This man, who was behaving totally inappropriately, I later learned was forcibly ejected from the club and the Secretary wrote to me to identify him in an attempt to get him banned, as he apparently got so drunk and disgraced himself. Learning that later made me feel a bit better, to know that it wasn't all me and my short temper that night!)

Still, I was feeling a bit mortified for having snapped at this point, so I excused myself and went down to the business suite to finish up the work on my laptop that I'd failed to do earlier.

It was kind of funny in the end, as I was down in the business suite for over an hour doing work, and kept getting interrupted by every girl coming down to use the loo. Kind of nice though, because as a result I got a chance to catch up with all of the girls individually. I was also mollified that the girl who had the guest who had been using his phone came down to apologise for that and assure me that he'd been spoken to.

In the end, I never made it to the Caledonian Club (my usual point of call for the second half of the evening), but at least finished my work. Definitely hope to be feeling better by next month however, as I've had enough of being sick and short-tempered!