U.S. Open came and went. I watched quite a bit of tennis, including Andre Agassi's last match. Kind of sad. Last year I watched his immortal match with Blake. Also saw Men's Finals among others – Federer vs. Roddick. Pretty cool that Jimmy Connors is coaching Roddick, nice to see him around. I love the commentary during the matches. If the match gets boring, the commentators start going off on insane tangents.
I've started to get back into tennis. Played yesterday, an adult clinic at a local tennis club. I need to call them today and find an adult clinic more on my level. A bit ago they started ranking players' ability by numerical rankings, from 2.0 to 5.0 or some such. (I don't know much about it.) Yesterday's clinic was for 2.5 and the instructor said I'm a 3.0-3.5. Yay me. I really love tennis can can't wait to get back into it.
On Saturday night I had a falling out with my WoW guild's leadership. It was actually quite painful because I didn't want to leave the guild. Great environment, great people. But I just can't stay there, even given the people and the fun, if the leaders refuse to accept that they are not the end-all-be-all of everything. Although the guild is run as a dictatorship, which is good, the leaders must understand that they serve at the behest of the members, of the people. And they don't. I opened with "Do you realize how unpopular your decision was?" (This was regarding an unpopular decision they recently made.) And they never got it. All they could do was try and convince me their actions were absolutely, 100%, irrefutably correct. Which I don't actually disagree with. I disagree with their methods, with their attitude, with their inability to inform the peons and keep them happy. So I said goodbye to a lot of friends because I couldn't get along with the 5 people who have power.
And what pains me more is in reading the raid leader's summary of why I left because he got it all wrong:
After a very lengthy conversation with [me], in which the officers addressed all of his concerns and frustrations for him, he chose to leave after being unable to reach his desired conclusion over how [the guild] is run. Unfortunately he has reached the point where playing is no longer fun for him and has decided to leave the game. We wish him the best of luck, and have no hard feelings.Completely wrong. The Officers did not address all of my concerns and frustrations. We reached an impass. I suppose it was after being unable to reach my desired conclusion since I actually wanted the Officers to listen to the members. That much is true, depending how you interpret it. Playing WoW has been very fun for me, especially in raiding with my guild. That's one reason it's so hard for me to stop.
And that was what I've said before. The guild was perfect for me. If/when I leave, it wouldn't be for another guild. I would leave WoW altogether. And, in my opinion, it would be because the guild failed me in some respect. And I feel like it has.
I want to shout and scream my frustration with the Officers. I want to refute the raid leader's summary of my leaving. I want to vent and vent and vent and rage against the machine. But I don't want to be completely emo about this and I don't want to cause injury to the guild. I stand by my assertions that what I was doing was in the best interests of the guild. At some point, the Officers are really going to piss people off and the Officers won't care or react and things will go to Hell. I know that. They don't.
*sigh*
So yeah, a somewhat emotional weekend for me. I was really invested in the guild and in WoW raiding. I'm sure this is a positive change for me and will help me in the long run. I just wish I didn't have to do it.
[insert string of expletives aimed at guild leadership here]
I do feel better for ranting here. I need to rant. And I don't care if anyone actually hears me, just as long as they could. That'll be enough for now.
Anyways... apparently the local Dunkin' Donuts finally has Pumpkin & Spice donuts. So good. Will have to snag some of those. Sooooo good.
And that's that for me of late.