If you are a lucky journalist, you get to cover a state tournament. My number was called again this weekend as Libertyville High School qualified its first volleyball team to the state tourney in Normal. Yahoo said it was 143 miles away but I still left a good three hours to get down there. Life was just fine until I hit Route 55. It was backed up for miles. Construction shut down traffic. A 55-mph road down to a visible crawl. It seemingly took forever. My big window of time disappeared. I had to step on it to get to Normal in time for the match. I finally got into Redbird Arena right around match time. Well, wouldn’t you know it, Mother McAuley and St. Charles North were still playing in the first match of 4A volleyball. Fast forward to the big match. The Libertyville match didn’t start until well after 8. And it ended in a hurry as Naperville Central pasted the Wildcats. I listened to a few comments at the press coverage and then typed it up for the Pioneer website. By the time, I got out of the arena it was 10:30. I dined on a fancy meal of diet Mountain Dew, cheetohs and cracker jacks and then blasted my stereo coming home. An accident at the end of 55 slowed my progress and I arrived home at 1:30 a.m.
I’m still sleepy today.
