One Weekend Down, Only 30 More To Go

Ok so it's not 30 more, just 13 more. Actually just 2 more weekends and then 11 weeks, but you get the point. I have officially survived my first weekend of volleyball tournaments. Getting to play against someone other than each other is always exciting. We left Thursday morning for Oxford, Mississippi for the Magnolia Classic at the University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss. This was one of the few trips we had to take a travel bus, but for those of you who remember my days at Texas Tech, the 7 hour bus ride to Oxford was nothing compared to the trips I made with football. When we arrived on Thursday we practiced, ate supper and then my roommate, Stephanie, and I watched Top Gun and crashed. I must say Steph is pretty awesome. Like I said in a previous post she has worked with volleyball the previous 2 years and has been a God send to me. She already knows what our coaches expect and knows how to keep me sane when insane situations arise. Friday was pretty slow in the morning and then we had serve & pass practice, ate lunch, and headed back to the gym for the 1st match. Steph & I were very mad that we didn't think to spend Friday morning going through the shops downtown on the square. Oxford is a very beautiful place and has a really neat square area. We did get to go to a few shops, but they were definitely the higher end ones. One department store is famous for being the oldest department store in the south. It was pretty neat to go in there, just to say we had been there. Sadly I have no pictures, I kept forgetting to put my camera in the bag I was carrying. We didn't really see much of campus, but the athletic complexes were nice. We did drive by The Grove, but it was night and we couldn't see anything. The houses there are AMAZING though. I found several that I could live in. As for the tournament, we opened up with Ole Miss. We definitely had some first game jitters, but for the most part those were expected, especially with 7 newcomers on the team. Unfortunately we lost to Ole Miss in 5 games after 3 hours of playing. It was definitely a hard fought battle with the scores being, 28-30, 30-27, 32-34, 30-13, 13-15 (Mizzou scores listed first). Saturday didn't prove to start much easier. We started with Jacksonville State and beat them in 5 games. Apparently this was becoming a trend of the whole tournament. At this point in time 3 of the 4 games had gone into 5 games. Scores against Jacksonville State were 30-16, 28-30, 27-30, 30-23, 15-12. Thankfully match #3 at the tournament was much shorter. We played Arkansas State and beat them in 3. Scores were 32-30, 30-20, 30-13. After that game we headed back home. Coming back to CoMo was exciting becuase I knew my parents would be here Sunday afternoon. They flew in Thursday to St. Louis and spent some time with Emily & Kyle and then came over Sunday to spend some time with me. Mondays are very busy days, so we actually haven't gotten to spend a lot of time together, but it has definitely been great getting to see them. Sadly they must leave in the morning. I am already excited about them coming back in October for the Mizzou-Tech football game. We also play Texas in volleyball that day, so it will definitely be another one of those busy days. Personally I am hoping for a night football game so that the volleyball game will be in the morning and I can actually enjoy the game, but everyone keeps telling me it's Homecoming and they will more than likely have a day football game. :( Oh well, I can still hope for the ideal situation. Well I better go enjoy my time with the parents. I will try to be better about posting on a more regular basis I promise--I know I say this every time, but I am finally getting into more of a routine. I'll be in San Marcos next weekend if anyone wants to come visit! :) Sorry this post is somewhat boring as well. I keep meaning to write a post about "The Things I Have Learned Since Moving to Columbia," but time keeps slipping away from me. I'll just leave you in anticipation for that one.

Volleyball & Stuff

Once again it has been a while since I have posted. So sorry, volleyball consumes my life right now. We had physicals last Tuesday night and it has been a whirlwind since. We are practicing twice a day everyday and needless to say it keeps me busy. Breakfast at 7, get things ready at 7:30, practice at 8:30, cold tubs at 11:30, lunch & treatments, setter practice at 2, practice at 2:30, cold tubs again, treatments and dinner about 6:30. Repeat. We have Sundays off as far as practice, but still have to do treatments. Some time after that is all done, I find time to hang out with the other GA's or Casey, Neisha & Harper. Tomorrow will be a VERY busy day though and definitely longer than usual. The morning will stay the same, but in the afternoon we are hosting a youth clinic (there are over 200 little girls signed up already) and then we have our annual Black & Gold game. I am a little excited about the Black & Gold game because practice is beginning to get a bit monotonous and I am excited to actually watch a game :)

Even with our busy schedules -- me at volleyball, the boys at football, Tara at soccer -- we have still found time to hang out and have a good time. I am destined to get 2nd place in EVERY poker game we play. And y'all know I hate to lose and getting 2nd place continously is definitely not helping my competitiveness. We went bowling one night and had a great time. We ended up bowling 5 games that night and I think we all felt it for the next 3 days. Once again my team got 2nd, do you notice the trend here??? I am not dealing with this very well. Karaoke night has become a common occurance though. I am proud to say that I am still the reigning champ at both County Karaoke & American Idol (finally something I don't get 2nd in). We have slowly integrated Guitar Hero into our festivities. Tak & Adam also play the "real" guitar, so some nights they put on mini concerts for us and we sing along. They have even recorded some songs on to Tak's computer...we are a talented bunch if I must say so myself.

Well I must go check on the cold tubs...I don't want them to overflow!

Just a Quick Update

I haven't posted in a while, so I decided I would give everyone a quick update. I officially started work this week and I am loving it so far. We had our first staff meeting on Tuesday and then the students reported on Wednesday for some basic orientation. Wednesday night we had a staff dinner in Fayette (which is about 30-45 minutes away). My boss Rex surprised us all and rented two limos to take us there. We had a black Hummer and a white Chrysler 300. Both were VERY nice. Below is a picture of a bunch of us in the Hummer. Football started yesterday, but I am not working that. I am sad, but they have already decided to move practice from 8:15 to 7:15 on Monday-Wednesday becuase the temperatures are so high and we are in a heat advisory. So I won't miss opening the training room at 5 and will appreciate the cold gym. Volleyball starts on Tuesday with a meeting & physicals and then we start 2-a-days on Wednesday. We have 2-a-days every day until the 20th with Sundays off. Thankfully I have Stephanie as my student athletic trainer! :) She has worked with volleyball the past 2 years and basically knows how to run the show. She will also double as my "interpreter". We have 2 assistant coaches who are Chinese and 3 players. I have already been warned that I will not be able to understand them and they will never understand my Texas accent. In the meantime I am trying to enjoy my last few days of freedom!