I Can't Believe It's Over!

So, now that I am back in Hermosa after a couple crazy weeks of traveling, I have some time to update everyone on volleyball news...

Two weekends ago in Muskegon my partner and I came up one match short of qualifying for the main draw! The weather forecast said rain and wind for Thursday and Friday and unfortunately, the weather people were actually right. My first match on Thursday started around 9 while it was drizzling. I kind of felt like a little kid again getting to go out and play in the rain! It was a different feeling playing while it was raining but it was actually really fun! My partner Lynnsy Jones and I played really well together and won the match pretty easily. The other team's scores were somewhere around 16 or 17 in the first and about 15 in the second. At the end of the second game it started pouring! That definitely made it harder! The ball got really heavy so you totally had to change the way you served, passed, set and hit. It was just a different game all around. Luckily, we finished it off pretty quickly! We sat underneath the check-in tent for a couple of hours waiting for our next match because it rained steadily for the next 2 hours! It also got super windy so then it was cold too! By the time we played again the rain had stopped which we thought was a good thing! Unfortunately, the rain clouds left because the wind blew them away! I don't know if you've ever tried playing beach volleyball in the wind, but it is really hard! I wish I knew the exact MPH of the wind, but all I know is we weren't even playing real volleyball because the wind blew the ball around so much. We were lucky to even get our serves over! Before the second match, the girls we were playing (and their coach... most people don't travel with a coach, but there are a few teams out there that do) asked us if we wanted to play with fresh balls they brought instead of the heavy balls that had been in the rain all day. This is where our huge mistake was!!! After warming up with both balls, we decided we'd play with the lighter, more fresh balls. Logically, this made sense to me... we are used to playing with balls that are fresh and light, so that's how we'd play our best right? Man was I wrong! The lighter ball moved so much more in the wind than the heavy balls we'd played with in the morning! Looking back, Lynnsy and I realized we should have played with the heavy balls because the other team had a bye in the first round and wouldn't have been used to the heavy balls! Such a bummer, but I guess it was a lesson learned. Anyway, we lost the second match and it wasn't pretty.

I took this picture right after my first match - it's POURING!

This is underneath one of the tents, there were tons of people huddled together and you can see the rain dripping in between the two tents

This was taken in the morning...

This is the SAME view a few hours later! Did you notice that you can't see ANY scenery in the first picture????

I was trying to take a picture of the little red flag to show hard hard the wind was blowing. It's tough to see, but it's blowing straight out!

I flew back and spent the rest of the weekend in St. George, Utah watching Scott's baseball team play! Unfortunately, I got into St. George right after Scott's first game was over and I missed him pitching. The real bummer was that he hurt his arm really bad... he was only able to pitch an inning and a third that night. Now, he's just waiting to go to the doctor to get an MRI and see what's really wrong with it. He wasn't able to finish out the last week and half of his season so he was pretty bummed. Everyone please say a little prayer for him because he'll be figuring out what to do with his life for the next couple of months. He's got a few job interviews set up which is really exciting!

After St. George, I was back in Hermosa practicing and then headed out to Chicago! I love the Chicago AVP event because Chicago is such a fun place to get to visit! I flew in on Wednesday and ended up just hanging out around the city for awhile before meeting up with Scott's friend Matt who lives in Chicago. He let me stay at his house while I was there so that I didn't have to pay for a hotel... very nice of him! Thursday morning we played our first match in some pretty dreary weather again! It barely sprinkled but was a little windy and overcast. I played with Jessica Veris again in this tournament (she was my Hermosa Beach AVP partner) and we played pretty well in the first match! The team we played was super scrappy so it was a fun match with lots of long points! The scores were somewhere around 21-18ish in both games. We had some time off in between matches and during my break Grammy, Tommy, and Aunt Jacque showed up! It was so fun getting to hang out and talk to them! It rained for a little while after they got there so we all sat under a tent watching some of my friends play. Then we got to grab some lunch around the corner at Einstein's before I had to start my second match. The team Jess and I played in the second match has qualified for the main draw a ton but we knew they were totally beatable so we were excited for the match! Well, it ended up being very close and we put up a good fight but we lost in two. We definitely shouldn't have lost but just made a few mistakes here and there. We played well but just needed an extra ace or kill here or there! And that's where my 2009 AVP season came to an end. It was a bummer because we had a very good chance of qualifying and fell just a few points short. But, it just leaves me with an even greater desire to work hard this off season and be ready to start in 2010! The rest of my Chicago trip was really fun! I got to hang out with Matt and grab some amazing deep dish pizza! And I got to spend some time with Cayley Thurlby's family (she's originally from Chicago) and she showed me around Chicago! One of the fun things we did was going to this place called the Weiner Circle. It's a famous hot dog place in Chicago that's known for it's GREAT food and service. The famous part about it's service is that they're REALLY rude to you! While we were there they definitely came through, haha we got yelled at a few times. :)

Stay posted on my blog because I'll still write about fun life things and I'll be playing in plenty of local tournaments still! Also, feel free to let me know if there is anything you'd like to hear about that I don't write about!

I forgot to mention.... The first night I was in Muskegon I went and grabbed dinner from this little tavern place. I talked to the cute old man next to me and he ended up telling my waitress who told the manager that I was in town for the volleyball tournament. Well, the manager came over and gave me some coupons so that I would bring some volleyball people back with me sometime during the weekend. So, Thursday after my matches were over I brought my partner, her boyfriend, his partner and another girl I had just met back to the restaurant with me! On the menu, they have a deep fried hamburger... yikes, right? Well, our table was having debates about how they actually deep fry the burger - do they do it all together? Do they do it a piece at a time? How long do they keep in the frier for? Etc. Someone in the group asked the waitress about it and after a couple different conversations, she ended up taking us to the back so we could see how they do it!!! It was so fun! We got to go into the kitchen and one of the cooks did a demonstration for us! I got a bunch of pictures on my iPhone...

Putting the hamburger together

He said it was very easy... dry, wet, dry wet... this was the first dry

Wet number 1

Dry number 2

Wet number 2

The cook and Lynnsy's bf and partner hanging out while it fries!

In the frier

Taking it out

Finished product! They fry a pickle to go on top and stick a knife through it!

(PS Don't ever order anything like this... the waitress and the cooks said it tastes terrible! Haha)