Friday, September 19, 2008

she feels like kicking out all the windows...


ominous
Originally uploaded by with an eye
Some days are just too full of crap for the new way of life to be feasible. It's those days that I prefer to just wallow in the atrocities and horror that I'm powerless to stop. Yesterday was one of those days.

I've been keeping up on the Ike devastation and this morning I read about this. I applied to be a Red Cross volunteer today. It hasn't made me feel any better about anything, nor did I expect it to. But maybe someday I'll do something that will make a difference somewhere, to someone. And then, I'll feel less helpless.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Kickball Diaries: a brand new season.

Week 2. Kitshickers vs Lawn Mowing Fever
Game Time: 9/11/2008, 6:30pm
Game Conditions: hot, humid, dusty.
Result: L 3-9
Record: 0-1-1

Kitshicker's showed some dedication this week as we all rolled out to Richard Moya Park at about 5:30pm for our first ever catching practice. As coach said in his email: "PLEASE attend this practice if you suck at catching fly balls." Needless to say I was one of the first ones there. Coach starts the practice off by saying "I think first I'll just throw this ball at you" at which point he absolutely pegs me at the knees. I stand, dumbfounded, staring at him and then the other members of Team Suck. Coach says "Oh, sorry Jenni, I meant to throw that more at your head!" As if that makes it better. So I raised my hand, "Coach, exactly WHAT are we practicing?" And he looked straight into my eyes and said "Jenni, you are supposed to CATCH it". A-ha, and we're off to a fantastic start!

Coach promised that in 20 minutes we'd be pros, and dude was nearly right. I mean, I was certainly catching much better than normal. I was not using any of his helpful advice "you need to learn to know where it's going as soon as it leaves my foot and get there immediately", "use your body", "get under it", "OPEN YOUR EYES!" - each ball I caught my eyes were squinted shut, the ball was dangling dangerously away from my body, and I'd spent the last 5 seconds of it's descent running in pretty large circles trying to figure out where to be. But, I would catch it. That's what matters, right?!

The draw back of practice before the game is tri-fold. One, it was hot as hell, and we all needed lots more water than we'd brought. Two, I got a little bored - honestly...catching fly balls for an hour, not the most fun I've ever had. And three, it was hot (it seems the hottest time of day in Austin is somewhere around 4-6pm and we're out in the midst of that in an open field directly in the sun....Zzzzzzz)

The game started and we were off to an ok start, until the other team scored a bajillion* runs. We spent a bunch of time in the field running after them around the infield. It was like, 3 people tried to catch the ball, then tried to throw to first. Once the ball arrived at first, the runner was on the way to second, but the throw was off...so the first baseman had to retrieve the ball and throw to second. But, the seccond baseman was assuming the throw would go to third, since thats where the runner was headed, so the ball is now back in the outfield. Lazy outfielders scramble to get the ball to third, but the runner is nearly home now. Imagine that...times 9. I recommended a fielding practice, but coach told me that if we would catch the balls there'd be no need for fielding. Coach has a point, but...a back-up plan has never hurt anyone.

The best/worst part was that the other team had no subs. What they did have, however, was one stroller-bound baby and two small dogs. In their first inning in the field the baby stayed in the stroller (unattended) and one puppy was tied to the stroller. The catcher was holding the other puppy. After two such innings the baby was NOT happy any longer, and so for the rest of the game the catcher was holding the baby and one puppy. And we still lost. Horribly.

The highlight of the game, for me, was the inning where I made all three outs. Hells ya, catching practice. The call of the game would have gone something like this:
High fly to right field, Jenni's there and makes a beautiful catch for the first out! A bunt attempt, first baseman in to field the ball, underhands to Jenni covering first, runner out! Deep fly to right field, superhero Jenni is under it and makes her signature closed-eyed catch to end the inning. And the crowd goes wild.
Or, at the very least...I went wild. Coach probably muttered something similar to "about friggin time" under his breath. After our disappointing loss, and braving the Ike traffic, we had some well deserved $2 beers at Doc's!


*estimation

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

a new world order

So, I woke up yesterday morning.  

Which I guess means the world didn't end.  I was surprised by how unexcited I was to find this out.  I mean, not that I'm for the destruction of the universe, but it certainly would have made some of my stressors go away (unread papers, crap-for-data, odds stacked against me for graduating anytime soon).  After another day of dealing with these issues, I decided that the non-apocalyptic state of current affairs was calling for a fresh new outlook on life.  Allow me to introduce you to the "A glass half full is better than a glass quarter full" way of life.  It goes something like this:

Finding an error in your data a week before your presentation is better than NOT finding the error.
Graduating in ten years is better than NOT graduating.
Running a crappy 2.5 miles in 30 minutes is better than NOT running 2.5 miles.
The Red Sox falling a game further out of first place is better than the Red Sox falling a game further out of wild card.

I mean, some people might call this Cognitive Restructuring, but it works!  I'm going to write a book about it, and sell it, for lots of money.  Because writing a book for money is better than not having money.

Friday, September 05, 2008

The Kickball Diaries: A brand new season

Week 1. Kitshickers vs Rehab's for Quitters
Game Time: 9/4/2008, 7:20pm
Game Conditions: not nearly as hot as it could have been, but still dang hot.
Result: T 4-4
Record: 0-0-1

We showed up with socks, not just any socks, but matching socks. And we were 100% compliant with the socks - until they began to get too hot, and started cutting off the circulation of our particularly big-calf-muscle teammates. But even then, they had the socks just pushed down. We showed up with a soundtrack, 11 songs of pure kickball inspiring rock. Unfortunately, we were unable to play our soundtrack - and thus, the beginning of our decline.

We took the field first, and I was out in my right field spot. After some pre-game catching practice from FA, the rest of the outfield (BK, and myself) were ready. "get under it" "get behind it" "use both arms" "if you can't catch it set it for yourself" "use your chest" These were the helpful tips running through my head. The other team quickly scored 3 runs. And it looked like we were off to a rough start. But, our first turn at bat, and we answered back with 3 runs. I made it on base this inning, but got thrown out while running to second. Darn.

Our second time out in the field and it was like a new ball game. Somewhere in the 5th inning I kicked the ball in my usual fashion, low and not towards first. In this instance we had the bases loaded, so I tried to aim away from third as well. I managed that, it went somewhere towards 2nd, and that runner was out. But, I was safe at first, and R'OD was safely home. And we're up, 4-3.

We took the field for the final inning, ahead, and got two quick outs. Two strikes into the third out R'OD turns to me from first and says "One strike away". R'OD being a sox diehard like myself should know better. They kicked us around a bit, we made some silly plays, and they managed another run before we got another out. So we go up to kick the last time, tied for the billionth time in our life, wanting to do nothing but NOT tie. And we came up short.

All in all, the first game of the season wasn't a total disaster - I mean, after our perfectly 500 season in the spring yet another tie is like nails on a chalkboard. But, we did not get crushed, we held our own, and lost it tragically right at the end.

Nature Neuroscience, here I come

It appears I have uncovered the network of regions responsible for making accurate, but weakly confident, source memory judgments.  And damn if it doesn't use up a lot of resources in the brain.  I'm confident this will go straight to publication...no peer review here.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

put me in coach

The big day is nearly here, our first game! All the preparations have been made, the roster is set (I kick 6th, play RF), the soundtrack has been made (11 songs of pure kickball energy), the uniforms have been acquired (knee socks with black stripes, OH YES!), and the beer has been boughten (cans of Lone Star, for sure). The excitement builds...here's hoping we can all sleep tonight!

Monday, September 01, 2008

eighty-dollars later...

I'm registered for my first half marathon, and what a marathon it looks to be. We get admission to a concert after the race, and there are promised to be 70 live bands along the route - it is the San Antonio Rock n' Roll after all!