Softball...it's almost here

So as the school year finally comes to a close (thank goodness)…Well for seniors at least it ends early…This event of school coming closer to an end also marks something that’s exciting to me at least, and that’s the beginning of softball practice. Waiting for that day is getting closer and closer, and I couldn’t be more excited for it. I have been playing softball basically since I was like 5 or 6 starting with T-Ball of course and then working my way up to coach pitch, and then I began to do an ASA league through Kennedy and that’s how I got started pitching. I think I have been pitching for like 6 or 7 years; I started off slow and not know what to do, and just doing it for fun. Then one tournament in Solon, the coach put me in pitching, I was pretty scared but at the same time excited, and think I got all three outs by myself. And then as ASA ball went on I got more serious and serious about pitching, practicing whenever I could and going out the field and practicing. Then when I finally got to high school, the summer of my 8th grade year I finally was on the high school level for softball and I was excited, I did pretty well I think. But then my freshman year I was on Varsity and I going to admit that I was terrified because of course we compete with all the teams that have gone to state multiple times and it was kind of intimidating, and that year was also the year that we had gotten a new coach, that actually came from one of the schools that we compete against, and it got kind of annoying when he was our coach because of the fact that he always everyday of practice had to say something that referred to the school across the river…meaning Jefferson, and its like we thought well if you like so much then why don’t you got back…everyone one the team after the second year that he was there thought that we didn’t like him at all. And of course as soon as he resigned we were all excited that he wasn’t coming back…and where did he go….back to Jefferson…which wasn’t surprising at all because he talked about them so much that we thought that he missed it and wanted to go back, and wanted to change our program into a mini version of what Jefferson was and we got tired of it after awhile…anyway off topic. Pitching became my life in the off season…At the end of my freshman year of softball I had begun to start working with a pitching coach in the off season…meaning all winter once a week I would go to sports zone and throw for like an hour…and that’s were I got better and was able to also gain so pitches and got more speed and worked on my mechanics to become a better thrower, and I think that I was lucky that I was able to get a pitching coach to help me get better because I honestly don’t know where I would be as a pitcher if I didn’t have a coach to help me with what I was doing wrong and helping me fix it, and also I would have the pitches that I do right now and I m excited for that because the pitches I have now I think have made me a pretty successful pitcher.

Prom....

So the day till prom seems to be getting closer and closer as I know it. And it’s pretty exciting and at the same time some what of a sad moment because prom is the ending dance to all the high school dances and it’s one of the biggest…for seniors at least for the fact that it is the last dance of our high school careers. So last weekend my mom and I finally had the time to get to go shopping for prom dresses, and I know im thinking what the heck am I doing shopping for a prom dress with probably a little less than a month till prom and I don’t have a dress…I was freaking out being like what if there aren’t any dresses left and what if they don’t have what I want and what I thought that I was going to get. So my mom and I, last Saturday went on a prom dress road trip. Our road trip and search started in the town of Boone. And why Boone, well there was a store or shop or whatever you want to call it there that carried the brand of dresses that I wanted to get. But just my luck the store was crappy compared what the website that I looked at, it seemed to be better, or I thought that I would find the dress that I would wear to prom there, but I was so wrong. We got there and the people that were working there just looked at us like what the heck are you doing here and why are you here, it was the most awkward moment of my like I thought. So I tried on some dresses but just has my luck would have it nothing. Then as we were leaving, it was that same awkward moment of the what the heck are you doing here. So after that disaster my mom thought that since we were so close to Des Moines, where I originally started my search for my prom dress and found nothing, we went back to that same store. I searched through the same dresses that I had gone through the week of spring break. As I was looking I found the same dress that I had tried on that same week and was excited because I really wanted that dress. But as I found that dress and found others that I could try on, one of the people that were working gave me a dress that I thought was the ugliest thing that I had ever seen in my life. It was a dress that I thought I would never ever in my life get…I tried it on and thank goodness I didn’t like it. But then she gives me another dress and of course I think it’s the ugliest dress ever, but then when I tried it on and look at through a mirror I thought oh my god I think I have found my dress….the person that was helping me forced me to try on this dress that I thought are you serious this thing is ugly, something that I would never try on or even were for that matter. But when I tried it on and looked at through a mirror I loved it. And after my mom had paid for I thought oh my god I just got a dress that I thought I would have never had gotten if this lady didn’t tell me to try it on. It was a poofy dress and it was also pink, two things that I thought I would never put together. A poofy dress which thought I would never get because I didn’t at all no exceptions would get a poofy dress because of the fact I didn’t want to look like Barbie. And the fact that it was pink was fine with me because the original dress that I tried on was pink and that was fine with me….but the fact that I had just gotten a poofy dress…I was in shock because that was one of the things that I didn’t want, but with the dress that I got it changed my mind.

Graduation...again

So since the day till graduation is starting to become closer and closer and many of us seniors are starting to or have already began to plan out graduation party plans. Except for me. I know I’m think to myself that I really need to get on the ball with this whole graduation party thing, because graduation before I know it is going to be here an I’m going to have a party that family members and friends can come to and see what I have accomplished over my high school career and earlier. I’m thinking holy crap I really need to get going with the plans for my graduation party, since there is so much to plan with the whole graduation party thing. To me kind of I think I graduation party is something that you have to have. It shows that you have finally made it passed the next big step of your life and that you are now going to be making an even bigger step, with moving on to college. But I mean it’s kind of a stressful thing to plan. You have to have the right place to hold the event and have the right food and invite all the people and make all the invitations and send those out.
The hardest part I think for me is going to be figuring out when I’m going to have it. I don’t know if I should have it the weekend of graduation, (which I’m thinking is a good idea) but the thing with that is, that everyone that I know for the most part is going to have their party on that Saturday or Sunday, and it’s like if I also another person that has their’s that day than how many people are actually going to come to mine with they have other people’s to go to. I mean people don’t really have to stay for that long, but its like there are so many that weekend and they are all at the same time and its going to be hard to figure out which ones you can make, and which ones that you might not make it to. I mean not everyone that I am going to invite has to come to mine, I totally would understand if they cant make it, but it is really crazy to see how many people are having it that weekend. I thought about having it the weekend after but that option is thrown out already, because my dad is having my graduation party for me because my parents are separated and I think that two parties would be to much to handle, and I bet people would think why wouldn’t you have two parties you get more money and presents and stuff like that with two parties, but then I would have to plan a second party and that would be such a hassle to both me and both my parents. So I decide to have just one. Then the other option for a party date would be two weeks after graduation when all the parties and things have settled down, but it’s like I cant wait that long, it’s to long to wait to have a party at that time. So I guess I am going to have to go with the weekend of graduation which is going to be crazy but I guess I’ll have to deal with it. I’m just excited to graduation and finally be done with high school, and get on with another chapter of my life.

Spring League Begins

So it’s that time of year that some summer sports are beginning to practice. Like baseball and softball for example. Well I play softball and we began practice and along with those practices we also began a thing called spring league, were teams from around that area get teams together and play like scrimmages, they don’t really count for anything there just like pre-season games. It’s tiring sometimes and still cold, because sometimes it’s not quite warm enough to play outside, but we still have to. Sometimes I’m not the biggest fan of spring league for the fact that we have practice like 3 or 4 times a week and not every player that we think is going to be there is there.
Not everyone plays though so the ones that don’t go out for spring league don’t have to be there, but the ones that do are the ones that go to the practices. I mean I sometimes like playing spring league because it gets me back into the groove of things to come for summer when are actually playing for real. I like the fact that I get to practice getting my swing for batting better and hopefully with that little extra practice I will improve my batting average and get more hits this summer than I did last year. I mean I got plenty of hits, but definitely think that I could have gotten more. It also helps me get back into the groove of pitching against hitters again. Because all winter I had pitching indoors and didn’t really have batters that I could pitch to, to see where my pitches would go when there was a batter standing in the box.
The spring league is also a good way to see what the upcoming freshman (8th graders) are going to play like, and what kind of skills that they have, and how they are going to handle the more fast pace game. Since they are used to like 14 and under year olds pitching to them, because compared to that kind of league everything is faster paced and they have to be ready for that. Even if they play on like JV or fresh/soph. those teams are a little bit more competitive than what they are used to, and I think that if they participate in the spring league than they can get a little taste of what is to come when it comes to high school softball.
There is one downside to having eighth graders going out for spring league. It is the fact that they don’t really know what to expect when it comes to what kind of softball high school level is. And I mean I should give them a break because they don’t know what to expect, but sometimes it frustrates me because instead of practicing and getting better they would rather mess around in practice and talk, and not practice on getting better with like batting or something. They would rather mess around with a drill and not make it serious and get it right, or do it well the first time, and I mean I’m not saying that some days that’s what I’m but I know what the drills are like and I know without asking sometimes what I’m doing wrong or what I need to correct. I mean sometimes I do mess around but usually I’m concentrated on what I’m doing at the same time so I get it right and that I don’t have to fix it later, I can fix it now. But there learning about what it’s going to be like and hopefully they can get everything out of it.

Something random

So this week I really have no clue what I’m going to write about but I think I might have an idea. So this past Monday it was opening day for major league baseball, and you might think a girl being so concerned with major league baseball and yea I kind of am but I’m like a super fan, I just enjoy watching my favorite team, or whatever team happens to be playing on TV. that day. Usually I don’t really care what teams are playing, but I do have a specific team that I like to follow from time to time. The chicago cubs. I honestly don’t know why I started liking the cubs, my moms asks me that every time I think I watch it, and every time she asks me I answer with an I don’t know, I just like them.
I started watching the cubs like always this past summer. Everyday when I would come home from softball practice or whatever I had that day; I would turn on the TV to see if they were playing which usually they weren’t because it was still early in the afternoon to late evening, but anyway. If they weren’t on when they got I home I usually got to catch a few innings when it was on and try to watch as much as I could before I had to go to practice in the afternoon, or before I had to head back to school to get some pre-game batting practice in, before a game or before traveling to Iowa City or Waterloo, or where ever we had to go that week for an away game. In the summer practices don’t really go that long so if the game that was on for that day was a late night game I usually got to catch some of the innings or the whole game.
I was actually excited for baseball to start because that means that softball also beginning to start up again, with the pre-season games and practices that we have and all the things that are involved with softball, even though it’s hard work and I dread doing it every other day, it makes me excited that, that day getting even close with every day that passes till the first practice and then till the first game. So finally opening day began and I was excited, because for awhile I was waiting to be able to start watching the games on TV again, instead of the spring training games, which to me aren’t that exciting because they are just spring training games, though they are important because of the fact it kind of shows what the teams might look like before the actually season starts. This year while watching some of the spring training games, I was kind of nervous. I thought that the cubs might not be as good as they were last year, or might not have as good of a season as they did last year, and last year was a good season with them being division champions, but yea I think that this season might just be as good as last I only hope. So it’s like what my mom asks me about liking the cubs, just don’t know why I like them I just do, it doesn’t really make that much sense but oh well.

The summer to come

So with there only being like less than 40 days left until it’s the last for seniors, each one of those days seems to crawl. The days seem like more hours at school than we are actually here, and the weekends seem like they are only days at a time. Spring Break went way faster than I thought that it would go, because I thought that since I was actually doing stuff and not just sitting at home that it would actually not got as fast as usual but I was wrong, that fact that I was actually doing something made it go that much faster and that really stunk. I really wish that spring break was longer than a week just because it seems like there’s really no time to do anything fun, it might seem like that a week is plenty of time but if you really think about it, it’s not. If you think about it, if you go on a trip somewhere and you fly you spend 2 days one at the beginning of the trip and one at the end flying on a plane to get to where ever you are trying to get to so really you only have like 3 days or less to actually enjoy the vacation time that you have planned out. And the fact that spring break is so close to when seniors actually get out of school it’s makes it that much harder (at least for me) to actually want to get up in the morning and make that drive to school and have to actually do something and participate, meaning senioritis is really kicking in and the fact that it’s really close to getting out of high school for good makes it that much worse. Also it’s the beginning of starting to figure out summer plans. With vacations and beginning to make the big transition to college, with signing up for classes and that one day comes of moving into the dorms. Before I know it college classes are going to begin and that long summer is going to seem like it was only a few days. Because I mean, my summer is going to jam packed with things. Like softball, and vacations to Washington and possibly Canada, and possibly a trip for two weeks to Texas, believe me I really think that this summer is going to go faster than any other summer that I’ve ever had. I the summers I have go faster than ever before, because of participating in softball, and then like last year summer practices with volleyball, but with me being a senior this year that’s not really part of my summer this year, which means I have just a little bit longer to actually have a summer for a change since softball takes most of the that from me, and of course that’s when I’m going to be doing the most of my traveling. I honestly think that in all the summers I will probably have never traveled this much combined than how much I’m going to be traveling this summer, I thought about it and it seems like that I don’t really know how long I’m going to be home after softball season ends, because of those trips, but hey I’m not complaining.