So I'm not sailing anymore

For the past 3 and a half years I've sailed 3-6 days a week. I've fought a constant battle with my coach who doesn't give two shits about me or my goals on the team. I've sailed in the rain and the snow and have lost hours of my life bobbed around Dorchester Bay. Last Wednesday I had had enough. I met with Greg and before it was out of my mouth he said 'ok' and simple sent me on my way. I wish I could say he fought for me to stay on the team like he has for other members or that he was upset at my final conclusion but he did and he wasn't. As I walked out of his door his finally words were 'You're a good crew, Sorry it didn't work out.' Well funny thing Mr. Wilkinson if you had wanted it to work out it would have...

I had dreamed of this day since sophomore year and it wasn't like the hundreds of times I'd imagined it. I didn't leave his office ecstatically happy or with the feeling of total freedom but instead I cried. I cried for the entire afternoon. Quitting means I won't be an All-American or win a college national championship, I won't even be all NEISA... these goals are gone and I have complete failed at accomplishing them.

Clutter

I woke up this morning overwhelmed by clutter. Clutter of all levels, everything from emotional to physical. I'm probably just stressed about my first test of senior year, ekkk, which will begin in less than an hour or it could be the simi dirty room I've been living in for the past few days. Either way I was forced to clear out my entire inbox. Something about gmail looking so clean and neat has made my morning.

Ice Cream

My love for ice cream comes and goes. Yesterday it hit me in the middle of practice. I needed ice cream, no I didn't want ice cream I NEEDED IT for survival! I dropped my gear bag and ran (yes literally ran) to the ice cream shop down the street because we all know I can't keep the stuff in my apt. Due to a minimum credit card limit I was forced to not only get a scoop of coffee heath with Reese's cups but a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough as well. My thought when I made the purchase was great... next time I'm about to die from my ice cream withdrawals I'll have a scoop out of my cute little pint. I should have known how wrong I was about this. I'm the girl who ate an entire cheesecake in one day. I didn't grab a spoon and dig in when I woke up this morning which was a big step because I do love ice cream with my breakfast. Instead I spooned out a few bites here and there all day. My thought is that all that walking back and forth from the freezer had to have burned off some of those calories. Either way it was delicious and now thank goodness... it is gone!

Plus One

I have never been asked to be a ‘Plus One’ but I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to go like this…

Him: you are going to Spain for the new year right?

Me: I'll be back before new years, I'm just in Spain for Christmas

Him: mm, it’s my Aunt’s Wedding
…you are welcome to come, not sure how weird it would be though

Does that really count as an ‘invite?’ It sounded more like a dare to me. I understand meeting families can always be a bit dicey. Of all people, I understand this. Hell, half of my family hasn’t learned how to chew with their mouth closed (you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family.)

To make this sound like even less of an invitation there was no real date given other than ‘new years,’ making me question if his invitation to said wedding even includes a plus one behind it. Either way it is months away but new years in New Orleans doesn’t sound too bad.

'Hey Work-Out Barbie' - A. Nagle

Due to my classes, work load and sailing practice it makes scheduling time to work out a bit of a challenge at times. I find myself either waking up early or squeezing it in between classes. My inability to allocate enough time for tasks has me always running late and while I plan to shower and get dressed during breaks or before classes it just hasn't seemed to happen for the past well... 6 days.

Normally living in nylon and spandex wouldn't bother me but every Tuesday and Thursday I pass by a Graduate finance class with boys... men I guess you could call them dressed to the nines. Perfectly tailored suits with designer shoes and watches, gorgeous watches. As I pass their congregation outside of their classroom I feel disgusting. I can normally still feel the sweat rolling down my back as their eyes avoid me to glance to their watches to be sure not to be late for their next meeting.

I'm trapped in a world of Nike nylon running shorts and regatta tshirts! And when I finally find time to shower and change I grab a 'vintage' pair of Jesuit gym shorts and a clean regatta tshirt. I just can't get away from work out clothes! I'm dying for a night in the city when I can pull on a pair of jeans, a top and shoes that don't lace up.

I think I have the flesh-eating bacteria...

Recently there have been a few cases of the flesh-eating bacteria in the bay by the ship channel. I coach in the lake, far away from the bay and even farther away from the channel. But thank you to all the mommies and daddies who have 'educated' there children on this fascinating bacteria. Now I get to deal with "I can't sail... I could die!" Do these parents not understand that every child has a scrape or cut somewhere and that they aren't going to die from it? Because now none of the kids are able to swim because they fear death by bacteria. I'm also faced with questions that I don't feel qualified to answer such as "If this cut on my ankle gets the flesh eating bacteria will I lose my whole foot or just a chunk out of my ankle?" Well Dr. Fontenot believes that the particular bacteria that will infect your cut will not only eat the flesh off your foot but also slowly and painfully eat away at your BRAIN!

Please parents, stop educating your children and leave that the professionals!

Brunch, Bashes and of course Best Friends

This weekend has been amazing! It finally feels like summer but I only have two weeks left. The weekend started off pretty calm. I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I'm not going to say it was a good omen for the weekend but it couldn't have hurt. The whole theme of the novel was following your own personal dreams (by watching for omens) and appreciating the world around you. Great book for those who are entering a new phase in their life aka graduating college.

Saturday was an adventure to say the least. Caroleene was in town from Alabama so we had to show her a good time. Roberta decided we should head to schlitterbahn in Galveston which was a great idea seeing how it was a thousand degrees! And the lazy river was the only remedy for the heat. Here we are when we decided to finally give up our search for tubes and enter the river before we died in the heat. (Imagine roberta in the group, she was too busy being a great photographer to get into the picture)


Here's the group in the not so lazy, lazy river. Let me tell you right now... I almost lost my bottoms numerous times on those 'lazy river' rapids.

The lazy river was bunches of fun after we stole tubes from small children as they got swept under the water (nobody drowned while we were there... or that I know of) After a few laps we decided to leave the river to go down some slides. But first we had to take a stop in the raining mushroom...


We didn't have time to do too many rides so we decided to take on the two most intense rides in the park and then head back to river which in my eyes was a great idea because I love floating around in a man made river filled with a thousand people I don't know. The rides where awesome though! Here is the park from the top of one of our rides



John and I had to do some Baywatch rescuing in the wave pool and Roberta got some shots as we were searching for the victim


All and all we had a great time floating and sliding and running around the park. Even though there were close to three thousand people in the park and over half of them had less then a year to live because they were so morbidly obese.

On the way home we had to get some Dairy Queen to top the afternoon off and I found my new favorite flavor blizzard. For those of you who don't know I've only gotten M&M blizzards for well... my entire life but now it's all about the reese's cups. Clearly, AMAZING!

After a quick dinner it was time to head downtown for a house warming/goodbye party at Larry's new apartment. After a few cocktails it was time to pull the drums out and start making some lovely music!



Sam and I were just there to say hey but quickly found ourselves surrounds by air force guys who clearly had seen a girls in years. They tried to impress us with their lack of film and literature knowledge and really impressed us their practically none existing international travels. But who can blame them... we were the only two girls there who weren't engaged and well, we were lookin good!


However the evening wasn't all fun and drinks, the night marked our last party with Jeremy (or so I thought) in Houston. I miss him already!


After Larry excused himself to the bathroom to save himself from alcohol poisoning and Sam was finally drunk enough to consider even making out with one of the air force guys and I had grown tired of discussing weddings I decided to gather up my little Sam and head home for the evening.

Sam came barreling into my room at 8am to go search for dolphins (yes the bay currently has dolphins... porpoise if you will) So of course I throw on something decent and head out to the boat to go on a search for the dolphins. Here is sam using her finger as a dolphin finder which actually seems to work because she was the one the spotted the first pod.



We followed these three for a good third minuites which was a ton of fun because she was so excited about the find!

We couldn't stay long because we had to get ready for Sunday brunch with Larry and Jeremy and a few of their friends in town. Of course we get all dressed up for what I thought would be a typical Sunday brunch of elevator music and eggs benedict but boy was I wrong! The bottom floor of the restaurant was pretty typical with a pact bar with hungover guys sucking down bloody mary's. But when our whole party arrived and we were walked upstairs to the patio I was not prepared for the DJ spinning, the shot girls walking around and the dancing that was to ensue after brunch. It was the best going away brunch for Jeremy I could have ever imagined!

Larry and Jeremy :-)

The group (no the guy on the phone who is sweating profusly is NOT with us!)

Sam and I had to leave brunch 'early' = 4:00pm to head back to the bay to make my big summer purchase... my skateboard! After a quick change of clothes we were off to find me a board as Damian says "everyone needs board, more important than car!" And I was thrilled with my purchase!


Damian and I fell in love with the same board so I compromised and got the shorter version which I think in the long run will be for the best. So after the purchase we had to play around in the parking lot...

Damian is a tad bit better than I



But I'm still learning


And even sam tried


It's been an amazing weekend and now it's time help with Sunday dinner!