Soccer has been Mean Lately

I love my sport more than almost everything. I am my happiest when I am playing soccer. There is little better than the feeling of leaving everything on the field and walking away exhausted. But soccer has been mean to me lately. I have not had good luck with injuries the last few weeks. I sprained my ankle almost 3 weeks ago. It is a re-sprain of the same ankle I sprained during State Cup last May. 

I had to walk on Graduation with an air cast:

I rocked the beat up old Vans for Graduation

The ankle isn't very strong because of the first sprain so it happened again during warm ups before a Saturday game. 

The original damage. Monday after the injury

After a couple days. Less swelling

 I randomly got this giant ball print on my leg during warm ups last Saturday. I had been cleared to play and my ankle was all taped then this happens. What the heck. Just quick info, I still have the bruise and the mark and it's Thursday.

Ball Print from Warm-ups 

 But the ankle is getting stronger and improving well! I'll be playing after spring break no problem. Fingers Crossed! Blessed to have an athletic training staff to take such good care of me!

Naps are Confusing

I am not a big fan of naps. I never have been. Ask my mother. As a child I wouldn't nap and I don't really nap now unless I am exhausted.

Most naps sound like a good idea. I'll crawl into bed after practice just to try and warm up, or I'll get to practice early and sleep in the locker room, or get to my media class and fall asleep on the couches before class. All relatively pleasant situations. 

But, without fail, I wake up completely lost to my surroundings and with no clue as to what is going on around me. I feel no more rested than I did before I got the bright idea to nap. I am grumpy. It never fails. 

I took a half hour nap today on accident and woke up, saw my clock said 7 and thought I had slept to Wednesday and it was time for me to wake up and get ready for class to take an exam. I'm pretty sure I made some noises or said something random because my roommate just laughed at me. I'm still pretty confused what happened. Naps just become voids in my life that I can't remember clearly and that freaks me out.

So basically naps are the most confusing wonderful things. Extra sleep, good. Waking up horribly confused, not good. The internal conflict I have over naps is probably more dramatic than it should be. 

Birthday Adventures

I find this ridiculously funny

So yesterday was my birthday! It was pretty great. I had an amazing day and was truly blessed by my family and friends. I felt very loved by all the wonderful people in my life.. My little sister, Hailey, showed up at my dorm and wanted to take me out for coffee. So of course I was excited for that and we headed off to Starbucks. My little sister is a maniac of a driver and almost missed the turn to get into the parking lot but she goes flying into the parking lot and we pull up to the drive through. I order my usual Grande White Chocolate Mocha with an extra shot and Hailey decided she wanted the same thing. So she tells the lady over the intercom that she wants the same thing except in a 16oz...

For those of you that don't regularly drink coffee at Starbucks a Grande is 16oz.

A look of horror crossed her face as she realized what she said and then had to spend 5 minutes fixing her mistake to the drink lady. We finally get our order sorted and we pull up to the window. The girl working I have two classes with and she is laughing at us. Hailey pulls up to far away from the window and has to get out of the car in order the pay the lady for our coffee.

That's right. Not roll down the window and lean awkwardly out of it far away. Full open the door get out of the car and walk to the window far away. I am dying I am laughing so hard. While we are waiting for coffee the lady notices the windows on Hailey's car have window paint on them. Hailey's birthday is two days before mine and her friend had written all kinds of goofy things, watching Hailey tell the Starbucks lady about her windows and what they said was hilarious as my little sister gets kind of awkward around people. We finally got our coffees and were headed back to school when Hailey stalls her car at the stop sign. At this point we are crying we are laughing so hard. Gasping for air and trying not to spill the precious coffee we made it back to school where a bunch of my friends had decorated the inside of my dorm room with balloons and streamers. It was a great surprise, I don't get surprised very easily and so the fact I didn't suspect anything is a feat in itself. I felt so loved and it was a great way to start celebrating my birthday.

So thank you to everyone that wished me happy birthday yesterday and thank you to those that made my day so special.

The Gamble of Social Events

College is a time of making friends and having experiences that you will remember for the rest of your life... Or that's what they tell you anyways.

To promote all of these experiences and friendships colleges often dream up events and gatherings for you to go out and have fun and meet people and find your soul mate etc. There are fairs and games and things with weird names you wouldn't even consider thinking was cool but you pay 5-10 dollars and show up and participate in whatever madness someone has created. Some of these events are worthwhile and you can appreciate them, other events make you want to run into a wall just to escape going.

For instance, my dorm is divided into wings and we have "family time" on Tuesday nights with the people that live on your wing. This is supposed to promote bonding with the people that you live with and have fun, all that jazz. My RA is super crafty and is always coming up with little things for us and tries to make "family time" more fun with little treats or gifts. Our last family time featured this gem:

Pink drink is bad

It was like drinking a My Little Pony. Cherry soda and ice cream mixed to create this foamy pink concoction. This combined with us sitting around and staring at each other made for a real fun time. To enforce the atmosphere of participation you get fined if you don't show up to "family time", I may or may not know this from personal experience. Forced bonding time is my favorite.

But because college is a time of meeting new people and making friends we all go to these events and gamble our time on an experience that could go either way. Its a risk we seem willing to take and perhaps we stumble upon a new fun experience or a new best friend. I don't fully understand the whole mentality of these social situations but at least you can find some laughs brought on by the absurdity of the events provided.

Food Pyramid

I am taking a Fundamentals of Wellness class this semester and I have to tell you I don't approve of the "My Plate" deal. Don't try to tell me how much food to put on my plate. No. I like the pyramid better so I created my own food pyramid because the national guidelines aren't cutting it for me.

I even drew it on graph paper... 

I'm pretty sure these are the only things you need to eat to survive. None of these things have serving sizes. Unlike the boring national guidelines that like to limit the amount of food you eat, with my pyramid a serving size is whatever you want it to be. Half a bag of tortilla chips with salsa? Go for it. The limit does not exist on Nutella. Any pizza can be a personal pizza if you believe in yourself. French Fries= heaven. Coffee is of course the highest on the priority list. I could probably eat 17 of those little oranges if I had access to them. Top Ramen is the meal of champions. That is all. It's pretty self explanatory which makes it way better than the confusing national guidelines and their charts.

So in your face national health guidelines. My pyramid kicks your "My Plate" system's butt.

This is What Soccer Does to You.

There are many joys of playing soccer. You are in fantastic shape. You can eat massive amounts of food and not care because you will just run it off at practice. The list goes on and on. But there are some downfalls:

1. You have no life outside of soccer. You are either at practice, a game, lifting weights, or watching film. There is no life outside of soccer. "Sorry, I cant I have soccer" is a common response to most invitations.

2. While you have great legs from all the running, you are also sore. All the time. Its normal. You cant go up stairs effectively because you cant move your legs. It's like the staircase is mocking you.

3. Massive bruises. Cleat marks. Tan lines. It doesn't get much better than soccer player legs. The bruises make for great conversations.

4. You would rather wear athletic shorts or running leggings than a dress or jeans. The difference in comfort is astounding

5. No more Icy Hot? Might as well give up on today. More than once I have been identified by my mom because she can smell the icy hot before she can see me.

6. The people that make fun of soccer. Its honestly a lot harder than just running around and kicking a ball. If you ever make that argument against a soccer player just remember they train to run for 90 minutes and will not be afraid to get into a fight with you.

7. There is no such thing as an off season. It's not real.

8. "Optional practice" Wow. That's a weird way of spelling mandatory.

9. You have to buy pants a size to big to fit around your thighs. Then you belt them to keep them from falling off. The struggle is real.

10. Soccer may not be everything but it's right up there with oxygen.