Because I love being a goalie...

So perhaps it's an odd pasttime for a girl. I know I certainly never expected to do anything but figure skating, but now I've been a goalie for lacrosse AND for ice hockey. Below are pictures of me playing. Also of pretty sunsets. And flowers in my suitemates' room. But lots of hockey pictures. Because I like them. Therefore they will go online. (For reference, I'm on the black team.)

My gerbils wish to join the russian circus. They're learning to do flips against the cage's screen top. I think they should find a new profession. Like recyling.

My suitemates were soooo drunk Thursday and Friday nights. So drunk. Friday night I spent HOURS taking care of them. They don't remember half of it. Well, Jaysie wasn't drunk. Everyone else was. And they blacked out from it. *sigh*

And here's a million hugs to Cristina. She more than definately needs them. I wish I could be there. *hug hug hug* You're always welcome to call me. You know that.

Enjoy.


Sunset from my window:

Another view:

Practice before class:

Yes. I can skate. And not simply stand in one spot. However, this took several days to master with the goalie gear:



Once down, impossible to get up. But I saved it!

Halfway is a good place to be. It's comfortable there. Even if you can't get up.

Lookin' cool.

I'm short. And does all that padding make my butt look fat? ;)

Down. On me tush. So I kneel to stop the puck, then I fall over. Oops.

The huge ordeal of getting back up. This process takes forever. It really does.

Arrg. Tough girl.

REDSKINSSSSS!

Down. Again. BUT I SAVED THE PUCK! It's under the red glove.



More toughness. Take that!

Saved another one!

And, again, difficult to get up.

Is he about to crack open my skull with his hockey stick? Am I bowing in reverence? Are we playing leapfrog with hockey skates? Or do I simply have the puck and he wants it, whereas I refuse to give it up?

Aha. Captured the puck. Again.

And a save! Look! The puck's still there!



Nice action shot, if I may say so.

Unfortunately, I need to get up.

It's difficult.

Very difficult.

But possible.

Fear me. I am a brick wall of hockey kitten-ness.

Hoo-rah!

Pretty flowers belonging to my suitemates. The darkness of the room and the light on the flowers was too irresistable to pass up.

And, another sunset. :)

Ladies and Gentlemen, take my advice --

Pull down your pants, and slide on the ice!


WARNING! MAJOR PICTURE ALERT!
There are 121 pictures in this entry. The entry, without pictures, is over 6 pages in length in a word document, single spaced, 12-pt-font in Times New Roman. The pictures are also grainy. I know that. Now you do too. I could either put lots of cool pictures online and have them somewhat grainy grainy because of reduced size (meaning, ask me if you want to see the nice, several MB-each-sized pictures) or I could have only a few good-quality pictures. I chose to have lots of pictures over a few nice-quality ones. Also means they'll suck if you download them. :-p So just ask if you want better quality pics. Or if you want to see more of the literally hundreds I didn't edit to fit on here. It makes me know you love me. And you want pictures of me. And my beautiful picture taking astounds you. ;) You have been warned.







So sorry I’ve not written more lately. The internet (and time) at school has been horrid. Midterms just finished, and I’ve been working off a scarily shaky wireless connection. Now, I am currently at home with a very happy kitten curled up beside me. Jasmine really really missed me, and she’s letting me know all about her trials and tribulations of being home for five days without anyone here, after being here for several weeks without me. Needless to say I won’t turn down the attention, no matter the reason. Soft cuddly kitties can do that to a girl.

So, the saga begins.

Ice Hockey:

Several weeks ago now, I played goalie. It was amazing! I didn’t realize JUST how much I’d missed being a moving target. And no, I’m not being sarcastic. I really really missed being in goal. Even when I played on the ice I was protecting the goalie, so I guess it makes sense just to be in goal. I have several goalie pictures that may interest you. The goalie gear was monstrous. It was all too small for any of the guys, but all too big for me. As it is, I had to buy my own gear for playing in the ‘field’ of the rink so I’d be safe. But everything for goalie is just way way too big.





















One of the guys in the class had peered into the outfit and asked who the hell was in there, and seeing me, exclaimed, “It’s the hockey cat!! Hey everyone, the hockey cat is playing goal today!” Note – read back a few posts to the ‘Hockey Kitten’ post. Note the irony that Leigh called me a hockey kitten over the weekend, and a few days later my own classmates called me a hockey cat. That’s just creepy.

So that was Monday.

On Wednesday, however, goalie wasn’t *as* fun. I didn’t realize that the back of the left hockey mitt, that looks like a catcher’s glove, DOESN’T have padding on the back of it. All of IT’S padding is on the inside near the palm. So, being in LACROSSE mode, I swatted at the puck as it was coming. It was hit by a varsity player that’s in the class, so it was coming hard, fast, and high. Which is why I swatted at it. So I didn’t hurt myself.

Instead I almost broke my hand. Alright, alright, my finger. Unless it hit my knuckle. Then I’d probably still have had a cast or something.



My hands are JUST BARELY bigger than the palm of the gloves that I wear for hockey, so I can’t move the gloves at all. I have no control over the gloves. They’re just 5 or 6 sizes too big. They’re meant for men, not 5’2” girls. I didn’t realize there wasn’t padding on the back of the glove. In lacrosse there is. Big old 1” or bigger pads. Figured if you were a goalie in hockey, with all that even bigger padding, that the back of the stupid glove would be padded. Yeah, no, it’s not. So don’t try to swat a puck coming really fast at you with the back of your hand. It will only cause incredible amounts of pain. My hand was swollen for over a week afterwards, and it’s only now feeling ALMOST back to normal. If it’d hit only half an inch up or down from where it’d did, I’d probably have shattered my hand. And I was apparently the only person that could see how bruised and swollen it was. The pics I took of it didn’t come out very well, and no one else noticed. Rawr. If I even bruise a little that’s a big deal, people.

So that was painful. And then I got kicked in the head by someone skating by as I dove for a puck. That also hurt a lot, even though I had on a helmet.

This coming Monday, I’m in goal again. And I’m pumped.

Oh! We had our hockey midterm last week. Mom was actually up on campus for it. There were a series of tests you had to do, but if you succeeded in the first one, you got an automatic 100% and didn’t have to finish the course. You had to score a goal when basically on the goal line. I made the goal. :D I was one of two people that did it. I was very very proud of myself.


Midterms:

Midterms were last week. They were evil. My best was the 300 level exam. My worst was the 100. The medium, which sucked horribly, was my middle one. That was weird.


Snowstorm:

We had a huge snowstorm a little while ago. Not last weekend but the week before. About a foot and a half of snow. Melted in a day and a half. Below freezing one day, in the 60s a few days later.

Picture that is just for Steph:









Picture for Cristina:















Most of these are for Steph, now that I think about it...:







Gerbils:

My gerbils make me happy. Wes will now jump in my hand and beg to be held. Gus will sometimes do so. George still won’t, but he’s the easiest to hold of the three.


Green Beer Day:

I dressed funky. It was tons of fun to say the least. I wore an iridescent green cowboy hat with a shamrock on it, a neon green wig, a clover green GBD shirt, black and white shorts, green knee-high socks, and black and white shoes. I got stared at a lot. It was definitely worth it. I either got looks of pure shock and horror, or looks of pure hilarity. I was told several times over that my outfit was one of the best on campus. I went all out. I’m a senior, what do you expect?
































BTW, you know when something is important when it’s found on wikipedia. :-P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Beer_Day

http://www.greenbeerday.com/

It’s an Oxford tradition. It’s always the Thursday before Spring Break. I didn’t have green beer though. Instead, I had a nice little fruity girly drink. And it was awesome. I did have my GBD shirt though – first one in four years. Has a pirate skull, then “Where has all the Green Beer Gone?”


Friends:

Cristina, Steph, and Leigh make me very very very happy. Even if they do live many many hours away from me. :) Thanks for always being there.


Grad School Drama:

Most schools have rejected me. Two accepted me. Still waiting on two schools that supposedly have me on a waiting list. I’m very depressed about it. Even if I do get scholarship money, it isn’t enough to pay for school, meaning I can’t go. So that’s all I feel like saying about it. In other words, this is a touchy topic. You’d be wise not to bring it up with me unless I bring it up with you.


All the other stuff I’d mentioned in my ‘to come’ post:

Yeah, I don’t remember what I’d meant to say about the other topics. I don’t remember what I’d meant to say about some of the ones I mentioned anyways.


SPRING BREAK!

Wow, you’ve read this far? You’re nuts. But you’re getting to the good part. Thanks for reading the two and a half word document pages that came before. ;)


Sunday:

Drove down to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. We rented a chalet for the week, and it was a beautiful chalet. Beautiful view of the mountains. Two master bedrooms, an upstairs loft area with a nice pool table, and a Jacuzzi outside on the deck. It was about a 6 hour drive to get there, but that’s been one of the best weeks I’ve had in quite a while. It was also mom’s birthday. I felt bad she had to be in the car for her birthday. And we forgot to sing happy birthday to her. :-\ I feel absolutely horrible about that.


The Chalet's back porch:











Monday:

Went hiking just over 5 miles with dad. I managed to get bitten by a random bug. I have no clue what it was. But my calf really started to burn, and when I lifted up my jeans a bit, I saw a huge red welt next to my knee. It’s now a small, bright, beet red callous/scab thing. It’s very very weird. I then proceeded to go sit on some rocks overlooking a stream, and almost lost my lens cap when it fell, unbeknownst to me, out of my pocket. It was teetering on the edge of the rocks when I found it, about to go for a swim. >.<






















Deer! There had been two, but one ran off...





I think this is what I looked like half the trip... always taking pictures. It's probably why dad took the picture. :)







See those rocks in the bottom right corner? That's where my lens cap almost went for a swim...



There! Those rocks! AT THAT TIME! The lens cap is RIGHT at the water's edge during this time. And I was oblivious till I was looking for it after this picture was taken.

Yeah. I'm cool. I know. I scrambled up that slope to get better waterfall pictures. Definately worth it. So nice, and cool, and escapist up there. Probably a good 20 feet up. Maybe. More or less.



One of many random abandoned (although unwillingly) houses along the trail.

THAT ROAD is the one that tried to take me out. And succeeded rather well. See? Me taking pictures. Like this one. Along the side of the road. Then POOF, took me to my knees.

Yeah still not paying attention. Also haven't fallen yet:

I loved this statue. It made me happy. And amused.



Molly being the cool pup.





Tuesday:

Still hurt from the day before.

I tripped a lot. But I didn’t fall!

[girly moment]

We made our way to the top of a 2 mile trail (2 miles up, 2 miles down), and was happily rewarded. Two REALLY REALLY cute guys, for once ABOUT MY AGE, were up there. They'd been backpacking the day before, and were backpacking for the next two days. They were SO CUTE. Oohhh. And they were backpackers. What could be better!? AND CUTE. AND SWEET. AND NICE. They were from Birmingham. They had 30 more miles to hike. They’d also taken an 8 mile side hike on top of it. They were cool. I loved them. I should have said that I wasn’t comfortable with their camera, so I’d take one with mine and email it to them. *hits head with fist several times*

So cute. And sweet. My heart flutters.

I can always go into more detail if you ask. :-D

[/GIRLY moment]


Dad and I then took pictures of the foggy weather out. We were at the top of the mountain, and it was foggy, rainy, and COLD. I have some ironic pictures to post on here. In case you hadn’t noticed.

I also got attacked – alright I lied. I SAW wild turkeys. Okay, now, here’s the thing. Last time I saw wild turkeys in the Smokies, they attacked me. They did! They came after me. Running and squawking and all that jazz. Very territorial birds, I’ve found. This time I came after them. With a camera. Got a few good pictures too. I’ll upload one for you to see. I got one of them flying, but the one of them standing there I think is better.

I stayed in for dinner that night when my parents ate out. I had leftovers from another meal (pasta, hello!), so I sat back, watched part of a movie, then went out and had my zen moment sitting on the Jacuzzi cover and watching the sunset for about an hour. It was warm and breezy, and I had a beautiful view of the storm rolling in. Oh I was in heaven. I then finished my movie later on after it’d gotten dark and chilly out.


A... bit... foggy out.



TURKEYS!!:

I wonder what the house looked like... the fireplace was cool though.

I hate foot bridges.





The sign says "A View Worth Preserving". Tell me, what view? (I have been here on a sunny day, however, and it is gorgeous. I just found this much too ironic to pass up. Two more of these pictures will convey that obsession.)



See? Common look for me. Camera up against my face. Taking pictures.

One of the best shots, seriously. Just looks cool:

One of the roads we were driving on:







Dad's braver than I am. That foot bridge was tiny. I mean, tiny.







View from our porch on the chalet.

Same road that took me out. This was after falling. (The pictures are very out of order, I apologize. Dad's camera and mine apparently had different times put into them...)

Where I found the REALLY REALLY REALLY CUTE BOYS (the lodgings were right next to us... not at the sign itself):





View from the porch:



Storm was rolling in:



Wednesday:

Very rainy day in the morning and evening. We took a motor tour around Gatlinburg’s trail, and I got out, yes, in the rain, to take pictures of various log cabins. I didn’t hurt myself at all on the muddy, wet, and slippery trails, or the wet and slippery roots and rocks. No, I hurt myself walking down the old wooden stairs of cabin and almost falling flat on my face. Bent back my knee at an awkward angle as well. So that hurt. First injury of the day. By the end of the ‘trail’ I was cold and wet and chilled, even though it was in the 60s outside. But! I have good pictures. Log cabins are cool. Even though mom didn’t see any differences in them, I thought they were so incredibly intriguing.

We then went out for some lunch, and then the skies cleared. So we played two rounds of putt-putt. I, erm, hit one of the balls a little too hard and sent it up the steep hill, so I had to go retrieve it. The courses had tons of water hazards (guess that happens when you have thunderstorms) so I over compensated, to say the least. I then hit it into a pool of water later. Eep.

It was a very fun afternoon, however. I’ve not played putt-putt in years. So it made me very very happy that I got to play.

We then went to a book store. (Muahahahaha.) Dad bought me a few books, I bought me a few books. I then promptly gave myself a papercut. That thing hurt worse than all my other injuries! I have skinned knees, bruised knees, bruised/scraped thighs, swollen ankles, bug bites, and so forth, and it’s the stupid papercut that hurts!!

Played pool again, after hanging out in the Jacuzzi one last time. I played till about 1 am. I’ll miss that pool table that overlooked the mountains, and the Jacuzzi that also had a good mountain view.


The cabin that almost made me fall on my tush again:









An old mill (above and below)







Jacuzzi Time!

Pool time!





Yes. That IS a Roman soldier. On a horse. In the middle of Pigeon Forge. Next to the highway.

Putt-putt time (CRIS! I'm wearing an Army shirt! Aren't you proud?):

Me and my mama:



Thursday:

The trip home. Took lots of pit stops to see last minute sights. At one point, however, I fell out of the car. I’d been curled up in the back seat, with my body/shoulder pressed up against the door, my head between the door and the back seat head rest. It’s a good pillow, actually. So I was curled up against the door, because the dog and the gerbils were on the other side of the car. Not realizing I hadn’t completely shifted so I wasn’t relying on the door, I opened it. And promptly fell out because my weight was still against the door. Without it there, I kept going. Ooops.

So we made it home yesterday, and then I stayed up till about 2:30am talking to Leigh, Steph, and Darran.

And I have spent all day getting pictures ready for your viewing pleasure (and this post, without pictures and in word, is 6 pages long, if you were curious). 


My trip was just… awesome. Just awesome. I FELT so good. I felt happy, free, healthy, and so completely contented. I haven’t felt that GOOD in ages. I was just so happy, and calm, and relaxed. I already miss the mountains, and how good I felt while hiking.

I maintain that people are meant to be outside. We’re not meant to be cooped up. You need freedom and mountains and fresh air to feel alive. You need to be away from civilization to feel human. It was an amazing break.




Quote of the day, which basically sums it all up:

“I've learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.” ~Unknown