Lovin' the Madness!

Aaah... the college tourney officially starts today which is just lovely. My poor roommate. I could watch games pretty much all day even if I don't have a clue who the teams are. I just love the excitement, the craziness, and the crazy upsets that undoubtedly occur.

Well except for last year. Last year all 4 #1 seeds were in the Final Four. Can you say boring? For that reason alone, I am predicting a crazy upset year. I have filled out too many brackets to count, but very few of them have many #1 seeds in the Final Four, and even fewer winning it all.

In terms of Arizona, let me just say that we are in fact lucky that we inched in yet again this year. WHY do we always find ourselves in the same position, sucking at the end of the regular season with only a prayer to get by? OH WAIT... maybe because we've had 3 coaches in the past 3 years. Whatever.

Although even ESPN announcers predict that we might pull the classic 12 seed vs. 5 seed upset, I really don't see it happening. Although Chase, Jordan, and Nic have the tourney experience, Russ Pennell doesn't. But he did do his job this year by keeping our active 25 straight occurrences alive, so way to go.

We will see what happens. Don't get me wrong - of course I would want nothing more than an Arizona win, but seriously. We have lost 5 of our past 6 games or something like that. We just aren't playing well right now.

I leave you with a picture of me and my friend Lute Olson, taken around 3 years ago after I finished running a half marathon. Arizona misses you.

Reminisce Time

I think that reminiscing is a favorite pastime of mine. It's more fun when the people who you reminisce about are actually present to laugh/cry with as you remember funny things, but it's still fun to do by yourself. My roomie is out of town right now so I have had a super chill weekend. I also have decided that I HATE Daylight Savings because it's been a week now and I still don't think I have recovered from the time change. I have been soooooo tired this week -- aaah.

But that's beside the point.

I am now going to sound like "everyone else", but I don't care. College is such a sweet time in a person's life. I have amazing and ridiculous memories that make me smile the second that I think of the sweet friends that Jesus so blessed me with and the crazy times we had.

Here are some pics in tribute to the good ol' days. :-)

lovely san diego beach after a retreat


with coleen the week of finals - either right before or after I fell in the fountain


hangin' out in the plumer house with erin


veteran's day weekend in pinetop - makin some puppy chow


halloween 2007 we were (scary) xmen characters

danielle and I after our gangsta party and her convincing me to pierce my belly button

Decisions, Decisions.

I am needing to make a rather large "life decision" very soon. As in, probably by Sunday at the latest. I don't enjoy decisions, especially big ones. I have a hard time deciphering my own motivations for choosing one thing over another, and hate when people tell me, "there's not a wrong decision; God just wants you to choose." I want God/someone to choose for me!! Or I just want it to be very clear what I "should" do.

But obviously making these decisions grows and stretches me, and it is good that I choose and no one else. It is crazy how many of these life decisions I have made in the past year. I decided to move to Colorado after graduation, then took a job working for the Colorado PGA even though I knew little about golf. I then thought for awhile at least that I would be moving back to AZ in November, but instead decided to give Colorado at least a few more months and took a job coaching high school basketball, which I definitely do not regret. I did that not knowing if I would even be able to find a roommate, which I did and that has worked out better than I could have imagined (thanks Jesus!).

Anyway, I am hoping to head here this afternoon for a little while to get away and think. This is where I went in October when deciding whether or not to stay in Colorado. So, yeah. Oh life. :-)

More will be blogged about this later. Sorry to be kinda vague right now. (but not really.)

Myth Busters

I read on the bottom of a bottle cap a few weeks ago that if you chew gum while cutting onions you won't cry.

Tonight I made a bean dip which contains onions, so I was excited to try this theory out - sure that if this "fact" were on a bottle cap it must certainly be true and I could conquer bawling my eyes out while cutting onions.

The gum worked for approximately 34 seconds, after which I was my usual self, crying my eyes out. It is a croc I say!! I wish I could remember what it was that I was drinking so I could call them and complain that they lied to me.

Here's a depiction of what I looked like... and now you know. The gum theory sucks.

24.

I am 24 today, celebrating a lovely, relaxed, white birthday because it snowed last night. :-)
I am definitely feeling the love today so thanks everyone. I can't wait to see what is in store for this coming year of my life - so much happened in the last one!

In honor of 24, what follows are the lyrics to the Switchfoot song "Twenty-Four."

Twenty four oceans
Twenty four skies
Twenty four failures
Twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And I'm not who I thought I was twenty four hours ago
Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

Twenty four reasons to admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses still twenty four strong

See I'm not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now

And You're raising these twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
But I wan to be one today
Centered and true

I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now
And You're raising the dead in me

I want to see miracles, see the world change
Wrestled the angel, for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And You're raising the dead in me
Twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts.
I'm not copping out. Not copping out. Not copping out.

Almost Over.

Well, the basketball season is unfortunately coming to a close. I have enjoyed coaching much more than I imagined. I have been blessed with great girls who I get along with, are funny, work hard (for the most part), and even though they like the Jonas Brothers I still love them. :-) Our last home games are tonight and our last games of the season are Friday night.

Last Saturday the varsity head coach canceled practice for his team. I, however, did not for my JV girls - simply because I like them and didn't want to cancel their last Saturday practice. So we had a fun practice... played knockout a couple times, line tag with everyone dribbling basketballs, etc.

I also made them a mix CD which I played while they had to shoot free throws for a good 40 minutes. We are awful at free throws, and it shows. Here were their percentages:

24/65 (37%)
37/65 (57%)
13/40 (32%)
10/40 (25%)
26/70 (37%)
28/65 (43%)
28/45 (62%)
13/45 (29%)
30/75 (40%)
29/65 (44%)

Only two of them got over 50%. I then had them go back and shoot 10 more, emphasizing the need for them to focus, fix whatever is wrong with their shot, and get at least 5/10. Only 4 succeeded.

You're killin' me, smalls!!!

Videos to Brighten Your Day

Hilarious. Both of them. (P.S. how do I post videos on here so that the actual video will just show up and you don't have to click the link??)

Bad female drivers.

Kid after dentist.