Glorious, just glorious!

WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY TO PLAY SOCCER!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh! the weather was absolutely perfect for practice tonight. Nice, crisp, clean, cool air... cloudy, no sun in my eyes... cleaned my lungs out real good, and i didn't feel like fainting from heat stroke!! NICE!!! Oh, it was just splendid tonight! I was feeling so joyful and jubilant inside. Plus, one of the girls on the team brought her 3-month old PUPPY (border collie mix... CUUUUTE!), and she was chained up to a tree by all of our stuff during practice, so every time we took a water break we got to play with her... puppies make me sooo happy, 'cause they are just so DARN cute and playful! It made me miss my dogs a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. Anyway, tonight I played GREAT... I was really feelin' it tonight, for some reason... everything just seemed to come together. the ball was going where I wanted it to go, I wasn't dying in the middle of practice, my team won every game we played, and I had some really, really, really excellent crosses and looks that the other forward, my friend Kim, almost scored on. I just can't wait to prove ourselves in a real game next week! I am learning the things I really need to work on, like really polishing off some nice combinations to score, squaring the ball to get a goal between me and Kim when we are up at forward, taking advantage of space when I can call "line" and get either a run, a give 'n' go, or a cross/switch. weeeeeeeeeeee!!! i'm just excited. ball skills are definitely improving a ton, and my coach Rafael (Raf for short) is really working us on "ready feet" and always being on the tips of our toes and checking for the ball, not waiting and standing back. Tonight's big scrimmage game was all about pressuring the other team... and I was really proud of how well my team and I were doing that. Every time an opponent had possession, someone was ON that person like *THAT*! hahah (imagine me saying that and snapping my fingers when I come to the "THAT" part). yep. so yeah, pressure was excellent tonight... I hope we can do that in the game... really kick some butt. yeah!!! :-) All in all, tonight was SWEET!!!!!!!!!

Here are some random facts about me that no one needs to know:

1. I only shower in the second stall from the left! I have yet to go in to take a shower and find it already taken... so it's basically MY shower stall, mmkay?
2. I have claimed the third sink in on the right (window) side of the bathroom as mine... when I go to wash my face/brush my teeth at night and in the morning, I only go to that sink.
sidenote: if somebody happens to be using my sink... I will indeed wait to use it, forget the other 7 sinks! psh!
3. we have been talking about the ancient Islam community in my poli. sci. 251 class, and I am finding it A.) very confusing, and B.) very intriguing.
4. Tonight at practice, I got hit a fair few times (ok... like, 10) right in my gut with the dang soccer ball... usually from having it thrown in and me trying to turn with it and stuff during our warm-up drill involving (you guessed it) thrown-ins and turns! so yeah... i got smacked right in the gut a bunch of times, and not gonna lie... I sort of feel sick now.. haha. and like every time i tighten or harden my abdominal region, my entire insides like shudder and tremble a bit... it's odd.......
5. If you ask my opinion, I think that the British and the French were basically asking Germany to one day come back and stage their revenge on them for imposing such harsh peace conditions on Germany in the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI. Germany was already devastated as a country and politically as well from the Great War, and now having to basically pay back everyone in reparations and having such harsh conditions in the Treaty, I mean... of COURSE when an influential totalitarian leader came along (Hitler), it would be stupid not to think that Germany was planning to take revenge on the world that basically promised their country into a life of poverty, an economic depression, and despair. Maybe the Brits and the French should not have rejected practically all of Wilson's Fourteen Points, eh?? I don't know. maybe WWII was inevitable, maybe not. I think there's a direct link from WWI to the beginning of WWII, and obviously there were so many other things that led to Pearl Harbor and everything like that.... but yeah, that's what I think. I just wanted to get that out there, and it's not very put-together, but that's my opinion. haha. don't yell at me, I just think it was kind of like... well DUH!! about Germany coming back even stronger and building such an intense war machine like they did for WWII... I don't know... whatev. Seems clear to us now, but I guess back then we didn't have the knowledge we do now?? meh. I dont knowwww.

6. I have to go write my rough draft now... the whole thing... right nowww!

This guy (middle) leaves tomorrow to begin his training to enter the U.S. Navy. Pray for him as he takes a huge step toward the unknown!!! I love you, Derek... you will be missed!

Adieu! <3