My Hiatus

It's been a little while. Well, a long while. Life has been absolutely hectic lately, and it's had its ups and downs.

  

Baseball has been here and there. We've had a couple really strong games, such as today when we played extremely well and beat St. James 12-2. We've also had horrible games; two of them included 9 errors, and one of those two tested our pitchers by needing four of them in the first inning alone. All in all, there's only been a couple of times when I've felt like quitting this year. Last year I almost always felt like walking away.

  

School is winding down, and that makes me very excited. Only a few more big events before my senior year is complete and I can move on to bigger and better things. College is screaming my name, and I am thrilled to be heading to Iowa to spend four years with some people I know quite well and others I have yet to meet. Exciting!

  

What have I got left before college?

Saturday - Prom

May 29 -- Last day of school

June 6 -- Grad party (you're all invited)

June 8 -- Graduation

June 24 - July 3 -- Spain

Not much else, but I'm sure things will come up.

Welcome to my mini rollercoaster....

Chapter 1 -- AP Euro
Today was a day in the media center well spent. We were given some time to type one of the four essays that was due today (I typed up the 4th one and my conclusion to the third). The essay most people typed was all about the German army's view on the use of aircraft before, during, and after WWI. There were really only two interesting aspects to my essay, the first being my title, "Planes, the German Army, and Anthony Fokker." In case you didn't read up on Fokker with my Wikipedia link, I'll just say he was an airplane designer and builder during the time this essay was all about. The German army, when WWI started, asked all airplane companies to quit designing new planes and focus on the mass production of what they had. This next line is from my essay, and my teacher loved it (note: I couldn't resist making the comment I did):

"One of those men was Anthony Fokker, who was so determined to advance the aircraft industry that he convinced one of the pioneers of airplane construction to make modifications. Fokker gave the German army a taste of his “Fokk you” attitude by continuing his innovations, and in 1916 he designed a new and improved pursuit plane"


Chapter 2 -- Baseball
Yes, we won the conference today, but it ended up a 3-way tie with Waseca and New Ulm. It's still a conference win, making us the first team from Blue Earth in 40 years and the first Blue Earth Area team to win the conference (we shut out Fairmont 8-0). Our coach is still mad about how we were seeded on Wednesday. It was a tie between us and Maple River after all of the coaches had voted for our sub-section seeding, and so our athletic director called each coach from the other five teams for a tie breaker vote. The final vote came down to St. Peter, who is in our conference and didn't play Maple River this season. The coach voted for Maple River, and dug his own metaphorical grave. We play St. Peter next Thursday in the first round of sub-sections, and we've beat them twice this season.

Now for my rant on what's frustrating me about baseball. Right now, it's not the lack of playing time, but it does involve that. I was invited to the athletic banquet tomorrow night, and it made no sense to me since I didn't play football and I haven't played enough in baseball to legitimately get a varsity letter. Turns out our coach lettered everyone on the team, which kind of irritates me. If he just lettered all of the seniors, even those who don't play much, it'd be a different story, but I don't really feel like taking a varsity letter that doesn't mean anything other than "Hey, congrats! You sat on the bench your junior year of baseball!"


That's all I've got....

[Insert suspenseful music here]

Friday. 4:00. Blue Earth.

We'll be playing Fairmont for our shot at being the first BEA baseball team to win the conference. It's very exciting, but we're going to have to be at our best. We beat Fairmont earlier this season, but they're definitely competitors. They're a strong enough team that our coach is going to seed them #1 in the sub-section tomorrow.

On that note, we're hoping for a high seed tomorrow. First would be great, giving us a first round bye in the sub-sections. If we happen to be seeded second, we expect to play St. Peter, who hasn't been having the greatest season.

And on that note, I have a lot of work to do on some AP Euro essays.

Farewell....

Finally....the week is over....

Last night, we beat the tar out of St. Peter 13-1 in 5 innings. It was great. I finally got my first varsity at-bat, and failed. I struck out, but at least I struck out swinging.

Today we had a mock crash to show us what could happen with drunk driving. It was pretty unnerving, but the freshman were all making jokes and being stupid. Kind of ruined it. If you talk to Sam (Wheat 67), ask her how it felt to die. She got put in the hearse and everything, which was pretty interesting.

Tomorrow is prom, and I'm not so much excited for that as I am to hang out with Mariah all night.

Sunday is the reunion, and I'm very excited for every aspect of it.

Next week is going to be interesting....

SCC!

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneer baseball team is officially ranked first in the SCC! We beat New Ulm tonight 6-4 (it was a huge win at Johnson Park) to take the lead in the conference. Very exciting!

I don't have much else to say, but I wanted to quote Bob's post about TEC because the last line made me very happy. It read, "What hope it gives me to know that the next generation has kids like these." When you think about it, there are so many incredible youth at TEC who will continue to serve and praise God throughout their lives. It's very hard to fathom how much the 3,000 who have gone through TEC so far have impacted the people around them. And so to Bob I say "Amen!"

On a quick side note, I saw a kid at the college fair today who looked just like Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High." It was priceless....

Take me out to the ballgame

Monday

We played NRHEG (yes, it's one word) in New Richland, and Mariah, of course, started trash talking. Lo and behold, the 10-run rule took NRHEG (yes, it's one word) out of the picture. We beat them 17-6 in 5 innings. Our starting pitcher was an underclassman who throws unbelievably fast, they pitched 4 or 5 different pitchers, Dusty homered off of one of their pitchers, and I did baserunning for our catcher. Our record improved to 1-1.

Tuesday
We played St. Peter at home. Last year, the varsity went 0-2 against St. Peter during the season. This game, being our home opener, couldn't be lost. We scrounged up 2 hits (one of them could've been considered a reach on error) and won 2-1 with an RBI double by Trent in the bottom of the 7th. Our coach called us mediocre. It was funny. We're officially 2-1, but we play St. James on Thursday and then Maple River and Blooming Prarie on Saturday. I'll definitely be missing all of those games.

I'm bored. Goodnight.

And of course, here's your Cyanide and Happiness of the night:

Newsflash

I decided to copy the format of Shayla's most recent post (even though it was from February 27) and give you all some good news/bad news. There isn't much news at all, but oh well....

Good news: This weekend was pretty grand. I spent a good evening with Mariah on Saturday since she left on Sunday for Costa Rica. For our Palm Sunday service, I played Jesus. We went through the Procession, Last Supper, and Crucifixion. Word has it some people were teary-eyed when they left, and that never happens in our church. I also realized this weekend that my last post about four-day weeks was wrong. I have 4 consecutive ones because of TEC.

Bad news: The weekend is over, and I have 4 days of school to deal with this week. Then 4 next week. Then 4 the week after that. Plus, next Saturday is the ACT, which I'm not looking forward to. Plus plus, both of my best friends were gone (California and Costa Rica) at the same time. I didn't really have anyone to talk to until Nate came back (thankfully he was online tonight).

Good news: We got our field ready today since our first game is tomorrow. The weather sucked for field work, but at least there isn't water and such all over anymore.

Bad news: The weather doesn't look promising for tomorrow. We might not even have our game.

Good news: The Twins won their home opener tonight! Mauer got a hit on his first at-bat, and Morneau and Hunter hit back-t0-back homeruns on consecutive pitches on their first at-bats. The offense looked pretty good tonight, with the exception of White.

Bad news: For the Orioles. They start their season with 3 games against the Twins, who won 96 games last season, and then (after a day off) 3 against the Yankees, who won 97 games this season. After that, they play 3 against Detroit, a dominant force in the AL Central last season (although they lost their opener to Toronto). I'm not saying this is bad news for me, seeing as I'm not an Orioles fan. I'm just saying they didn't catch much luck to start the season.

Good news: I'm eating cereal.

Bad news: More wisdom teeth are coming in for me, and it's causing me to bite the inside of my cheek a lot.

Good news: I'm about to call Nate so we can call Ben for his birthday! I'm waiting until we call to find some bad news.

Bad news: Nate didn't answer when I called....this could be devastating to the company....our reputation could be ruined. We CAN'T miss calling our #1 client on his birthday.

Worse news: I tired calling again and still no answer....

Horrible news: Nothing from Nate. I might have to make this call alone. It just won't be the same....

OK news: I decided to text because I'm not feeling altogether talkative tonight.

Good news: Death thanked me for the text. He still needs to blog more often. I know for a fact the old man has things to blog about (i.e. Twins game).

Other news: I have no other news. Here's my comic for today....

Four-day weeks

I have three consecutive four day weeks on my schedule. This week is a four-day week because of the end of the quarter, and the next to weeks are because of spring break.

So far, so good this week....kind of....

School's been pretty good. I've been finishing up the last of the AP Euro essays (had 3 to do this week) that are due by Friday (our day off), I felt alright about the AP Euro test we took today, and I've only been late to class once.

Which brings up my first-time experience that occurred yesterday on the way to school. I was running a little late and still had to pick up Tommy on my way to school, so I was going a little fast between his house and the school. I came up over a hill and saw the cop car coming the other way. Yes, I got pulled over. He took my license back to his car, but when he came back he told me he didn't check it at all. Lucky break seeing as he clocked me at about 15 over the speed limit. Talk about lucking out of a hefty ticket and a hefty insurance increase. Looks as if I'll have a new life experience every week at this rate (first flat tire, first time being pulled over....I'm 2 for 2).

Baseball's been just dandy. We were out at the field Monday and Tuesday, but with the rain and such we were stuck inside today. Our coach complimented me on my speed yesterday when I was baserunning, which definitely helped me with my goal to not get my self esteem down this season. He said even if I don't play much I'll definitely be pinch running for our pitchers and catchers a lot. Bueno....

That's all I've got. I should get to writing my last essay now. I'm sure you'd all love to write it for me. It's about whether the Reformation was more like the Middle Ages or the Renaissance. Yes. Tons of fun. Or something. Like that. Yeah. No. Maybe.

I also discovered a strange new online comic this week and started to look through its entire archive. I'll post good ones on here as long as I'm able to find good ones.

Baseball....the sequel....

Ok, so this is actually only my first post about this baseball season, but hey, it's my blog and I title it what I want.

Anyway, the BEA baseball season started today with a meeting at 4:30 and practice at 5:15. I truly dislike indoor practices, but I love the sport too much to complain a whole lot. The one thing I will complain about is how poorly I stayed in shape after I quit football. I was a wreck while we were running today. On the bright side, the worse I felt as I ran the better I felt about how my hitting is looking this year. I'm typically not the best batter, but I started to do better little by little last season. Today, we only hit off of the tees and soft toss, but I felt comfortable and I was hitting a lot of balls. It made me happy.

With that said, I'm utterly exhausted. I need to eat something and get to bed.

Tonight's episode of "The Riches" was pretty good. There's a small twist that I have to discuss with Nate after he watches it tomorrow night.