Goals.

Once upon a time, I turned into an owl.

No, but seriously, I sleep all day. All the time. It's bad. My body misses the sun. My joints are starting to ache from constant disuse.

And let's not even talk about how well I'm eating.

I know I should do better. I mean, I bought a bike. The weather is beautiful. I could literally go lay out in the sun and start getting my tan back. (Ooooh. That thought might have just... Wow. I'm so shallow.) I have two Quidditch tournaments coming up in the next month, both of which I would like to NOT be a complete disappointment in. But now that I'm on the subject of Quidditch tournaments, I obviously can't talk about anything else.

Quidditch tournament #1 - The Spring Champions Series.
"This April 28th, the Boston Cannons, one of the top Major League Lacrosse teams, will be co-hosting a quidditch tournament with Emerson College Quidditch, Boston University Quidditch, and the IQA, at the Harvard sports complex as part of the Cannons’ season opener against Rochester.

The tournament will take the top 10 available teams from around the country and put them in one of the highest levels of competition outside of the World Cup.

The schedule will incorporate round robin play followed by bracket play and ending in a final battle between the top two teams. Round robin will run from 9 a.m. – 1:30 p.m at an external location ; athletes will then be transported to an Astroturf soccer stadium for single-elimination bracket play and championships from 3 PM – 6 PM.

Finally, the night will be capped off by admission to the Lacrosse game in Harvard’s famous football stadium along with 10,000 other Cannons fans." (Das what the IQA had to say about it.)

Aaaaaaaand guess who's going? Yup, that's right, me and Chris! And Redwood, because, well, she's freaking awesome, and loves to go to all the Quidditch things.

Not only are we going to Boston, my favorite city in the entire US, we're also going to NEW YORK CITY. Yes, that's right, The City That Never Sleeps. There is pretty much one reason for this, and that is that plane tickets to NYC + bus tickets to Boston < plane tickets to Boston. By like a hundred bucks. Yeah, I'm serious. So we're going to New York, staying with Queensland (yeah, I'm back to nicknames, they're fun, okay!) for two nights, then going to BOSTON, playing Quidditch for a whole day, watching my first-ever lacrosse game (I should probably get around to learning the rules...) and then heading back to NY for a few hours before we fly home, at which point Chris and Redwood's finals week will start, and my (hopefully) first week of 4 10s will begin. (Because I'm working at Outdoors Unlimited all summer, I'd reeeeeally like to just work all day MTWTh and have three-day weekends ALL THE TIME. If this doesn't work out, I'm probably going to get a second job somewhere in Salt Lake.)

BUT we are also going to Boston to play Quidditch against some of the greatest teams in the entire country.

Yikes.

Now, I'm not even trying to be self-deprecating here. I'm pretty aware that my skills at Quidditch leave a lot to be desired. I don't last very long, even at sea level. A minute into the game and I'm already like, "Fudge monkey, I need to stop running, I'm bushed." So, obviously, number one skill to improve - stamina. Poop. If you know me, you know that I'm like a dwarf. I'm a natural sprinter, very dangerous over short distances. But long distances? Ugh. Even a mile is long to me. Y-UCK. That's part of why I got a bike though. For me, biking isn't as terrible as running. It doesn't hurt my (admittedly bad) knees, it's more fun, and you can go a LOT farther on a lot less 'gas.' Plus, I dunno, going farther makes biking more of a destination thing, and I'm not gonna lie to you, joy in the journey does not apply to working out. Unless I'm climbing... or skiing... but that's not working out!

Another thing, which has plagued me forevvvvvvver, is that I am a terrible catch. I can throw surprisingly accurately, and hard, but when that ball's coming my way... bad, bad things happen. That's why I'm always QB in Jewell family beach football. But I'm serious. I'm ALWAYS QB. In the words of Sheggings, "That's how we win." (Except, when I do that, we actually do win... ouuuuuccchhhh.) Anyway. That's number two skill to improve. Okay that's actually probably number one skill to improve. If I can't catch, it doesn't matter how long I do or don't last.

Yet another thing, which... ugh... I hate thinking about. I am absolutely terrified of getting hurt. It goes back to the whole "an injury ruined my collegiate track career" thing. Chris, who's never experienced this feeling, doesn't get it. It also is largely related to the fact that, despite my love of sleeping, I am a pretty active person. I ski. I climb. I bike. I kayak. I backpack. I swim. If I got broken in any way, I would probably have to give up most of those things, albeit temporarily. It would still be really awful for me. Those things keep me going. Without them, I would be lost. And very, very upset with Quidditch/the jerkface who dislocated my shoulder/knee/hip/eyeball.

Because of this terror, I'm a little... shall we say... hesitant to initiate physical contact. I'm quick on my feet. I can backpedal faster than any girl I've ever met. And don't try to shake me. I can change directions FAST. But push me around, especially if you're bigger than me? I usually am pretty easy to flick out of the way, unless I'm bigger than you. Which, in the case of my manned coverage against ASU, was all the time. I was sincerely disappointed in their female chaser lineup. None of them pushed me around, although Palin certainly tried. Ha. (Funny story, Palin is going to Spring Champions as well... she's my competition for starting girl chaser. I have an unfortunately nagging suspicion that since she's a 'captain' she'll get it regardless of how much better I may be than her by the time the tournament rolls around. Not that that will happen, but, ya know, stranger things HAVE happened.)

So my weakness is big guys. I try to push them around, but I end up looking stupid. And usually failing. I hate it. I hate how much confidence I lack. At the Snow Cup, the few good hits I laid on chasers were like, the best feeling in the world. I played that last match with reckless abandon, and I ROCKED IT. All I have to do is find that reckless abandon again, and I'm golden!

...if only it were that easy.

My last problem, that I can think of right now anyways, is my inability to pick to quaffle up off the ground with one hand. Seriously, every time the quaffle is on the ground, I have to like... squeeze my broom tightly between my legs and grab it with both hands. I can do that fast, and I'm scrappy when it comes down to it, but... yeah...

So. Goals. (And don't worry, I'll tell you about Quidditch tournament number two... tomorrow. It's 6 am.)
1. Increase hand-eye coordination. Catch the quaffle a lot. Alone, if necessary.
2. Increase stamina. Longer bikes, running if necessary, swimming.
3. Drink more milk. (hahahahaha)
4. Build more muscle to be harder to push around.
5. Learn to tackle better.
6. Mental toughness. (Remember that book I talked about on my rant about Jake Heaps?)

Anyway. It's... early. And... I'm tired.