VOLLEYBALL: After a 6-year hiatus, I'm back on the court

Wait, I thought this post was about volleyball. Why the picture of basketball players? Good question, imaginary reader. I'll address that in a sec.

First things first--I've joined a league! I really missed playing volleyball and thought it might be fun to get involved again. But shortly after signing up, I was hit with a wave of anxiety. I haven't played since 2002, I had no idea what it would be like, whether I would be the worst person on the team, or whether I would even remember how to play. Another concern was that only two people out of our six knew each other. The rest of us were complete strangers! How do you just throw 6 people together and tell them to play without even a practice first?

Well, at least I didn't embarrass myself. :) I did okay, and my passing, while not perfect, wasn't too bad. I'm definitely not comfortable in the back row, so I tried to be really aggressive when receiving serve (not letting anything drop in front of me), and I didn't shank any serves either, so yay for me! Digging I knew would just be a matter of luck, so I just did the best I could and even managed to get under a few. Hitting was another story. The setter and I didn't connect very well, which I expected, since we only had 5-minute hitting line before the game. Three or four sets in a hitting line is just not enough to get your timing down after 6 years. And my blocking was terrible. I was way off the net and my footwork was non-existent. But since few of our OHs were even setting the block, I was really just running along the net like a madwoman. :)

Our opponents were the "Socias," a team that has played together for years, according to the people in the know, and they masked their game play by speaking nothing but Spanish. Sneaky! Although I could understand a little, like when I heard them yell "Primera!" Hey, I know that! That means first! Wait a minute, that means we sent the ball over on the first hit--we sent it over on one! Not good! Not good! We towered over them, but they were extremely scrappy and picked up almost everything we sent their way. We ended up losing, but we showed a marked improvement from the first game to the second (after adjusting our rotation slightly), so that was something to be proud of.

Now about that picture. One difficult thing about the game is that, um, I COULDN'T FREAKING SEE. Silly me thought that I could just go in there and play like I did in college, like I did 6 years ago, like I did when I had perfect vision. Sure, I thought about the fact that I got glasses in 2003 and wear them almost regularly now and don't even watch TV without them, but I figured that since I'm not blind without my glasses, I could see the court well enough without them, right? Wrong. It's amazing I even made contact with the ball last night. I just sort of ran towards it, hoping I wouldn't miscalculate the distance and either have the ball hit my face or fall short. I was terrified of whiffing it.

So what are my options? I guess I could wear my glasses, but I'm worried about getting hit in the face, having the lenses shatter and injuring my eyes (not an unfounded fear, either). Or I could get contacts, but that would involve a bigger life change than I'm willing to make, especially for one hour every Tuesday. Plus the fact that they could still pop out in a game. Definitely seen that happen before. I could have surgery, which I intend to do one day, but my eyes are still changing, so it's too early says my doc. What's a girl to do? She looks to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, that's what she does! She gets GOGGLES! Personally, I think the goggles will be a good look for me. Let's be honest. I've always been a little nerdy, so we're not charting new territory here. And I think there might be the added bonus of intimidation. If you saw a person staring at you across the net through her goggles, you might be a little freaked out. That's what I'm counting on. By the way, great article on the topic here.

Lest you think I'm joking, I ordered them today. Now, I didn't go old school. The frames I picked out look more like the sunglasses they wear on the beach circuit, but the dark frames & clear lenses will still look ridiculous. I did splurge for progressives, so at least I can also use them as sunglasses and will be great for running outside in the summer. Check back for pics of me in my new eyewear!

My home bakery

Last weekend I spent several hours in the kitchen baking cookies. I tried a couple new recipes, with mixed results. The first cookie, the poppyseed cookie (Mohn Kichel) was more like a scone than a cookie. In fact, it would be an excellent companion for afternoon tea. But as a cookie it just doesn't cut it. Here are some pictures of toasting the poppy seeds and then rolling out the dough (it is a quite beautiful dough).

The second cookie was my first attempt at making Hamantaschen. These are little pocket cookies that can be filled with just about anything. I made the dough according to the recipe, and it ended up being very spongy. I would try to roll it out, and it would spring back into place. I certainly got a workout trying to tame that beast. I tried to follow the recipe for the filling, but I didn't like the result at all, so I just substituted chocolate chips or chopped dried fruit. I didn't have any jam or preserves in the apartment, or I would have used those.

Next time I think I'll use my mom's sugar/butter cookie recipe for the dough, since I know it tastes delicious and is very easy to roll out. Here are the results side-by-side:

MY FIRST RACE!!!!!

See that woman in black waving her right hand? I was flying by at such a fast pace that even my husband couldn't get a clear picture of me with the camera. I guess we need a faster shutter speed. :)

Today I ran in my very first race EVAH. It was the St. Patrick's Day 8k here in downtown D.C., and I was one of the 5,000+ runners. Apparently most people don't choose the 5-mile distance for their first race, because I got some very strange looks from people when their question of, "Oh, is it a 3k or a 5k?" was answered in the negative on both counts. My response? Go big or go home.

It was an incredibly cold windy morning, and we had all lost sleep from the night before due to the time change. My running buddies and I shivered in the freezing cold before the race--it was miserable. But once we got going, we warmed up right away. Those first two miles were the easiest of my life. I had been told by several "veteran" runners that the race day adrenaline would give me a boost, but I had no idea that it would be that much. In fact, the race was pretty pleasant for the most part. The last mile was difficult because we had a headwind, it was slightly uphill, and there was one more turn right before the finish line which was hard mentally (it's difficult to see the finish line and then have to turn and run down a block and back before actually making it to that finish line), but overall I felt great for most of the race.

I was hoping for a 12:30/mile pace, but I actually bested that by more than a minute! Before the race, I had only dreamed of finishing under an hour, but my final time was 56:53. Woo-hoo! What next? Maybe this?

Travelzoo can save you $$$$.

I just saved my in-laws $1,000 on their upcoming vacation. That's not a typo. How did I manage such a feat? The answer is a little website called Travelzoo. They list tons of deals on hotels, flights, vacations, etc., all in one convenient location, so you don't have to scour the Internet for deals. I subscribe to their weekly emails, and it just so happened that I saw a 50% off deal for the Atlantis Resort. Knowing that my in-laws had made travel arrangements to go to Atlantis for my mother-in-law's 60th birthday in June, I forwarded them this info in the hopes that they could get the discounted rate.

My father-in-law called last night. They were able to cancel their earlier reservations and make new ones with the 50% Travelzoo discount, saving them almost $1,000. I've never heard him so giddy. Needless to say, I will be in their good graces for quite a while after this. :)

Someone is wrong on the Internet!

Don't you ever find yourself as the arbiter of right and wrong in the virtual world?

Bathroom of my dreams

I found the perfect bathroom, but it's located in Pennsylvania. I don't know who designed the "spa" rooms at the Bedford Springs Resort, but they obviously know me, because they had my style down to a T. Everything from the colors (pale blue, cream, white, and dark wood) to the floors, the walls, and the fixtures was just beautiful. I wanted to cut the bathroom into little pieces, take it home with me, and reassemble it. I could have just sat in that bathroom the whole weekend, it was that amazing.

Welcome to waffleweave

Another blog. Does this world really need another blog? In my search to find available names to register, I came across many blogs which started off strong only to be abruptly abandoned. Last post November 2004? Well, you gave it a good three months. Hopefully that sad fate will not befall this noble, selfless act of contributing my scholarship to that endless archive of information, the Internet.