It's Over...

I don’t know how to take this right now.  I just finished up my last season of volleyball, ever.  We had a great season this year, even being ranked 5^th for most of the season, but the ending just wasn’t what we had expected.  The national tournament was held in Houston, TX this year, and we came in as the 8^th overall seed.  The first day went as planned, and went very well for all of us, as we won al three of our matches in pool play.  It was the second day where we got really screwed.  We lost to a Duke team that we shouldn’t have lost to, and we beat a MSU-Mankato team pretty handily.  It was a three-team power-pool and the top two teams go on to the Gold bracket, while the 3^rd place team goes to silver.  All three teams had an identical 1-1 record, so it goes to sets won, and all matches were won in two sets, so it went to point differential.  Duke ended up getting first place, and going into the gold bracket.  But, you cannot get kicked out of gold by point differential, so there was a one set playoff with MSU-Mankato that we had to play.  A team that we beat 25-16, 25-17 just about 20 minutes before, we now had to play another set to get into gold.  We end up losing 24-26 and have to go to silver. 

We go on to have no trouble, wining the silver bracket.  We finished the tournament with a record of 8-1 (maybe 8-1 ½), and that means we got 17^th place.  Tell me how that works.  At least I got to end my volleyball career with a win, even though it wasn’t the win I was hoping for, it was a win nonetheless.  There is just a mixed bag of emotions going through my head right now.  I really wish it wasn’t going to be over.

-GP

Ohhh... Reading....

Mmk.  I'm not going to lie, I do not like reading books.  But, these books seem a little interesting to me.  But, at the same time, the men's volleyball team that I'm on with Joe, just lost in terrible fashion to a team that we crush 9 times out of 10.  So, needless to say, I'm not really wanting to do this blog.  It may be a little shorter and with less information, and maybe a little less "real" than my normal posts.

I'm going to have to agree with what JP said about The New Influencers.  I don't think blogs are necessarily to be written in professional quality.  At least not the types of blogs that we have been writing.  I think blogging is just for you and your friends to keep up with whats going on with the people you are close with.  I treat these blogs as a general conversation, and I don't like to hide anything and I try to keep it as real as possible.  And I know that reading blogs about the books that we are reading isn't exactly what everyone likes to do, so I keep it real.  (That was pretty redundant)
*edit*
Well, I suppose these blogs are supposed to be a little more professional quality than I have been treating them.  I guess it's time to start treating them that way.  I do think that there are some kinds of blogs that are professional blogs.  The blogs that people can go read to get a good sense of news or other fun stories.  I know there are professional blogs run by Yahoo! that have fun stories in the sports world each day.  I enjoy reading those blogs.

Anyway, like I said, I'm not in a good mood per say, and I don't want to continue this blog.  This was a really bad one, and I will have better blogs this week.  I don't want to promise, because we have another big tourney next weekend, but I'll try.

-GP

Oooowwwwww.... Ouch Ouch Ouch

Those of you who are closer to me, and there are a few of you in class, you realize the pain I've been in the past few days.  I don't like to search for sympathy from people, but I'm hurting.

Wednesday, my back died.  I was at conditioning for practice, and running straight, when my back gave out.  Naturally, having been in sports my whole life, I thought it was just a tweak and that it would be fine in an hour or so.  Boy, was I wrong.

Later that evening, I decided to take my first trip to the Health Center.  The doctor, of course, has no idea what's wrong with me.  So, she sends me to Lima Memorial to get x-rays, (just to rule out the worst).  And those come up negative.  I went to practice Thursday night, and just watch.
On Friday, I was due for a follow up with the Health Center.  I went in at 12:30 and the guy I'm supposed to see, isn't in until 1:00, so, I leave.  Meanwhile, my mother of course is freaking out.  She calls me and decides to make a doctor's appointment for 2:30 back home.  Home is 90 minutes away!  So, I left right away.
Once I get home, I immediately see the doctor.  He thinks it's something along the lines of the tendons in my lumbar shifting or something along those lines of mumbo jumbo that I don't really understand.  So, he tells me not to play.  But, because he knows I'm an athlete, and he knows I will play anyway, he prescribes me some steroids.

So, this afternoon we had a volleyball tournament.  Luckily for me, the steroids seemed to work pretty well.  We ended up winning both the matches, and win the conference regular season.  I played, not 100%, but it was enough to help the team to the wins.  Got a big day tomorrow, hopefully the steroids last through the day.  We'll see...

-GP