I Hit A Fan

For those of you who truly know me, you know that sometimes competitiveness can get the best of me. I would like to believe that over the years I have gotten better... I now how the ability to loose games and still have a pretty normal evening afterward. I haven't pushed a teammate down during a game in over 5 years. This is all progress.

Tonight, I had to win. My co-rec volleyball team was playing another team I like to refer to as the titans. They are HUGE. Literally, they can jump a good foot or two over the net and jump serve like nobodies business. We have played them a number of times and have never been able to come out on top, though we did come close one time in April.

When I walked in and saw we were playing them again, I was out for blood. (Little did I know whose blood was going to be spilt.)

We split the first two games, so it was go hard or go home third game. I was position at left front, Jeff was next to me in middle. We were in our groove, things were looking good. Then an off speed shot came over the net and Greg shanked it over my head, heading off the court to my left. I had to get it. I sprinted off in the direction it was going, confident in my ability to make the play.

Then I saw it.

The big industrial-sized fan that often is our saving grace in an un-air conditioned gym amidst a hot and humid Virginia summer. Now it was the enemy. The only thing in the way of me getting to the ball.

I had a quick thought of sanity. "If you keep going, you will hit the fan. It will hurt."

But then the competitive drive pushed all sanity aside. "You can totally still get that," it said. "Keep running straight ahead."

So I did.

What happened next was both beautiful and bloody. I jumped out with one last reaching swing and made contact with the ball, sending it back in the direction of the court.

And then pain.

Full body contact with the fan.

The sound of the metal crashing against the floor. Me landing on top with my hands still stretched out over my head.

Thought 1: "Can I pretend like this didn't happen and jump back on the court like a normal, sane person."

Thought 2: "Did we get it over?"

Somehow I was back on the court and the ball was back on our side of the net. I don't remember what happened the rest of the play, but eventually the whistle was blown and the ball was dead on the other side.

Blood was running down my leg, people were running over to get the fan upright again. Teammates were congratulating/questioning the heroics.

Was it worth it you ask?

We lost 2-1.

Next time, oh mighty titans, we will prevail!

A Picture a Day

So about a month ago I decided to take on Project365, a way to document your life by taking a picture a day. In pondering how to help myself keep up with both this goal and my blogging goal, I thought that I would document the pictures I take on this blog. That I way I would have both the pictures and descriptions of what is going on. Plus, if I know I am going to post them publicly, I may try a little more to make the pictures more artistic/meaningful/representative of my life.

So for starters, here is yesterday's picture.


Yesterday marked the beginning of the Charlottesville Craft Club on Lexington. Emily, pictured here, founded the group and hopefully we will have many more great crafting nights.

The OJ Debate

So we all know the the Orange Juices with higher amounts of pulp are supremely better for drinking, but which of all the great ones it truly the best?

Well... three brave testers sought out on that mission today. To decide once and for all which OJ rules them all.

Listen to the results from two of our testers:

I, however, will have to disagree with Nathan and say that the Tropicana: Lots of Pulp was my favorite, with the Harris Teeter Original a close second. My usually favorite, Simply Orange, did not hold up quite as well as I hoped/thought it would and came in forth place.

Everyone agrees though, nothing is better than a big glass of OJ on a hot summer's day.

Starting Over

With some encouraging from friends, I am beginning again in my quest to blog.

Here goes nothing...