So the law building wasn't even open today. I didn't check on the rest of campus. I just assumed that the rec would probably have followed suit, and if not, it's still ridiculously cold.
So another exercise in being a hermit ensues. And then comics like these appear:
http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3088#comic
A bittersweet win/win indeed!
But then there's this one:
http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3063#comic
But then there's this one:
http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3080#comic
What a productive day I've had! My motto for the next two weeks is: if there's something to be distracted by. embrace it! I figure I'll have plenty of time to be depressed and lonely as my infinite break progresses, so today I watched a couple movies, watched the bowl game, which was actually pretty good, and read a bunch of old emails. The last activity was a continuation of my time sink yesterday: relationship investigation!
(With special guest star Sarah Schreitmueller!) We had a really good talk that covered an amazing number of topics, but a decent chunk of it revolved around where things have gone wrong for us in the past with our significant others (and by us I mostly mean me, since I was obviously overly dramatic.) Anyway, it was awesome. Now that she's back to full-time class though, I'm afraid I will need other sources of boredom displacement.
Weather update: currently -16 F, predicted to hit -20 tonight. I have a ride set up for handball league tomorrow (see mom, I CAN be responsible), though that deprives me of my opportunity to try out my new fenders. I am actually really happy to have those. The streets here are not cleared well at all (a fact my dad got to attest to after giving me a lift up here on Saturday. So I'm spared needing to brave the elements until Thursday (unless I feel motivated to work out before then). And low and behold, the forecast for Thursday is 20 F (positive even!). I am really happy with how my return to the MN crowd went on Saturday too! My dad and I have entered a doubles tournament together for later this month, so part of the way I convinced him to drive me back Saturday morning was with the opportunity to play with the local crowd at the Y. We got in a bunch of doubles games against a good selection of ability levels. We easily defeated a B doubles team to start out with. I wasn't quite as ball-hoggy (that's a term now) in that one, as we could rely on their errors a bit. Then we played against a solid A doubles team, and I got a lot more competitive. After a rocky start (down 3-13), we came back to take it 21-19, I think. I'm not sure my dad had ever really played at that sort of pace, so it was really good to get some experience in. We had gone to the gym in Ames the day before to talk about strategy, serves, and what our goals/roles were going to be, and I think putting them into practice so soon after talking about them really drove some points home. The major one is that a decent shot in Ames, Iowa is not the same thing as a decent shot in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There are really only three options: defense (pushing the opponents back past the dotted line on the court), kill shots (so they can't even touch it), or aggressive shots right at them/past them (so they can't step into their shot or collect their balance). Anything else enables them to hit one of those three shots types, and then we are back on defense, off balance, or scored on.
After our comeback we played against the best two other players there. That combination is probably as close to open doubles as we will need to face in the tournament (unless local people surprise us out of the woodwork, which is a very real possibility in this area). It was exhausting. Of course, it didn't have to be. I suppose I could have let my dad hit a ball occasionally... At one point they left a ball hovering off the right wall and I called it, but my dad stepped in and took it (as is usual in Ames; if you have the shot, you take it). Well, he left it a couple inches off the ground, and they just stepped up and rolled it out. It's just a whole different level up here when everyone has good shots. But I was really happy we had the experience, because we figured out a couple of minor things (when he stands on my side to serve we need a plan to space out into the court again, otherwise we just get passed or hit at, for example), and we actually emerged victorious. And this was on one of the harder glass walls I've experienced playing on, a trial we will not have to deal with for the tournament, since the St. Anthony Athletic Club has courts very similar to those in Ames. We won the second game against those two guys too. I had to call it quits due to a developing bone bruise, sore shoulder, and loosening toenail (all of which have since made themselves scarce), but we were at the Y for three or four hours, so it was a good chunk of time anyway.
I think we are both excited. I know I'm looking forward to it, and my dad must be too, since he has decided to push my mom's officiating paperwork through so she can take his place at a bike race and he can come up for another doubles tournament in February! That one even has a father/son division. (It turns out I won't even have to be put up for temporary adoption to play!)
Hopefully league goes smoothly tomorrow. The last time my team played this team I didn't even play and we only lost one match, so I'm not very worried, but I'm going to take it seriously because I have collegiate nationals coming up in February (about a week after the father/son doubles tournament), and I have been really focusing on a couple of aspects that I feel have been improving recently. The main one is my serve. I've been adding a bunch of spin to it, to the point where people have been flat out whiffing when they swing on occasion due to the movement I can get off the first bounce. I especially practiced my serve to the left, which I feel is an area of mine which will most benefit from improvement. I have always just relied on my opponent's left hand being weak, and never focused on perfecting my serve because it usually results in a poor return anyway, but after jumping into a higher level, I feel like I need a weapon to go to on that side as well. The other thing I've been working on is my left hand mechanics. When I was watching the video from my Wisconsin tournament I noticed I still don't step into my left side shots the same as my right. And I also know that my wrist motion is a bit lacking, as is my ability to keep my eye on the ball when I'm trying to hit it as hard as I can. See, when I want to hit it harder, I tend (as most players do) to try and put my whole body into the shot, which results in my head being turned at the moment of impact. But that's not actually necessary. Most of the power in a handball shot should be derived from the wrist and the hips, so just increased focus and paying attention to fundamentals is much more beneficial. It does require a lot of willpower, though, since I can get away with not executing at a high level for the most part. So for the next month I will be trying to develop good habits.
If you don't like handball, this post probably took a turn for the uninteresting. However, I haven't had much else to really focus on or apply myself to in the absence of school. I told myself I could take these weeks to write something seriously, but I can't seem to find the willpower to make that happen. And to bring the post full-circle, here's a relevant comic:
http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3071#comic
(blogging is sort of like a halfway point between practicing writing and not writing at all, I suppose?)
In case you're wondering about the sudden abundance of SMBC comics, the app I use to look at the comics on my phone (usually during brief downtimes (right before class, on the toilet, waiting for a court, between workouts, etc.), has been crashing for the last couple months and not been letting me click the little red button, so I'm catching myself up again. This means it's possible some of these are duplicates, but hey, they're still relevant.
Thanks for reading!
