Dammit March, go away!!!

In contrast to the 13 hrs each way we traveled this weekend,  today we traveled 6 minutes each way to play in-town "rival" D3 Husson University. The weather is continuing to tease us, 30 and windy yesterday, and a big Nor'Easter headed towards us Friday, Maine is fighting like heck to hold on to winter and not let April bring us nice weather. Maine has made me realize March may be the longest, nastiest month of the year (Except for Erin's Birthday :) ) But today was decent, 45 nice sun and only mild wind. Game was a sloooowwww moving 7-0 win, very uneventful. Packed up the vans to head back north, but its a long 3 mile journey that one should not embark on with an empty stomach. So being the responsible adults we are, we took the kids to get ice cream before we headed back, the deliciousness that is Gifford's. My mint chocolate chip cone was amazing. The kids seemed happy too, although there were comments about how it was good, but not as good as Jeremiah's. Yes he haunts us still.

So an off day tomorrow, then headed down to Beantown for a series against Boston University. Hopefully just in time to run right into the Nor'Easter. Onward we go.....

Sweep

Well we finished up our weekend with another W, sweeping UMBC to start conference play 3-0. The weather played nice and we were able to get the game in, so quick change and headed back on the bus for the 13hr drive. The drive back was uneventful, just long. Arrived on campus at 245 this morning.

Should be a quick turnaround, have a game this Wednesday against D3 Husson University here in Bangor and then off to Boston against the dreaded Boston University Bulldogs this weekend. Have a great week everyone!

2-0

First day of conference play down, and we are 2-0. The girls played really well today, first game our pitcher kicked some butt with a 2 hit, no walk, 1 run game (only run was a solo homerun). Second game they came from behind twice to win in the 7th inning. Apparently some of the UMBC girls had friended a few of our girls on facebook and started talking trash, so they were pretty motivated and happy to win. We wrap the series up today with 1 game at 11. It may get pushed back since the field collects frost at night and develops mucky spots apparently. So were sitting in the hotel waiting for word as to when were leaving.

All in all a great day for the girls, but otherwise uneventful. 1 more game then back on the bus and headed back to the great white north.

Yay!! A Bus!!!

After a 2 week hiatus, we are back in the saddle. Our bus (this doesn't happen often) left campus at 10am this morning, and we arrived in Baltimore at 11:30pm. Although 13 hrs on a bus sounds not so much fun, it was actually a good trip. First of all, WE don't have to drive, double bonus. We watched some movies, The Social Network (I was disappointed), Despicable Me and I Love You Man. I didnt watch the last one, I decided to start my new book, John Krakauer's book about Pat Tillman "Where Men Win Glory" So far pretty interesting. In addition to movies and books, one of our players is quite a gifted musician, she sang and played her guitar for a while, it was awesome. These are the things that you cant do in a van......
So as we finally reach our destination, unpack the bus, wearily make our way to the room, I am so excited to take my contacts out and put on my pajama pants and crawl into bed. I unzip my duffel bag to discover that in my impeccable attention to detail, I have forgotten to pack any pants or shorts besides the khakis I am wearing and a 2nd pair of khakis........ FAIL.  So my choices limited to sleeping with no pants on or in the pants I've been wearing all day, you can all guess that I went with option B. On the sleeping comfort scale I'd say they rank far lower than pajama pants, but much more comfortable than jeans and WAYYYY better than no pants at all.
So me and my best friend Khaki pants are in for the long haul this weekend, off we go for our first conference weekend against the UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) Retrievers. Doubler header today, and a single game tomorrow.

"you're f@$*ing with me right?"

That phrase was uttered by every member of the team including myself yesterday, when we heard that due to field conditions our doubleheader at Wagner tomorrow was cancelled, and we aren't having any practice this weekend. It is that amazing of news that no one believed it and thought that they were being tricked. But no, somehow the softball gods have smiled upon us and an amazing gift has been bestowed upon us, 2 days off!!!!!! So as I write this, I'm sitting at home, in sweatpants, drinking coffee, LOVING that I'm not standing in our indoor facility for a 3 hour practice, then loading vans up for a 9 hour drive to Staten Island, NY. 

So off I go to enjoy an amazing 2 whole days off, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEASON!!! Write that down because it will NEVER happen again in my career.

Have a great weekend everyone!! :)

Back to reality

After 18 days and 21 games, our spring break trip officially came to an end as we arrived onto campus at 4:07am this morning. Although I'm going to miss coffee on the beach, the sun and my skin not freezing off the minute I step outside, pretty much everyone on the trip is in agreement that its time to go home.

Daylight savings, that evil wench, made our wake-up an hour earlier, so we left the hotel at 7am, but we all knew it was a lie and was really 6.....  then headed to the field and split a doubleheader. It was 2pm and our flight wasn't until 8 so we had an overabundance of downtime. Grabbed lunch at Dickey's, a bbq chain the team discovered in Texas last year, then packed up and headed to the airport. Said a tearful (literally, it smelled that bad) goodbye to the VomVan, and then discovered that our 8pm flight had been delayed until 930. After 5 eye gougingly boring hours sitting in RDU International Airport, we arrived in Boston. Picked up, you guessed it, 12 passenger vans that thankfully smelled like new car, not vomit and drove the 3.5 hours up to Orono. I grabbed a quick hour nap on a treatment table, then started a new work week.

All in all a good trip. No trips to the ER, no vomiting, no serious injuries and no fist fights. I dont think you can ask for anything better after cramming 24 women into very cramped quarters for 18 days.

So now a few days of practice before heading to Staten Island, NY this weekend for a double header vs Wagner.

0, P, [ Just because I can :)

I'm typing this on a BRANDNEW keyboard courtesy of the Apple Genuises and I'm beyond pumped. It is sooooo nice to not have to lug around an external keyboard to use my laptop anymore. As anyone whos talked to me about computers knows, I am a Mac devotee and have vowed to never own anything but, and yesterday solidified that stance. Thursday I took my MacBook to the Apple store and explained how suddenly a few months ago my 0, P, [ and enter keys stopped working. The guy told me that it was due to a wiring failure in that particular part of the keyboard, and since my computer was 4+ yrs old, it was out of warranty. BUT since the bottom corner where my hand rests when i use the track pad had a small crack in it, I would get a whole new keyboard and faceplate FREE, even though that crack had nothing to do with the issue. I got an email the next day saying it was ready, I walked in gave them my name, they brought my computer back out to me, checked me out on their fancy little iphones and I was on my way 10 minutes later. I cannot stress to anyone enough how awesome owning a Mac is, when its time for a new comp consider switching, its 100% worth the price difference. Ok enough gushing about Mac......

First game of the NC State tournament did not go well at all, bad bad bad loss. But on a happier note, my news shoes are a hit. I've had at least a dozen random strangers tell me they like them, including the 80 year old woman who was cleaning the bathroom at the stadium. And they make my legs look ohhhh so tan (I was the only person in the entire state of NC wearing shorts yesterday because it was 50 degrees) Perhaps my new kick ass shoes will bring us a win tomorrow.

Pea Wiggle, downtime and rain delays

As much as a refer to my athletes as overgrown toddlers, they always keep me entertained, and in some cases educated. Today at breakfast, we were sitting around talking nonsense as most of their conversations are, and one of them whipped out a term I had never heard before. Tuna Pea Wiggle. Having grown up with a "there is no refusing to try any food" rule with a parent who eats pickled pigs feet, chicken gizzards, and bone marrow on toast......., and countless hours watching the Food Network, hearing a food dish I didn't recognize doesn't happen very often, so today I learned something. Apparently its a common dish for northern New England and is basically tuna casserole sauce over saltines. I think I'm actually going to try and make it once we get home, A: to see how its tastes and B: being able to say "I'm making wiggle". 
After breakfast we had several hours of down time since our game got moved back to 7pm due to rain, so I walked over to the mall to drop my laptop off to get fixed, keeping my fingers crossed that the Mac Geniuses can allow me to use the P, 0 and enter keys again. I also splurged and got 2 new pairs of tennis shoes, verrrrry exciting.
Then we loaded up into the vomit van, and drove the 1.5 hours to East Carolina in the pouring rain..... It continued to rain, and rain, and rain for the next 3 hours, which caused the game to be moved back to 815.  It was like Christmas come early for the girls when the other team had pizzas delivered to help pass the time waiting in the dugouts. The simple things in life I guess. FINALLY the game started, and it went super quick, the girls played well but unfortunately we lost 2-0.
Tomorrow were off to NC State, so hopefully it brings some wins and a fully functional laptop :)

Slowly inching our way back north......

Well our time in Florida came to an end, and we are now in Raleigh, NC until Sunday when we fly back to the frozen tundra of reality called Maine in March...... We packed up and left our kick ass beach houses yesterday morning at 4am, and amazingly everyone was packed and ready to go on time. A few quick flights later, and we arrived at the legit prettiest airport terminal I have ever seen, and I've been to my fair share of airports. If you ever have a chance to fly through Raleigh-Durham, do it. Its amazing. We picked up some more giant vans (mine smells like vomit and air freshener that they tried to cover up the vomit smell), and off we went to our hotel. Its right across the street from a really nice mall, so I took advantage and got some new work pants from Old Navy, and today I'm going to go get my computer fixed at the Apple store. A few months ago the Enter, P, 0, [ keys stopped working, so I'm currently typing on a seperate USB keyboard. Why have you not gotten this fixed sooner you ask? Because I live in Maine and the closest Apple store is 2.5 hours away.

Game at 5pm at East Carolina today, unless it gets rained out, then who knows what well do with the rest of our day. Go BlackBears

Ooooooh a pretty shell!!!

So apologies on no post yesterday, we got up at 430am to drive 2 hours away for a double header so I was otherwise occupied. The past 2 days have been good, we've won 3-4 games so that does wonders for morale. The only bloggable event of today was one of discovery. So after we got back to the houses, it was just in time to see the sunset, so a few of us walked down to the beach where per usual it was gorgeous. One of the freshman decided to hang out a little longer looking for shells. She came back with 2 unknown shells in her hand, unknowingly both still inhabited by pretty perturbed live creatures....... 1 was just a huge mussel and the other we werent really sure about, so we placed it on the kitchen counter. Burgundy decided to pick it up to see what it would do and then the craziest spiky, tongue appendage came out and started flailing around. She in a moment of calmness I would not have had given what she was holding in her hand, put it on the kitchen counter. The tongue spike then manages amongst our screams to flip itself over. After several more rounds of screaming, and picking it up to see if it will do it again, we of course Googled it to discover that she had brought us home our very own Florida Fighting Conch. Sadly the video I took with my phone is the wrong format to share, but of course I found some on YouTube. Just substitute the beach for our kitchen counter and add screaming in the background and its pretty well captured the moment. Flipping and Holy S&*T.  For sure a moment none of us will ever forget, and will cause us to see those pretty seashells a little differently....... Tomorrow is our last scheduled off day of the trip, so heres to some more sun (hopefully less sunburns) and enjoying the fact that were not in Maine :)

Off Day

I woke up yesterday, and very quietly made my way down stairs since it was 630 and all the college kids werent anywhere close to awake, made my way across the street to grab some coffee and a donut, and then sat down to enjoy this beautiful view to start my day. Aside from almost being jumped by the bird gang that wanted my donut, it was awesome. I spent an hour just chilling, did some reading and enjoying the morning beach calm. Then I headed back to the house, to discover that quite a few of the girls were up, and they wanted to go to the beach, so I headed back. We saw a sand sculpture and were inspired to create this.

I must admit, I had a heck of a lot of fun, I cant remember the last time I built something in the sand. Our creative energy stimulated for the day (and my bladder of course acting like the needy whiny child that it is) we headed back to the house again. After some food, beach adventure #3 began, but was short lived. The wind had picked up, and I cant tell if the red on my face and fronts of my legs is sunburn or sandblast.  So back to the house to do exciting things, laundry and grade finals. It was quiet because everyone was out exploring and enjoying the sun. The excitement for the day was me attempting how to play rummy, and failing miserably. But I think I know the rules now, so watch out next time....... All in all a great day off.

Headed to play Western Michigan today for a doubleheader, lets see if we can turn things around!! If you're interested, follow the games on Twitter