Northwestern University Athletics
Erin and Kelly: THE DYER BLOG
3/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 18, 2009
Blog Entry #9
March 9, 2009
This week was a much longer week of being home. Our games were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday which meant we were able to stay in Evanston one more day. One more day in Evanston meant another day of practice! Coming off of a weekend full of cancelations and sitting around, we were a little sluggish in our first few days of practice. I think these days are really important for our team to learn from. Individually, we learned to work through physical and mental tiredness, but more importantly, we learned how to work together as a team to fight through those moments in order to get our work done. At the end of practice on Thursday our coaches threw us an ice cream party that I'm pretty sure Kelly already talked about. I just thought I'd throw it out there again because it was that AWESOME! Good work coaches :)
I also heard that Kelly mentioned our glove and bat names. I would just like to say that I actually have a few good reasons for naming my bat Grandma...Kelly! First of all, my bat is old school. Almost everyone on the team uses our newer issued bats, while I am still using the older one. I sort of have a soft spot for it. Basically, I cannot let go of the old thing because it has been so good to me. It's old and dirty but it still works so I love it! So, that's pretty much why I call it Grandma.
So this week we were going to Oklahoma City. We had a connecting flight through St. Louis which is never a good thing for me. Two flights means two take offs which equals bad news for me, and even worse news for Kelly. Have I mentioned that I need Kelly to sit next to me on every flight?? She has a tendency to keep me calm and help me through those plane rides. However, this week was another story. I'm pretty sure she was busy with homework and just did not want to deal with my antics. It got especially bad during the second flight from St. Louis to OKC. When I say bad flight I mean a seriously bad flight. This time I literally thought I was going to die, no lie. It was one of those shut off the engine, fall backwards kind of things....no good. Enough about planes, this weekend was by far, one of my favorites on and off the field.
Our first night in OKC we had some food ordered in to the hotel and went on a mission to find vending machines for some pop. The first machine I tried decided to eat my $1.50....and isn't that the WORST!! You're so helpless. I mean, you can't go ask someone to help you because you technically have no proof that you just put money in the machine. Also, the last thing I want to have to do is beg the concierge for my $1.50 back! So after the first machine failed me, I went on to the other machine that Nicole Pauly and Adrienne Monka had some success with. I bought my sister a pop first and then we all pulled some more money together to be able to get me one. As my luck would have it, the pop literally came half way out and just stopped. It was one of those moments where I wanted to scream NOOOOO!!!! Luckily, I had two of the strongest people on my team with me because they were able to rock the machine back and forth until the pop fell out! It was awesome. There were high-fives involved and some first pumps thrown for our victory against my nemesis that was the vending machine!
This same night, my room mate Monka and I were surprised by some late-night visitors in the form of Monka's Mom and sister!!! She had no idea they were coming, and I'm pretty sure they were even pretty sneaky about it. I would just like to say that it was a wonderful surprise and I had secretly wished my mom had just walked through the door too! But...Mrs. Monka did not let me down. The very next day she surprised me with another whole NEW bag of those Circus Peanuts I was telling you about!!!! It was brilliant! I learned two things: one, if I talk about the things I enjoy, my loyal blog readers will bring those things to me in the near future. And second, that Mrs. Monka is one of the greatest mom's we have on our team! I did not get to give you a hug, but I owe you one next week! Promise! On that note, Kelly would like you to know that she loves Twix bars as well as Cheeto Puffs.
Staying on the Monka family theme I have going here....I would like to tell the world that Adrienne Monka is the best hitter I've ever seen in my entire life -- every time she gets up to the plate, I have complete confidence that she is going to hit the crap out of the ball and get on base. I love that. Also, she is a wonderful roommate, and we had a great time this weekend watching some quality movies like Bring it On and Pearl Harbor.
So I guess I'll get to what the weekend was really about and that is our games. We played Tennessee and Oklahoma twice this weekend at the ASA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in OKC, where the Women's College World Series is held. Now that I'm old and I've been around here for a while, it was kind of strange pulling up to the stadium for this particular tournament. It definitely had a different feel to it. I remember when I was a freshman and our bus pulled up through the back entrance and the field was in the distance all lit up. It was one of the coolest, most accomplished feelings I've ever had during my softball career. Just to be in the tournament, playing for a national championship, was a total dream come true. Then my sophomore year, I remember almost crying while I watched our freshmen's faces light up with that same excitement I had felt the year before. I missed out in that experience last year, and I am really looking forward to that special moment come this June!
Our weekend turned out to be very successful as we went 3-1 vs. two opponents, Tennessee and Oklahoma. Both teams are ranked high, and it felt good to take a few wins back home with us. Big thanks to all the families that traveled with us to OKC, we had a ton of purple in the stands which always makes us feel great! Our goal is to get you all back into those stands come June!!
Alright 'Cats, the team and I have finals for the next two weeks and will probably be super busy studying. That is exactly what I really need to get to! Hope your week is wonderful, talk to you soon!
Live the dream,
-little guy
