Daddy's Little Girl!

So I know that this blog post is about a week overdue (as they all seem to be), but I had a paper due this past Friday. Needless to say, I was a little preoccupied. Excuses, excuses...I know.


Anyways! The week BEFORE last week was an AMAZING WEEK!!! Why do you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. MY DAD WAS IN TOWN! Okay, I think everyone reading this knows who my dad is, but in case you don't, this is him...

Dad and I got to spend almost an entire week together hanging out and relaxing! And it was perfect! We didn't really have anything planned, but we didn't need to. Just having him here to spend some time with (whatever we did) was awesome. He came to my practices and watched and got to meet the coaches and some of my teammates. We went down to Laguna Beach one night and ate at BJ's. He liked Laguna and saw it as an opportunity to bust out his brand new camera!

Experimenting with zoom. It actually turned out to be a really cool picture.

The houses we can only dream of living in.

And I couldn't leave there without asking someone to take a picture of us!

The one thing that we did have planned for that weekend was a trip into LA for an American Idol concert! We headed to LA kind of early so we could avoid traffic. So we got to the theater around 4. The theater was in a really cool area so we just hung out there for awhile and checked everything out. 

We ate dinner at a place there called the Yard House and I showed off my new found salad-eating skills while he enjoyed a burger. After dinner we headed into the theater.

The Nokia Theater is absolutely huge! But, thanks to eBay, we found some pretty good seat for really cheap!

And we got to see our favorite idols perform! Dad's favorite is Casey and my favorite is Haley! They even did a duet together! It was awesome! 

It was a great night! American Idol is kind of our thing. We watch it every season no matter if we are together or apart and by the time it gets down to the top 5, we have to pick someone who we think will win. Loser owes the winner a steak supper. Can you guess who owed who a steak supper? Probably because I already told you who our favorites were! Well, you guessed right! I win! So, the last night of dad's vacation, we went to Outback Steakhouse! It was delicious! Afterwards we went to Yogurtland for the second night in a row :) It was the absolute perfect ending to a great week! 

So Dad, I know you're reading this. I want to say "thank you" for coming and visiting me! It was the happiest I've been all summer! I love you! 

Kayla

P.S. Dad got me hooked on the show "Swamp People" while he was here. It is pure entertainment and I'm addicted :)

P.P.S. I know how much Dad loves "The Office" (insert sarcasm here), so here is your clip of the week! This is an episode in which Michael decides to go through the complaints folder. There is an entire box dedicated to Dwight's complaints about Jim. Enjoy!

This...is American Idol!

That was supposed to be in the voice of Ryan Seacrest. Use your imagination :)

So, this isn't really American Idol (even thought that would be super awesome), but it is USA Volleyball and a lot of us think that we would make a pretty good reality show. Anyways, there is only one week left of this training block, and the final individual meetings have started. It feels a lot like the show American Idol when the judges are picking their top 24 contestants. One contestant walks in alone while the others wait in the other room. That contestant meets with the judges and gets a "yes you're in", or a "no, but it's been fun". Then the contestant comes back out to the other contestants and announces what result they got. Well, a few of the girls have had their meetings with our coaches and a few have come out saying that they aren't coming back in the summer, and (I know of) one that has come out and said "Yes! I'm coming back this summer!" Well, if you don't watch American Idol, you can probably imagine that as more and more contestants go into the judges room to discover their fate, the tension builds in the waiting room. Well, the tension is certainly building amongst us. We are all very anxious to meet with the coaches to find out what our future holds. I think we just want to be able to plan out the next stage of our lives. I was talking to one of the guys who is always helping out in practice. And he (Kevin) said that they usually wait until the last minute to make their decisions and tell you guys what's going on, and that can be the frustrating part. Well, yes, it's very frustrating. I just want to know if I'm coming back in the summer or not so I can at least book a flight home or even decide how  I'm getting home. And it would be nice to know what my future holds and if USA Volleyball is a part of that future. In other words, the waiting game really sucks.

Kayla

P.S. I'm in a fiction writing mood, so stay tuned and perhaps I'll post a short story for ya'll :)
P.P.S. Not really sure why I used the term "ya'll". Native Texan, Becky Perry, must be rubbing off on me.

What a Beautiful Day!

So many great things happened today! I don't even know where to start telling you about everything. So, I guess I'll just start from the beginning of the day. Every morning, at 6:50 A.M., a train likes to sound it's little (but really annoyingly loud) choo choo horn, acting as the most horrible alarm ever and waking Kayla up an hour before her alarm is set to go off. I seriously will wake up an hour early and not be able to get back to sleep, and then crawl out of bed an hour later completely pissed off. Well, THE TRAIN DID NOT WAKE ME TODAY!! It made me so happy to wake up to a beautiful country song. So, I woke up with a smile.

Then we had practice from 8:30 (passers went a half an hour early today) -12. It went pretty well. My defense is continuing to improve so I'm very happy about that. After practice, we DIDN'T lift (I needed a day off the weights after two straight lifting days). We went to The White House for lunch. This is a really nice Italian restaurant that allows the USA players, coaches, and staff to eat lunch at everyday for free! And every day it is delicious! In the afternoon we had another passing session from 2:00-3:00 and it was actually pretty fun (maybe because I downed an energy drink right before lunch and I was all kinds of jacked up).

This afternoon, Karch Kiraly text me and said, "You've had a nice 3 days of serve receive-passed 3.27 Tuesday, 3.57 yesterday, 3.46 today. Angles and tracking still getting better-keep it up! It'll be fun to see how  we pass vs. Japan". Wow. Amazing numbers for me and an awesome compliment from the King of Volleyball.

And this text leads me to the fact that we are playing the Japanese Youth National Team on Tuesday and Wednesday. We are even selling tickets and Karch said that we should be getting a pretty decent crowd there. And since we are playing a match, we will need these:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen! I present to you my USA jersey!! A jersey that has the letters "USA" on the front and MY NAME on the back. Isn't it beautiful? I cannot wait to put this on and step onto the court to represent my country. Represent MY COUNTRY! I can even wrap my mind around it. It is so surreal and amazing.

And to end the night, I went with Ellie, Ashley, Cassidy, and Jenna down to the farmers market which takes place every Thursday afternoon/evening literally on the street right next to our apartment. It was relaxing and fun. Now, I'm watching Glee (my favorite TV show) and American Idol (one of my other favorite TV shows) and then bed for a good night's sleep. And tomorrow is Friday! Everything about this day was perfect. Inspiring.

Every day I see my dream.

Kayla

P.S. I still haven't completed my next journal entry for class yet. But, as soon as I do, you'll be the first to read it.