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.

Let the Blogging Commence!

I did it! I am officially a blogger. Thanks pretty much 100% to Jess Yanz who inspired me to join the blogging world. I am still exploring my blog and trying to figure everything out. But, I like journaling a lot, and what a great, fun new way to get my thoughts down! Seeing as how there is probably a grand total of three people who will read this (Jess, Mom, and Dad), I'm using this as a test blog to continue to get acquainted with this new hobby.

However, if there happen to be some newbies reading, I'll give you a mini update on my life. I'm currently living in Anaheim, CA training with the US National Volleyball team. I grew up a midwest girl, so the California lifestyle is completely different. It's as if I took a running leap and cannon balled right out of my comfort zone. But, so far, it seems to be going very well for me. I'm getting used to the area, and adapting fairly well to the level of USA volleyball. I have no idea what the future holds for me. Literally, I'm not sure where I'll be or what I'll be doing in two months. I dream of one day playing in the Olympics, so hopefully USA volleyball continues to show interest in me as an athlete. Anyways, to put it simply, I'm in California "livin' the dream".

It was sunny and 70 today. Pretty sweet dream, huh? :)

Kayla