New York

After an appearance I was supposed to do got cancelled, I made an impulse decision to go visit Kelly in New York. I texted Kelly at about 1am Saturday night and after confirming that her air mattress would be vacant, I told her I'd take the 6am bus the next morning. By the time I showered, charged my cameras, arranged for my truck to get picked up and packed it was 3am. So, I took a two hour nap and headed to the bus station at 5:30am. I stopped for gas and coffee and then hit every single red light down Hamilton St. I laughed to myself at the idea of jumping out to get cash at the ATM because the lights were SO long. But remembering there was an ATM at the bus station, I continued on. I arrived at 5:53am to see that the office was not open. I knew I didn't have enough cash for even a one-way ticket but I checked anyway. $17, crap. The bus driver suggested I go down Hamilton Street, "there are a few banks with ATMs." Right, the two I just passed. He kindly added that he could not wait due to his busy schedule. I booked it back down Hamilton! Red light. Not one single car or pedestrian, but THREE red lights. Not to mention, I had to drive around because it's a 1-way. I seriously considered running the red lights but then I figured a cop would appear out of nowhere and give me a ticket. So instead, I waited rather impatiently at each light, pulled over at the ATM and flew out of the car. I got my money and returned to the bus station at 6:03am. No bus. I drove towards Bethlehem (the next stop) thinking maybe I could catch it. It would have been nice if I had an iPhone perhaps to look up directions. I google-texted the address on my go-phone and stopped at a gas station to ask where the street was. A very nice many with a crazy eye did his best to direct me but I don't think he had a clue. I drove around for 15 minutes and then decided to just head back for the 7:15am bus.

I arrived in the city at 9:55am where I met Kelly and her friend Mo at Rockefeller Center. Mo was visiting from Missouri for the weekend. We went to Top of the Rock to get a view of the skyline. It was sort of cloudy but still an awesome view! To complete Mo's visit, we had falafel sandwiches for lunch and treats from the amazing pastry shop. Kelly and I took naps before heading out for $1 pizza at 2 Bros. After that Kelly, Danni and I joined the rest of New York for a Sunday night movie. After squeezing by the people in my aisle twice I apologized for being the worst person ever. Seriously, WHO is supposed to fit through there without stepping on someone or ending up in their lap when your butt hits the seat in front of you? Good times. The movie (The Hangover) was good, at least. I laughed the entire time!

After the movie Kelly and I went to 16 Handles for frozen yogurt. It was just like Yo Yum Yum! :)

This morning Kelly is at class and I'm sitting in my favorite NYC coffee shop, Think Coffee. She said there's a movie being filmed outside so I'm gonna go check it out!

Arena Football

On Saturday Clare, Margo, Tory, Alex, Kiko, Jess, Dede, Savannah and I went to an arena football game in Reading, PA. Our athletic trainer's (Julie's) boyfriend (Chris) plays for the Reading Express. Chris is absolutely the biggest athlete I've ever met. The games are quick but entertaining because they score so much. We all had a good time! After the game we went down on to field to say hello to Chris and take pictures.

Chicago

For our first series of the 2009 season, we traveled to Elgin, IL to take on the Chicago Bandits. I think we'd all agree that we would have liked to come home with more wins but we definitely had some positive efforts. The highlights to me are Dede's homerun off of Finch and overall our defense looked good! As a pitcher, it's definitely tough when every hitter you face in this league deserves respect at the plate. I'd say the main difference between college and the NPF is exactly that. In college each team you face has just a few of those hitters. In this league it's every single athlete. As it should be. It's not a pitcher's game. You might shut a team down one night and then next time you face them they're all over you. It's important to play each game in the present rather than worrying about the past. "Be here now," as our new mental coach Jen Croneberger says. And that's exactly what we're going to do in our series starting this week vs. Chicago. Be. Here. Now. Let's go Force!!!

We did have some fun(as you can see from the picture at the top):

I'd like to thank all my visitors at the Chicago series (in order of appearance):

Tina Kramos, Kendra DeRosa, Kelly Byrne, Alison Mayer, Melissa Slama, Katie Thoennes, Katie Guilbault, Timothy Jacobs, April Schermann, Brittany Mason, Erin Huddleston, Ariel Yeager, Katie Scroggins, Shelbi Frye, Lauren Cumbess, Sarah Waibel, Alex Pflieger, Ali Cleinmark, Jenn Murray, Lindsay Pickering, Jen Garcia and Racheal Heagney. :)

Phillies Game

On Saturday we held a clinic at FDR park in Philadelphia. The clinic was set-up by the Phillies to celebrate the entire sport of softball. Over 200 kids attended the clinic to receive instruction on infield, outfield, hitting, baserunning and pitching. The Force players and coaching staff were split up into groups for instruction. Jess, Sam and I were in charge of pitching. We had two groups: 12 and under which was about 25 kids and then 13 and up which was 10 kids. At the end of the clinic we had a short Q&A and then we headed over to CitiBank Park to shower and change for the Phillies game. We chowed down on some sandwiches and headed out to the stadium to watch BP in Ashburn Alley. A few of us had our gloves with us so Margo, Jamie and Dede went down to center field to try to catch a ball. The Phillies threw balls to fans occasionally and Jami got one! We were all SO excited. Shortly after that Margo got one, followed by Dede, Lauren and Auriel. We were thinking maybe they knew who we were since we all had our jerseys on. Regardless, they were throwing them RIGHT to us!

At 6:00pm we walked down to parade around the warning track for the "softball celebration." We led the parade of a few thousand softball players. Jess may or may not have tripped on Savannah's foot and fallen in left field. Hahaha!

After the lap, we walked back out to the 3rd baseline where each of us were announced with our name on the jumbo-tron! Margo and Tory threw out the first pitch and then we were split up into two groups for autographs. We signed stuff for 3 innings and then headed to our seats. Savannah and I got to do a skit in the 5th inning with the Phanatic. The idea was that the Phanatic doesn't think any girl can strike him out. So he brought out 3 different bats and I struck him out! I was so nervous I'd over-throw a pitch but I didn't. Sav was concerned about squatting in her jeans, haha.

In the 7th inning, the entire team did the cupid shuffle on the 1st base dugout. Such a fun day!

Exhibition Game & Ten Stone

Last Friday we scrimmaged the CIty 6 All-Stars at Drexel University in Philadelphia. It started raining right after the game started so we were delayed about an hour in the middle of the 1st inning. We didn't let the rain get us down though; we played hacky sack, zoo, pssh, and cowboy/indian/bear in the dugout. After the delay ended, we played 5 innings to beat the All-Stars 2-1.

After the game we did autographs and some of the players stayed for a clinic. The rest of us headed back to our hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. One of our owners, Annie, invited all of us to Ten Stone, her favorite bar/restaurant in Philly. The food and the company was amazing! Not to mention, Ten! :)

Meet The Box

I'm sure you don't all read my "tweets" so I'm going to embellish on a recent one. As I said below, I have been training like crazy for this season. One of the workouts I have been doing is box jumps. I used to think running stairs was challenging, until I met the box. The box I jump on is 30" high and it isn't exactly new to me, but I have never experienced it at such a high volume. In the past, I would do sets of 5-8 jumps in some sort of circuit. So usually the most I'd do in a day is 32 jumps total. The workout I did on Wednesday was a total of 400 jumps. Let me tell you it is HARD! If you get lazy, you will pay! The box is not soft and it doesn't accept anything but 100% effort every time. The alternative is falling on your face when you miss! 9 days until spring training!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Pre-Spring Training-Training

Now that there are only however many days that countdown says ------------> left until spring training, I have been working out quite a bit. I've always enjoyed working out but lately I've seriously appreciated it, for it has become a "break" in my day. As of right now, I have about 4 days to finish my thesis in order to complete my master's degree (not including the defense). So needless to say, I've spent many hours writing, re-writing, researching, formatting, etc. My breaks from working on my thesis, who I've named Terry, include working out and coaching when my regular work schedule allows it. Everything else has become a luxury... like sleeping and hanging out with friends. I have had a few breaks, but only when I'm waiting to receive feedback from a member of my committee. Aka, I finish writing a section and then wait for my committee to tear it apart and tell me to re-write it. Terry is pretty needy and very particular about how he's written. I thought maybe if I named him that we would get along better. It's not working out too well. Anyway, enough about him, this is supposed to be about working out. I guess I just wanted to share with everyone that I am getting pretty excited to play this season! It keeps me motivated when I'm working out and pushes me through every lunge, box jump and stair sprint I have to do. 37 days!!!!!! :)

Sho Time!

Hey everyone! Less than two months til Spring Training! Woooo hoo!! I'm getting very excited, as you can see. For those of you who are familiar with the Force, I wanted to make a shout out for my former teammate Sharonda McDonald aka Sho. Sho is playing overseas in Italy and she started a blog. She'll be updating with her adventures over there so you should check out her blog!

Click Here. :)

Re-united with my Roo!

My Roo, better known to you all as Margo Pruis, is my roommate and philly force teammate! Anyone who has seen Margo and I together would probably tell you that we act like ridiculous 10 year olds. They're just jealous. It's been six long months since we've seen each other but last weekend we were re-united! We currently live about 8 hours apart but we managed to meet up in Kentucky for a day! Our activities included: starbucks coffee and chatting, 2 minute massages and a photo shoot in the mall, pizza hut and more chatting, and heeling in walmart. It was a short visit but it was so good to see my roo! Here's a short video of Margo heeling:

She's new at the sport but has so much potential! Stay tuned for more heeling adventures this summer.

Merry Christmas!

Hey Force family and softball fans! Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas :) We have many Birk traditions but one of them is making Christmas cookies. Here's one I made :)

Off-Season

The end of our season seems like a blur. Three months become pictures on my computer that I look back at now, wishing it were still summer time. I sure do miss Allentown and my summer family, the Force. It's weird how you grow so close to people but once you're separated it's like they hardly exist. I try keeping in touch with teammates but it just isn't the same as living in a dorm with all of them. Sho and I continued colored headband day for a few weeks... but the past few we've forgotten :( It just makes me sad; only getting to do what I love for 3 months out of the year while the other 9 are spent in the real world.
The dreaded nine month off-season is here. Well, it's been here since September but I've been so busy I haven't had time to blog about it. Sure, there's still a little time for fun like Tuesday Night Movie Nights, but for the most part it's all work and class. My "real life" right now consists of grad school, working as a grad assistant, writing a thesis, and training for the summer. I'm a grad assistant for Graphic Communications, which was my undergrad major and I'm getting my masters degree in Project Management. This semester I only attend one class but I also have an independent study and thesis credit hours. I work 20 hours a week and train five days a week. I'm pretty much always have something I should be working on. It's rather stressful but I am looking forward to next semester when I'll be helping coach softball for Normal West High School again. Not to mention, it will be closer to summer :) For now, the only taste of softball I get is the Alumni game we had a few weeks ago and slow-pitch one night a week, which I like to consider a separate sport entirely. I’ll be counting down the days until summer (6 months, 3 weeks, 5 days) and until then you can check out my other blog about my “real life” here.