on the pitch

My life for the last week has been consumed with soccer. Actually, more like the last month since before the World Cup started, but more recently we have been able to get some games together. On Monday, I was thrilled to be able to watch the US world cup game, but my hopes were soon deflated as the US completely flopped against the Czechs. Tuesday was my last day of work for a week because I have this week off. Wednesday I watched and played more soccer. I then hung out with my buddy mark and a few of his friends. We went back to his place and played mario golf(a classic) and played guitar for awhile. I would have to say that it was a pretty good night, because it is always good to hang out with different people. I have learned that different attitudes are definitely a good thing to experience. It is like a breath of fresh air. After that, I went to skyview and went up a little playing 1/2. Shane wanted to play HU PLO 2/4 but I declined because I was pretty sure he had a pretty big advantage. He probably practices a lot more and my hand selection is extremely liberal preflop in PLO. On Thursday we had our first really decent game of soccer and it was quite a workout. I forgot how much running is truly associated with a decent game of football, but was quickly reminded. I haven't played since the end of the last decade, so it's been awhile. Later that night nayhouse and I chilled and I slept over his house. I had a very weird dream, and what I can remember I'd rather not share. Call me ancient but I really believe that dreams are associated with things to come. All in my past, I've had some weird experiences with dreams. The first and only time that I dreamed I was dead was quite weird, and it was made even more weird because only two days later I awoke to find that my aunt joel had died. I've had people tell me that they have dreamed things about me doing things that actually happened. I don't know though. I'll save my views on dreams for another day, as we must be moving on. Friday was a long day. We played soccer for about 2 hours and then i went out with leigh, carly, and bradburn. I think the mini golf game ended in a tie between carly and I, but it was just an enjoyable time. Later that night, I had an interesting conversation with someone. I'd rather not go into specifics, but let's just say that it is good to have poeple in your life to keep you in check. It's good every once in awhile for someone to stand up to you and tell you that you are wrong. Once again, I appreciate the good(or not so much so) conversation. Today, I didn't have to work so I woke up late and watched the ghana game. It was a shocker, but something that was crucial for the USA. The USA game was actually a good one. For the first 20 minutes, the US had control of the game. They were dominating the middle of the pitch and aggresively pressing the Italian defense; something that they hadn't done against the czechs. Then, the Italians struck in a set piece to make it 1-0 Italy. Once again, my hopes were crushed early in the game. However, this time the US was ready. On a US set piece, the Americans were extremely fortunate to get an Italian own goal to tie the game at 1. After Italy had a player ejected for an extremely dirty play, the US was sitting pretty at halftime. Then comes the bad news. The US had two players ejected in two minutes on two terrible red cards. I mean, these were awful calls. Now the US was fighting for dear life to salvage a result. After beasley made that incredible run and put it in but donovan was called for offsides, I realize how bad the officiating was. In the end, we got a draw out of the game, and I'm too tired to type out what would need to happen for us to advance to the next round. After the game, I played a little soccer then went over nayhouses. A bunch of people came over and shot pool, and then some left and it was bro, nayhouse, schleicher, korbel, and myself left to eat pizza and play cards. Nayhouse's jewish luck was incredible. I've never seen someone more blessed than that kid.

More or less, I'm feeling exhausted right now. A lot of my mental exhaustion has to do with a lot of physical wear and tear on my body right now. Most of the time I can only go for about 14 hours in a row, then I need my sleep. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not. I mean, I am still relatively young and my body could need rest to continue growing. During high school, I usually felt this way after a long week of work. It is good to feel this exhaustion because it means that I'm going out and making the most out of every day. I believe Steve Jobs said it best once by saying, "I look in the mirror each day and say to myself, 'If this was the last day of my life, is this what I would want to be doing with my day? And so I ask myself that question every day, and if the answer is yes, well then I have done good.'" I would like to type more, but I have nothing else to say. Oh yeah I do, I love not having to work. Haha. Nuff said.

mh