just a little patience

Said take it slow, it'll work itself out fine
All we need is just a little patience
-Guns and Roses

The last few days of my life have been fast paced and I'm starting to get a feel for what life will continue to be for the next two years now. Starting Thursday, I haven't gotten more than six hours of sleep per night, yet for whatever reason I wake up in the morning and feel great. Thursday was crazy. I got up around 8 to finish up some paperwork that took me until about 10:30. I left around 10:55 to meet kevin down at Whitehall courts for our tennis game. The plan at the start of the day was to play a grueling five sets of tennis if necessary. The sun was hot as you can expect in June, and it just kept on beating down on our bodies throughout the day. The match finished around 2:15 with me winning 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. I can only imagine how exhausted I would have been if it would have taken all five sets. I came home, briefly ate lunch, then went outside to wash the car. Although I was tired from tennis, it was one of those days where there wasn't a cloud in the sky and you simply couldn't waste it. I shot some hoops and then went down to play street hockey. My hockey game has deteriorated from when I used to play almost everyday in middle and high school, but the exercise is great and seeing everyone from the neighborhood is a good time. I finally made my way home around 5:15 and could do nothing but pass out on the couch from the long hours of sun exposure. I was awoken about 30 minutes later by my dad asking if I wanted to walk a quick round of 9 holes after dinner. Naturally, no matter how tired I am, I can't turn down golf. It was an enjoyable round and we finished just in time to get in the last hole before the sun went down.

I awoke Friday morning very awkwardly. Even though I didn't find my way to bed until about 3:30 the night before, I was up at 9 feeling fully rested. During the day, I just lounged and got things done around the house before we got poured on starting around 5. About 8 I went to pick up sarah and po, and them, myself, bradburn, tom, and rossi convened at my house. We watched movies and then went outside to play basketball(or on my neighbors playground, if your name is sarah or po). The best part of it was that it was raining and it felt so good to play as it was beating down. Eventually, it stopped, nayhouse showed up, and we chatted for awhile on my back porch before leaving around 11:15 to take home sarah and po. It was really good to see them again(I see sarah a lot, but I hadn't seen po since last summer minus one time), but all in all good to have everyone back together. I can't discuss my favorite part of the night, but seeing scotty klein and getting the ice cream at EnP was definitely a fun time. I took nayhouse and bradburn home around 1 and just crashed as soon as I got to my place.

Saturday morning I awoke at something like 7:30 and realized that I had some time on my hands, so I decided to do my last stock report. Eventually, I'll post them somewhere, but for now I'm fine with them just being on my hard drive. I took drew to his game at leland at 2:30 and watched his team narrowly squeak out a win against a decent TJ team. My brother came in to pitch the 6th and 7th and almost pulled a Salomon Torres, but he was able to get a big strikeout with two on and two out to allow his team to win 8-7. We briefly went home, but had to be back at the field at 6:30 for another game. Around game time, my parents met us down there, and we were all there for the joyous occassion of seeing my brother's team beat up and down the diamond by a much better South Park team. However, after the game, a bunch of us went to McCoy's for karaoke night. It was a really fun time, even though that my awful rendition of "Piano Man" was one of the few songs sang that night. At about 10:30, Nayhouse came and got me, and we went to wendy's and back to his house to shoot some pool and take a look at the new pool. It looks primed for what may be the last summer of pool basketball, a tradition that was started many years ago by him and I. To say that I am ready for the summer to truly begin is a definite understatement.

Today, I woke again after a not so great night of sleep to my brother shouting for me to come downstairs. I thought it would be important, but it was actually just him telling me that the Federer Nadal match had started. The match didn't live up to hype as Federer(minus the second set) was completely overwhelmed by the much better clay player, Nadal. After the conclusion of that, I met up with Kevin to play some tennis again. This time, we chose to play three sets. The first was hard fought, going to me 7-5. The next two I won 6-0, 6-0 as kevin admitted he played the worst match of his life after the first set. I came home, did laundry, and played some basketball. The rest of the night was highly uneventful, except for this program on the History Channel that talked about the 10 biggest threats to the future of humanity. It was really weird because you would think that they would be things that we couldn't control, but the top three were nuclear war, disease, and climate change; all three which we are able to do something about. The best quote from the program was something along the lines of "What if we we spent trillions of dollars and were able to finally find out how to deflect an asteriod yet at the same time we couldn't figure out how to stop us from destroying ourselves?" Pretty amazing when you think about it.

Back to the title now, as it is a line from the Guns N Roses song "Patience". Even though I heard a mind numbing rendition done of it by some random guy Saturday night, it is one of those great songs that you have never heard of. The basic message of the song is that no matter what facet of life you are having a problem in, sometimes the best thing to do is to let it fix itself after you've explored all the other options. Of course, Guns N Roses find the perfect words to coincide with the meaning of the song, which I think sets it above other songs that have similar meanings. All in all, just a little tidbit I thought I should share.

Finally, poem time. I tried to find something that would coorespond to the overall message of this post, so here it goes. Enjoy it.

Grandmother's Song
By: Nellie Wong

Grandmothers sing their song
Blinded by the suns' rays
Grandchildren for whome they long
For pomelo-golden days

Blinded by the suns' rays
Gold bracelets, opal rings
For pomelo-golden days
Tiny fingers, ancient things

Gold bracelets, opal rings
Sprinkled with Peking dust
Tiny fingers, ancient things
So young they'll never rust

Sprinkled with Peking dust
To dance in fields of mud
So young they'll never rus
Proud as if of royal blood

To dance in fields of mud
Or peel shrimp for pennies a day
Proud as if of royal blood
Coins and jade to put away

Or peel shrimp for pennies a day
Seaweed washes up the shore
Coins and jade to put away
A camphor chest is home no more

Seaweed washes up the shore
Bound feet struggle to loosen free
A camphor chest is home no more
A foreign tongue is learned at three

Bound feet struggle to loosen free
Grandchildren for whom they long
A foreign tongue is learned at three
Grandmothers sing their song



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