It's Not Goodbye, It's See You Later

Friday morning at 10 o'clock I was signed out of my room, all of my stuff was already packed, and I was ready to be back in Woodland. I went up to Max's room to see if he was ready. I was the one who woke him up and none of his stuff was packed. Long story short, we didn't leave PLU until 1230. It was raining, hard, so we couldn't put his belongings in the back of the truck so we had to go out and get industrial garbage bags to put all the stuff in so we could put it in the back. It was the morning so Max, Sam, his brother, and I were all not in the best moods already then having to pack for 2 and a half hours on top of that made for a pretty heated morning.

When we finally got on the road we got Taco Bell and that definitely helped turn around the grumpiness. When you're young, Taco Bell solves a lot of problems. Between the 3 of us we spent $25.

As this week went on and people started leaving, it was still hard to believe that my freshman year of college was over. It still doesn't feel real. Saying goodbye to people was hard. The first person I really had to say goodbye to was Craig and that was actually pretty difficult. You go from seeing someone everyday for a year to not being able to see them for a summer. I am going to try to go down to the Salem area and see him and McKenzie before I leave for Nebraska but we will see what ends up happening.

This may sound mean but I'm not a huge fan of saying goodbye. I almost left for school in the fall without saying goodbye to a lot of my friends but ended up having them come over late the last night so we could hang out one last time before I left. So I actually didn't end up saying goodbye to a lot of people at school. It was pretty sad saying goodbye to Luis and Scotty too. It's a little different for them though because I am going up to PLU before I leave for sure. Scotty and Luis have a house they move into next week and people move into the clubhouse (baseball house) in 2 days. Some of my other friends are getting houses too so it's going to be a lot of fun to see all my friends in the dorms in houses. I can't help but think of when I get to move off campus after next year. It is going to be so nice, especially having my own room. I don't even have a room to myself at home anymore, I feel missed.

The first night back, Friday night, I went out with Sam and Ashley and we saw the Saturday Night Live spin off McGruber. That was one of the weirdest movies I've seen in a long time. There were some scenes however that were hilarious. So many people told me it was hilarious, and they were right, they failed to mention how weird the movie was. So if you are going to see this movie, don't go in expecting too much. That is the cardinal rule about going to the theater. Also remember this is a movie review coming from an 18 year old now sophomore in college. Yeah that's right, a sophomore, feels good to say.

Some of the girls from school, the brown house girls, were on their way down to Portland yesterday afternoon. Amber texted me seeing what I was doing because they knew I'm from Woodland and that it's on the way. Every time someone is driving through Woodland they let me know that they said hi for me. Anyways, I told her I would want to do go eat or something but I was stranded, both cars were gone, I literally have $12 to my name right now, and I am a ways off the freeway if they wanted to come get me, so that wasn't going to work. Then she said OK well we are going to Max's for a little bit so we could pick you up and you could go hang out with him. I missed Max so much already, I hadn't seen him in almost a full day so I was all over it. So they dropped me off at Max's and we hung out for a little bit then we met up with them in Portland and just walked around. The sun ended up coming out and it was Memorial Day Weekend so it was pretty fun. We started out people watching on Pioneer Square then walked down on the waterfront and just hung out the whole day. Audra had never been to Portland, or Oregon for that matter so it was time for her first.

While we were out Max and I found out that we already got our futon for next year. His parents were at Costco and called us and told us about this dream futon, it is seriously a dream futon. It was a $400 futon on sale for $200 so they asked if we wanted it, it took us about half a second to say, Hell yeah! We are going to split it, so we are paying $100 each for a futon that will easily be the best in T-Stad next year. It is leather and seriously as comfortable as a couch. It is very likely that I am going to be sleeping on the futon more next year that I am in my own bed. Our room is going to be so ridiculous next year. We have the heaven futon, my sexy carpet, and Max's giant T.V. that we got the HD cables for yesterday. I know it's summer but I'm already excited for next year.

But I need to live in the now. And right now I'm sitting the house, alone, with an open schedule for the next 3 weeks. I love summer.

Nathan...out

Where's Wilbon?

Being free at 2:30 in the afternoon feels as good now as it did during the first day off. Well it sucks that we aren't playing still, we would be in Linfield right now. But I love PTI too much. Just as I started writing this blog it comes on and Wilbon is gone, replaced by Bob Ryan.It is a little upsetting but a minor speed bump in my life right now. I just took my first final and finished another presentation. I have 6 days until my little brother is gonna be here to pick me up, and the baseball end of the year "get together" is tonight. I have to write the last two pages of a history paper and take my last final Wednesday. Life is good.

Well my Mariners pulled out a win last night. Griffey woke up from his slumber and hit a walk off pinch hit single. I'm not sure which depresses me more, that I missed it, or that when I heard that I didn't care. It's only the 4th week in May and I already have given up. Having a baseball team to care about during the summer makes life so much better, and once again, I am going to miss out on that. I did hear a rumor however that may spark some interest again. With Cliff Lee under the last year of his contract, there is some assumption that the Mariners will trade him. Especially seeing that Cliff Lee is going to be asking for a massive contract. "Z" man better get some bats out of Lee. Our offense is embarrassing.

At the rate the mariners are winning games, it looks like I might have to become a twins fan this summer being in Nebraska. I would like to get to Target Field, that would be pretty tight. I would definitely chose the twins over the royals. If I wanted to root for a losing team I would, or wait, I do. I came into this year with far too much optimism. I can't come in thinking about the playoffs. Next year, regardless of what we do in the off season, my mindset is middle of the road. If we start winning then I can "adjust" my goals.

People are starting to pack up their rooms. I've seen a couple cars backed up to T-Stad and people coming down with boxes. I am thinking I am going to try to start packing up a little bit this summer. That is going to be a surreal experience.

Okay random, they are talking about Griffey on PTI, and they are bashing him. The sad part it is true. He is our left handed "power hitter," however he has 2 extra base hits in 94 at bats. His role as a mariner has been reduced to putting butts in the seats.

Alright I am going to try to finish my history paper or take a nap. No I am going to nap. I have all weekend to write that paper. And I could use the rest, might be a long night. Yes everyone, I am being safe, I promise.

Nathan...out

I got a feeling

I don't know what it is but I am pumping these posts out left and right now that summer is around the corner. Probably because it is an excuse for me to talk about summer, or because it is something to pass time so I don't have to just sit and think about summer, or it is simply because I love my blog. I noticed I'm getting pretty close to 1,000 page views, I will probably break that with this post. I feel like that's an achievement.

Last night I gave my culminating presentation for my Sports Psych class and it went well. I'm curious to see what my final grade in that class will be, I'm feeling a solid B. Can't complain about that with my first high level class, it was a 390. So I am done with that class, all the work at least. I have to sit in next Tuesday and listen to presentations but that is actually pretty interesting. One class down.

I had my 8 o'clock history class today, I woke up at 8:02, oops. I feel asleep in Scotty's room watching Friday Night Lights, man I love that movie. Anyway, I got to admin around 8:10 and people from my class were already walking out and were like you better hurry. So I started running but right when I got inside Professor Carp was right there. The only thing we did today was get our take home finals. So he handed me the final and that was that. He was an extremely boring professor but I loved his tardy policy, there was none. Two classes down. Well I still have to do the take home final but I have to answer two essay questions in only 5 pages, that will be easy. I'm thinking about going to the library and getting it done tonight. Scotty wants me to go home with him though, if so, the final can wait.

I have exactly $3.00 left on my lute bucks, just enough to get one load of laundry left so I'm waiting as long as I possibly can to do my last load of laundry. I've been waiting for awhile now, I'm probably getting into the safe zone. Freshman year coming to a close is getting pretty real. In my next post I think I'm going to try to put the highlights of this year, the most memorable moments, that will definitely be fun. At the pace I am pumping these babies out you all shouldn't have to wait long.

Nathan...out

Are we there yet?

Alright well last night was the d3 baseball version of selection Sunday and for the second year in a row, PLU was left on the bubble. out of the 58 teams that made the tournament, we had a better record than 28 teams. It was our weak strength of schedule that ended up being our undoing, along with obviously getting swept the last series of the year to Linfield. Linfield got the #2 spot in the West region. Next year we will be right there again however. We lose our #1 and #2 starting pitchers but we definently have guys to fill those spots. And assuming I play my cards right I will have a contributing role coming out of the bullpen next year, at least thats where I would like to be.

It is now officially dead week and it is getting really hard to stay focused. The sun is out and summer is on the mind. I have my country playlist going on my itunes, just getting ready for Woodland. I got my first sunburn of the year this weekend and baseball. It's turning into a tan now and I got the serious baseball tan so I have the sleeve lines and the line around my neck, awesome. I was supposed to have a presentation today but the class got cancelled so it's getting pushed to Wednesday. I was looking forward to getting that one done and over with, ah well. I have another huge presentation tomorrow night, the culmination project for my Sports Psychology class. I am going to go the library today after PTI, which I get to watch again after a week of practice, to put the final touches on the presentation.

This last week or so is going to be tough. I can only think about packing up and going home, and playing wiffle ball! I need to get back to dominating. Max is talking crap thinking he will be able to hit my slider and my knuck, I'm looking forward to embarrassing him as well as my dad who all of a sudden thinks he is good at wiffle ball. He plays one game without me pitching and thinks he's Albert Pujols. Along with the grey hair though comes memory loss so I guess I can't really blame him.

Man I just want it to be summer, are we there yet?

Nathan...out

Here comes the sun

From right now, I have 12 days, 2 hours, and 6 minutes until I finished my last final. Actually, I only have one real final. In my sports psych class I have that monster project which I am pretty much finished with. I just have to put the finishing touches on it and present it on Tuesday. Professor Hacker let us vote if we wanted a final or not, the final was shot down by the class with a unanimous decision, no surprise there. I just found out on Monday that our final in our history class is going to be take home because Professor Carp said this semester has been tough, which it has. My only legitimate final is going to be communications which is Wednesday, that will be a tough one. In a week I have my PE 100 final but that shouldn't be too bad.

Speaking of history though, that is the class I just got back from. I was up Sunday night until 4:30 writting a history paper. That day I spent 13 hours doing homework, that was fun. I just got that paper back, B+. I'll take that.

We have started practing again. It is complex situation and I'm not even sure I understand it completly. Here is my understanding. Because of what happened last weekend, we moved up to #7 in the region, the top 6 teams advance to regionals. Currently there are 3 teams in our region that are from Texas. Loomy was telling us that it is unlikely that the NCAA is going to want to fly 3 Texas teams out to McMinville, OR so there is a chance that one of those Texas teams gets shipped to another region. If that happens, we would move up to the #6 spot and qualify for the regional tournament.

As far as traveling, I am not positive but I am pretty sure that I would travel with the team. The NCAA allows 24 to be eligible to play, so I would be in uniform just I would be inelligible to pitch. The tournament is next Wednesday through Sunday depending on how well you do. So I have to tell all my professors that there is a chance that I will be gone in the middle of dead week, which is going to be a bummer but I'll take that bullet.

We will find out Sunday at midnight if we advance to regionals or not. My gut feeling, the Lutes are going to be playing in McMinville next week. Knock on wood though.

This would be the part where I talk about my Mariners but there is no need, there is nothing to say. After so much preseason hype, I am about to give up already, there are a bad baseball team. So boring that Grif is sleeping in the clubhouse, during the game.

Craig went home for the weekend. He took some of his stuff home with him. We no longer have the ghetto blasters or the stereo. It was a sad/happy feeling seeing some of the room getting packed up. It's been a hell of a year.

Nathan...out

The world is a small place

PLU is a school with around 3,500 undergraduate students, but somehow every other person ever in history has a connection to the school I call home. Last weekend we went down to Linfield to play for the conference championship and, well we didn't play well. Linfield took all 3 from us which basically eliminated us from getting an at large bid to the regional tournament. It was tough to lose like that of course but my heart went out to all the seniors on the team. The winningest class in PLU baseball history saw their season and careers end in the hands of our rival despite pre-season aspirations of winning the regional tournament and advancing the The College World Series. Sitting there as Linfield dog piled on the mound on Sunday, knowing for the seniors that it was their last baseball game ever, was a very humbling experience. Next year, we are going to dog pile on our mound as they get to look on, that's the plan.

Since that weekend we had our end of the season meeting and I have my individual meeting with coach on Monday. Right after my meeting we have our team bbq and annual golf tournament, the group of freshman I am playing with has talked so much trash and we are not that good. It should be interesting. I think we have honestly scared some the upperclassmen, who are actually decent golfers, that we are going to challenge them. It's gonna be a scramble tournament with 5 people per team, out of us 5 one of us have to hit a good a shot right?

The team actually left for Linfield Friday afternoon before practice and we practiced at West Linn High School. When I heard that I texted my mom right away. I thought it was pretty funny that we were going to be practicing at her old high school. We practiced there because their field was turf, like Linfield's, so coach wanted everyone to be able to take ground balls and try and get accustomed to the turf hops. Even more humorous though was the one of the baseball coaches played baseball at PLU back in his day. He gave us a funny little pep talk before practice. He was getting pretty old and possibly senile, that's what made it funny. Who lives on 7th floor in Tinglestad? A lot of the guys on the team stayed there. I had no idea I was continuing a tradition by getting all of the other sophomore guys to be on 7 next year. The world is a small place.

All this week I have been working on a sports psychology video. I have been finding clips of games that show pitchers showing focus and re-focusing. I put this project off for so long but now that I've got going I really enjoy it. When I'm done I will see if I can put it up on here. I have all the footage and clips that I need, now I get to do the fun stuff, the editing. It's gonna be a legit video once I'm done. Dad or grandpa, I'm sorry, but I can tell you right now you're probably not gonna like the music behind it. There is always the volume control on your computer.

Last night was college night at Safeco so all of lower campus went to the game. They gave us free tickets so I was all over that. For my Marines losing 8-0, it was actually a really fun night. For starters, I had Jeff Neiman on my fantasy team and he, like every other pitcher who has thrown against Seattle this year, threw a gem. But that had nothing to do really with why last night was awesome. There was not a lot of people there last night, at all, so the section ushers didn't care if you walked down into their section. So for the first part of the game I sat like 3 rows up from the left field line, I could almost hear Carl Crawford breathing. Then I moved into right field and sat with some other friends. There was so many PLU people there last night I would just walk around and run into someone else and would hangout with them for awhile. I eventually worked my way back the left field line by the 7th inning. It was mostly the baseball guys so I hung out with them. If you watched the game and can remember, in the bottom of the 7th Chone Figgins flew out to left to end the inning. Carl Crawford looked at our group of people and tossed the ball, guess who caught it? Everyone was so jealous! That was the first game ball I've gotten at a Mariner game, usually it's just a batting practice ball. I didn't let that ball leave my sight, I carried it the rest of the night. It was a sexy catch too. Hands in my face, and it was a lefty one-handed stick, so sick.

That was after I bought nachos because I was starving and Jaron, a sophomore on the team, punched me in the arm and of course the nachos went everywhere after I got 2 chips. Luckily a Safeco employee saw and walked me back to the stand and got me free nachos. So in about 30 minutes I got my nachos replaced and a Carl Crawford ball, it was a good 30 minutes. Still though, that wasn't the best part of the night. Sitting down by the bullpen watching one of Tampa's relievers warm up, I saw a kid walking down the stairs in a Mark Morris sweatshirt. So of course I asked him if he goes to Morris, he says yeah. So I asked him if he knew Colton Carpenter, a Morris senior who I got pretty tight with a couple summers ago, we played summer ball together on Pacific Tech. Right behind the kid in the Morris sweatshirt, there was Carp. The first thing I said was "dude are you serious?" So funny running into him randomly like that. The first thing I did was give him crap because my boys swept Morris in a double header a couple weeks ago, he's the one still playing though so I guess he got the final laugh. He goes dude I heard your playing college ball so I told him about it a little bit. Then he says oh and I heard your throwing ched (hard) now. I have no idea where he heard that but I just said not really but I am throwing harder. So as we got caught up, another kid from our team that summer walked down the stairs. None of us knew that we were at the game, so at the same time, we all are at the same part of Safeco without planning it at all. The kid was Eli Pesio, our catcher. So we caught up a little too then we all went our ways. That was one of the most I don't even know what to call it, surprising maybe, situations ever. The world is a small place.

After the game we were walking on Occidental St. We all were excited about the post game special one of the stands had. Two hot dogs for $5. Max and Spenc got one and I got one too and let Luis get the other one. Of course they guy would just randomly put two hot dogs in Luis's while I was stuck with the solo. Anyways, Luis and I were wearing our PLU sweatshirts and the guy asked us if we went to PLU. The guy said he started out at Linfield and ended up at PLU and graduated from the business program here. And now he is working a hot dog stand outside Safeco? I'm not sure what that really says for the PLU business program. Just proving my point though that every other person ever went to PLU or has some connection to PLU. The world is a small place.

Oh yeah at the baseball meeting I asked coach if there were any spots open to work the football games. The baseball team works at all the home games. He said yeah do you want it? So I said yes of course, alright it's yours. Ok best job interview ever. In case I don't make as much money as I want to this summer, I have a back up plan now.

Max is going home this weekend and was pushing me pretty bad to come down with him. I wanted to go home too so bad. It's Mother's Day weekend and I haven't been home in forever it seems, again. But this was honestly the worst possible weekend for me, I have a monster history paper and a communications paper both due Monday morning and I am going to try to finish the sports psych project this weekend. Once I'm done with that and give the presentation I am done with that class. I am getting so stoked for summer! I'm not sure if I'm more excited for summer or just to be done with school. The weather is getting really nice, sitting in class is getting tougher and tougher. So I have class at 11:15 and 12:30 but after that it's straight the library, again, until tonight. It's probably over the baseball apartments for me tonight.

Being a valet this summer I'm going to need to know how to drive a stick. I learned how to the summer before my senior year but I drove around for a couple hours one day that was all the training I got. So I talked to Ashley and she is way too excited about re-teaching me how to drive a stick. She says just because it is going to be fun, but knowing her, the only reason she is excited for it is so she can laugh at me, ah well, whats new? My last final is in 19 days, May 26th, I seriously just want to take that final now and be done, unfortunately for me that's not possible. Which reminds me, hey dad, are you guys going to be able to come up and help pack up and bring me home? Or what is the plan there?

Alright well there are my amazing thoughts of the week. Back the futon and ESPN, which has been happening way too much since I have free time now that baseball is over. I can't say how nice it has been being able to watch PTI again. I have missed that show so much. Usually I am walking out the door for practice right when it comes on. So mom, dad, adam, and aaron you better get ready to start watching that show again when I get home.

Nathan...out