Water Polo Coaching

This past few months I got the opportunity to coach the Girls' Water Polo team at Terra Nova HS. I took the position knowing that I would be basically exhausted every day and would have to come to grips with certain fears/feelings I associate with high school. At least it wasn't my own old high school... then I think I would've had even worse anxiety about it.

Now when I was in high school... Whenever I heard about Terra Nova, they were a force to be reckoned with. So of course, my first thoughts were, "Oh crap... I've never coached water polo before and I bet they have a crazy good record." But apparently, that was only the football team because my coworker (who informed me of the position and whose kids go there) gave me some history about the program. When I officially got hired, I looked more into their history to see if what my coworker said was accurate (as she can be pretty dramatic). And.... She was right. Their record was pretty abysmal and they hadn't had a JV team since 2009. They had 16 girls last year but this year my turnout was 24. Definitely enough for two teams... and most of them were pretty young.

So, my nerves were calmed and I started my first speech. They were super receptive! I told them how I played in high school and played for a second in college. They could not stop jabbering about how excited they were about having a coach who actually played. It made me wonder who had been coaching them for the past few years. I told them my huge thing was making sure that people stay positive and that even though we have JV and Varsity, that we are one big team and we support each other. I emphasized this because I remembered how much I loved the camaraderie I had in my high school team... and how much it helped me through feeling pretty excluded from people who I thought I had more in common with (the Asian girls).

My Varsity girls ended up in 5th place but with twice more wins than last year and my JV girls ended up in 2nd place! I could not have been prouder of the girls... but what they don't know is how much they helped me during those short three months. I haven't felt that fulfilled in so long. They filled a void that I've been feeling for so long.

I hope that I can come back next year and do it again.

A dream is a wish your heart makes... and mine came true!

Yes. Yes. It's true. I just quoted Cinderella. Why? Well first of all because it's a freaking great movie (notice how I did not qualify it as a good cartoon movie. It's a good movie period) but also because I have remembered that lyric since I first saw it on VHS when I was a wee lass. A small part of me has always wanted to be famous. Doesn't matter how (okay well for something good not for being an eejit nor evil) but yeah. There was a period of time where I wanted to be an actress then that quickly faded because I have a terrible memory and get really nervous around good looking people, male or female. Then I wanted to be a musician, but that quickly faded because I suck at making music. Then I wanted to produce music, but that faded because my conscious got a better hold of me and said, "Really? You're going to waste your God given talents and do that?" Which isn't entirely true but yeah.

As you can see, music is a huge part of my life. I've grown up around music, thanks to my father, and have a firm base in the oldies (50's and 60's music) as well as funk (thanks to my sister), started taking piano lessons at age 5 and then violin at 9 or 10 (I can't remember when I made the switch because my brain has blocked out the painful memories), and was in choir in high school. I worked for Capitol Records in undergrad (starting out as a street teamer and also I cheated on them and street teamed for Epitaph as well) and loved every second of it.

Another weird fact about me? (And I actually don't know the reasoning behind this) I love award shows. (I promise this is going somewhere.) I don't have as much time to watch them now. But before, man, I used to plan my weekends around them! Or I would record them and watch later. Something about people being raw I guess? Again, no idea why but that is the case. Put this fact and the paragraph before this together and you get the fact that the Grammy Awards are basically my favorite awards show.

So why these random tidbits about me now? Well yesterday I received a phone call during chemistry lecture but I wasn't able to pick up (for obvious reasons). They left a number but I saw the number calling so I googled it. It was Capitol Records! Immediately I assumed they wanted me to do something in San Francisco (or somewhere else in the Bay Area... some really awesome shows are coming up) so I didn't think much about it. Until I remembered that they left a voice message. I listened to it and what was it? A congratulatory call about me and a friend GOING TO THE GRAMMY AWARDS! (yes that required all caps).

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew I had chemistry lab in a couple hours but SCREW IT. I called my sister, then my mom (to see if she'd freak out and forbid me to go which she didn't to my surprise), then my best friend Serina. The talk with Serina was pretty hilarious. It was almost as if she was angry. Oh I should clarify, that Serina is my most musically inclined friend. Not just a fan like me, but a true to the word, in every sense of the word, musician. She plays multiple instruments, has a phenomenal voice, has perfect pitch, and beat boxes (haha yes I had to throw that in there).  The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey dood guess what my big news is. (I had left a message earlier telling her to call ASAP and that I had big news).
Her: I honestly have no idea.
Me: I just won tickets to the Grammy Awards.
Her: What the fu.....?
Me: YEAH DOOD.
Her: Wait, explain.
Me: (I told her the whole story)
Her: What the fuck?
Me: I KNOW BUDDY! So.... wanna come with?
Her: FUCK YEAH.

Okay. So usually I wouldn't post expletives on but it was just TOO funny. I was laughing pretty hard. Also, I haven't really heard her drop the F-bomb that many times in a span of like 2 minutes so it was pretty funny. But you can see why this news is of great magnitude for the both of us. Both of the dreams that our hearts wished (completely independently of each other) came true.

I have another blogspot entitled "Yeah, I win stuff" at the address http://iwinstuff.blogspot.com/ which will more than likely be the primary recap of this night. So I encourage you, all 2 of you who read this, to go there after the Grammy's (probably Wednesday-ish) to see what my experience was like. Only if you really want to though. Haha.