Calvin's Ketchup

I'm a bad, bad, bad blogger.... I'll admit it. I let my bog go stale for way too long and for all of those that check in to catch up (hey... ketchp!) on my life, I apologize for the drought of updates. As it turns out, working a full time job, trying to be a good husband and father, producing a documentary film, training for a marathon AND maintaining an active blog, is just a bit too much... and so my blogging has suffered. So here's a quick catchup on my various activities over the last month:

AT THE OFFICE:
It's been an insane month of stress as we work to get our new dealer network up and running in time for our deadline next month. Combine that with some serious decision making times: I received a job offer to take my skills to another company. It was a good company... great future, great benefits and a solid position. But it required me to take just a bit too much of a pay cut to make it work. And so I am staying put and working to re-energize myself with my current job.. to fix that things in my own company that made leaving look so dang attractive. It could be an interesting road to go down, and I'll be curious to see how it all works out.

FILMING/VOLLEYBALL:
It's been a very busy 2 months of filming. As of this writing, I am entering week 10 of filming.. and that means... I have shot ALOT of footage. Most days I am shooting something, games here, interviews there, B-roll in between...I just can't seem to leave the house without my camera. In all, the film is looking good as I start to seriously do some editing. There is one major problem in the whole thing... This is supposed to be my telling of an inspirational sports story.. And the team.. well.. they haven't been playing all that inspirational so far. Now, I don't want that to sound too negative, overall they have done pretty darn well.

Take the first half of the season.. They lost two games, to Pleasant Hill and Junction City. JC also had won all of their games, making them the undefeated leader of the league. As the second half of the season began, we lost yet again to Sisters in our second game with them. This stuck us in a 3 way tie for second place in the league. The only way to get out of this, was to beat both teams that had beaten us during the first cycle.

On October 17th, Pleasant Hill played at our gym.. the first in 2 back to back huge, and insanely important games. Luckily, we prevailed, completing the first half of "mission impossible". The next step was to play JC... AT JC, the still undefeated team in the league that had stomped us pretty hard the first time around.

During the season coaches and players alike made a similar observation: We don't have one volleyball team, we have two: The Jekyll team and the Hyde team. Trying to figure out which team will show up for a game is the tricky part. Obviously at that second Pleasant Hill game, the Jekyll team came to play. And in the season's most amazing night, the Jekyll team also came to play at Junction City, completely unhinging the JC team in every way possible, winning in 3 games. It was THE night of the season so far, the main inspirational point so far.

In typical Jekyll and Hyde fashion however, the Hyde team showed up for the last regular game of the season. You would think that after taking out the undefeated league champs, the girls would be on a roll, but the team that showed up on Monday night at Cottage Grove was anything but. Yes, the team won.... in 5 games.. and barely, and it was NOT pretty. It just gets scary watching the team do that while trying to tell an inspirational story. The film genre says that they should win the big game and continue winning all the way to State.. but that just isn't happening.

To further this, the girls played the first of their "League Playoff" games on Wednesday. Marist and Sisters, now tied for second place (JC still won the league with only one loss) played for league ranking. Sadly, Hyde came.. and this time Hyde lost. Once again, teams in the "sports film genre" are not supposed to lose key play off games.

So where does that leave us? Depends on how we do... The loss on Wednesday places us third in the league. Our next game is Monday night against.... yet again.. Pleasant Hill... the 4th place team. Assuming we win that game, we will immediately leave on Tuesday morning (Halloween!) for a Wednesday game against Ontario, a lovely 8 hour drive EACH WAY. We'd get back from that game on Thursday in time for one more practice. If we beat Ontario, then we'll leave Friday to drive to Klamath Falls, on the southern end of the State for a Saturday game. Ug. If we lose any of these games... Monday, Wednesday or Saturday... we're done.

MARATHON TRAINING:
10 weeks left to go! Yikes! I am still working towards the big race, but I can't say that I have stayed perfectly on schedule! I spent 2 weeks this month not running (under doctors orders), having gotten bronchitis. Add in the crazy volleyball game schedule, editing nights, and our rainy season hitting and it's made it very difficult to keep on track. But I am doing the best that I can under the circumstances.

I just got my "official race program" in the mail which is both thrilling and scary at the same time as I study the course. I can also feel how sore and "loose" my limbs feel after a strong 10 mile run and my brain starts to over analyze going 26 miles. But I am staying positive, knowing that while 10 weeks may seem like so short of a time, there is a lot I can do in that time!

Soooo, that's the update! Obviously very nuts right now in our house, with lots going on and all of us pulling our hair out. If I can survive all my work deadlines, get the right team to show up so I can continue to tell my inspirational story and if I can keep my body together to survive Marathon training, I may just make it...