week two: day two

week two, day two. tired. sick. i've got a sinus infection, a pretty bad one. my doctor called in a prescription so i'm hoping i'll feel better soooon.

and the kids this week? well, we've already had two 911 calls (that the kids made as a "joke"), multiple asthma attacks, two group switches because of bad behavior, and one of my swimmers is stuck in his room at night because of bad behavior.

how much of that did we have last week? none at all.

the best part about this week? definitely eating in o-hill!!!!

other best part about this week? yup, it's true. $$ is coming back to UVa for his fourth year!

week one: complete

the first week has come to a close. phew. it was definitely tiring. and next week we've got 40 more kids coming in than we had this week. should be quite an adventure...

so, how'd i do in my first week? well, the head coach said to me on thursday, "you know? you're real good. we'll give you another year or two coaching age group, and then maybe you'll be ready to coach college athletes." niice. once again, how do you respond to that? all i could muster was "thank you."

all of my kids improved their times from sunday to friday. i even had one kid drop more than 30 seconds in his 200IM. how they all swim faster is beyond me. after being away from home all week (some of them for the first time), sleeping in unfamiliar beds, swimming 6 hours a day, staying up late, and eating cap'n crunch with chocolate milk in it for every meal, i'm surprised they can even walk. let alone swim faster. my first group was a fun one, and it's interesting to me how much you can learn and get connected to these kids in just one week. it was sad to see them go.

props?

so, day four has come to a close. lots of fun stuff today. my club team kids represented quite well in the camp springs today. we had the top 11-and-under, and one of the top 4 12-and-overs. and the 12-and-over happens to be newly thirteen. i was proud.

the dining hall food has been, well, pretty boring. basically pasta for every meal. if this continues, i think i'll be sick of pasta by the middle of next week.

my group has been tons of fun so far this week. lots of great questions that have really gotten me to think. and i have learned a LOT from the lectures. listening to some of the coaches on staff speak, for me, is really cool. we're talking about top level athletes and coaches that are telling me stuff that will really help me make a difference with my little guys back home. well, if i can get them to listen.

but easily the coolest part of today, and maybe of my whole life (well, at least coaching career...)... i was coaching my group of older (11-16) developmental swimmers. i'm talking kids that swim just summer, or swim year round who are, to put it in the words of my head coach at home, trifling athletes. anyway, i'm coaching them in the two lanes next to the coach who has coached 3 gold medalists, all-americans, world university games, olympic teams, and all that good stuff. he walks over to me and says, "you know what son?" me: "what's that, coach?" him: "you're one helluva coach." quite simply, i was floored. i can't even come up with an analogy for it. i got flustered, and all i could muster was, "well, thank you coach. that means a lot." him: "i mean it, i know talent when i see it, and you've got it." i'll take his word for hit. thank you, coach.

day 2?

tired. that about sums it up. i got up at 5:05 this morning (no, not 5:04, 1 extra minute!) and went over and swam at the AFC. yes, be jealous. and then be jealous i was swimming in the AFC at dusk with the lights out before anybody had arrived... kind of a cool scene.

pictures of hancock are coming, i took them, so it's a matter of getting them off my digital camera (yes, i have one) and getting them on the computer/facebook/blog.

and yes, i did have a puker in the first 3 hours of being at camp. the culprit? taco bell. a note to all the swimmers out there... it is definitely a bad idea to eat taco bell the afternoon before you have to swim a 200IM for time in an unfamiliar environment without your parent.

we were listening to the head coach give camp rules, and the puker walked up to me and asked if she could go to the bathroom. my response? "well, can you wait and hear all the rules?" and i don't know if you know, but kids get the "i'm gonna vomit all over you in 10 seconds" face. if you can't/don't recognize it, yah, you're covered in vomit. so, i got her to a trash can, which just so happened to be far enough away that it didn't disturb the meeting. hero! she felt better.

move in day!

wow, talk about deja vu! it is certainly strange being back in the dorm again after 6 years. it's still exactly the same as i remember it... hot as hell (regardless of the month of the year), the bathrooms still grungy, the floors still sticky, and the carpet still stained.

but, i'm here nonetheless. the campers don't start arriving until tomorrow around lunchtime, so i've got a little bit of free time tonight to get settled in. unfortunately, settling in doesn't mean on first-left. despite saying i'd fight for it, one of the UVa assistants has lived on that hall at swim camp for the 7 years. yah, i was SOL.

so instead, i lucked out and got a room in the basement! it's only about 30 degrees cooler down here, so definitely no complaints on this end.

it's funny to think about how much my life has changed in the 6 years since i've lived here. i guess 6 years is a long time, but it doesn't really feel like it's been that many years. but basically, my life as i know it now began six years ago in this dorm. what have i done since then? well, been in love (twice?), broken hearts, gotten my heart broken, had more money than i knew what to do with, made the best friends i'll ever have, drank way too much, learned a lot of important life lessons, rushed a fraternity, pledged a fraternity, depledged a fraternity, and then re-rushed/pledged a completely different one, totaled a car, bought the car of my dreams, graduated from college, drank more, moved to nebraska, moved back from nebraska, taught 5th grade, found the job i really love. phew, that's a lot. and that's really only the tip of the iceberg, even as far as highlights go.

so, at any rate... i feel like i'm in charlottesville so i need to get out of the dorm room and go out and, well, be in charlottesville.

details, details, details

as i was talking to a friend yesterday and explaining the excitement of my adventure to charlottesville, she reminded me of one small detail i had overlooked...

twin extra-long sheets.

seriously? i mean, who saved those after college? my mom didn't, justifying it by saying "who will ever need these again?"

thankfully, the roommate came through in the clutch, saving me from spending $50 on sheets for just four weeks.

and on another note, i saw knocked up last night. wow. the movie was hilarious, and everybody needs to see it at some point.

the hook!!

that's right, everybody. not only am i back on the blog, but i'm headed home. back to charlottesville!

i'm going to attempt to blog about my exploits as a coach at UVA swim camp for the next four weeks. the best part about the whole experience? well, besides the swimming part? hancock! i'll be back in my old dorm. talk about full circle. i think it will be quite strange, and i am prepared to fight the other coaches to get a room on my old hall (first left!).

but, in preparing to head back to the hook and back to good old hancock, i've started to freak out at the crazy list of things i need to acquire before i make the trip...

1. a mini-fridge. i might have to break into my parents house in the middle of the night.
2. a window fan. or maybe 2. back in the day, andy and i had 2 box fans in the window. one pushing air in, the other blowing it out. it worked well, and i'm hoping the second time is a charm. charlottesville in june/july? hot.
   
3. shower shoes! yah, i'm going to have to make a trip to old navy sometime this week and grab some cheap flip-flops. i mean, i'm a swim coach so i walk on dirty, nasty floors all the time, but for some reason, the hancock showers gross me out.
4. a shower carry-thingy. last time i had one of those? definitely 6 years ago.

after 6 years of non-dorm living, this should be interesting. i'm pumped. what have i forgotten? can you think of any obvious dorm-necessity? maybe a dry-erase board?

sadly, this time around, the britney spears posters will have to stay off the walls...

ahhh

hello, blog. i'm back.

you know what they're writing about

in the weekly e-mail that goes to everybody on the team i work for, check out my blurb...

"We are thrilled to say we've turned over the reins to Coach Doug, who will take on full-time coaching responsibilities for those groups. Doug, formerly with [another team] and currently a coach with our night group at [pool location], is ready to begin a long-term and successful career with [current team] and we couldn't be more confident in his abilities, commitment and passion for teaching your children. Please introduce yourself when you see him on deck!"

able, committed, and passionate? huh, i was hoping for charming and good-looking, but i guess you take what you can get.

what three adjectives would your employer use to describe you? what three adjectives would you use to describe yourself at work? and do you think, or at least hope, that they'd differ greatly?

props if you picked up on the van reference in the title.

it's that time of year

it's that time of year, again. yup, that time where i look at my calendar and see that i've only got 3 months to get back into shape for the summer. although, the last, ohhh, 6 years or so, i've done nothing about except maybe a few sit-ups or push-ups.

not this year. this year will be different. for the last 2 weeks i've actually been swimming. swimming with one of our senior prep groups. and i've actually finished the whole practice. this isn't like in college where our workouts would generally consist of maybe 1500 yards and then a 15-minute hot tub sit. nope, i've pushed up over 3000 meters twice in the last two weeks. simply put? that's more swimming at any point in my life since high school.

hmm what else? i went to see fighting gravity at the barns of wolf trap last weekend. it was a lot of fun, and i even went by myself. everybody had an excuse not to go, and i didn't, so i said why the hell not. it was surprisingly fun and not as awkward as i thought it would be. i was able to get up to the front (much easier for one person) and had a great time. doing stuff like that by yourself is surprisingly liberating... or something like that. so, i can now add a concert to my list of activities i've done by myself. the list? well, not too long. but i have been to the movies by myself.

the curse of manhattan place

to begin, let me clear up any confusion: you matter too, B. you matter, too.

the last 2 times i've left manhattan place, i've had brushes (or near-brushes) with the law. thursday night, coming home from the duke game, after dropping rachel off, an officer pulled me over. i suppose it was 230 in the morning, and he was probably somewhat suspicious.

but, what did he say when he pulled me over? "your license plate looked strange." right. thank you for wasting 30 minutes of my time in the middle of the night when i've been driving all day (and yes, i did tell him about UVa's big win.)

so, leaving last night after the super bowl, i'm on the toll road. not going too fast, and actually in the far right lane. they don't actually pull people in the far right lane over, do they? i'm following a white mini van. we go by a cop at probably 65 miles an hour. the toll road, for those of you that live on the 66 side of the world, is like a nascar track. people fly down it. so 65 is nothing. however, the cop pulls out. i start getting all pissed off about how i had just said that i didn't want to start a new tradition of being pulled over every time i left manhattan. fortunately for me, though, the cop throws his lights on behind me (yah, that was scary), then blows around me and whips in front of me. he pulled over the mini van.

phew. let's just chalk it up to strange coincidence, right?

as predicted

yup, great win last night hoos! the weather held out completely, and it was one helluva basketball game. i'll admit, i got quite nervous with about 3:30 left to go, and i believe we were still down 8. i really thought we wouldn't have enough time to dig out of the hole, especially considering how the shots had been falling all night.

but, i was wrong. we played outstanding down the stretch and pulled out one of the craziest victories i've ever been witness to. great decision to go to the game, and i'm glad the sabre helped me get the tickets!

a couple of thoughts from last night...

1. sean is sick. he's ridiculously clutch. and his no look passes have become, dare i say it? pistol pete-esque. if we had anybody that could grab them and throw them down, well, it would be a nice duo to have on your side.
2. it did get loud in there last night. our section (way the hell up in the rafters) even got to standing the last 5 minutes of the game, as well as all of overtime. good work by the students to keep the volume up, and also for some great chants ("you can't guard him!")
3. michael's bistro, where we were fortunate enough to dine, is nothing short of fantastic every time i go. their beer list is nothing short of magnificent, and my meal, a pasta dish, was easily the best i had ever had. ever. seriously.
4. i had to fight the bartender at biltmore to get a beer... as one of only five people sitting at the bar. why? well, it was 3 minutes before survivor hour started, and they were astonished that i didn't want to wait to save $2. but i wanted to get to the game.
5. beth duffy, the idiot from WCAV19 news, is terrible. she is the most patronizing, out-of-touch big-screen game-leading lady i've ever encountered. please please replace her!
6. the duke bench suit-wearing-huddle-toweldown boys were hilarious. after each huddle, they, no joke, vigorously attacked the floor on their hands and knees with their towels for a solid 10 or 15 seconds. it was ridiculous. but coach k likes them on their knees, i guess. that's what wojo said, anyway.
7. we will actually really miss jason cain next year. and not just because of the stache. he grabbed a solid 10 boards yet again.
8. congrats to the redneck dukies sitting a couple rows behind us that made duke look completely ridiculous and classless. way to slink out of the arena you pieces of shit.

what else? hmm i think that about does it.

also, rachel has started her own blog. you should check it out. the link to it can be found to the right in my "sweet blogs to read."

so, maybe i lied

i know i said that i would post about how much i hate duke. well, i lied. i decided that i duke didn't even deserve the face time on my blog. so what am i going to write about instead? well...


how incredible Virginia is, of course.

i got an e-mail today with a link to the first ever edition of the cavalier daily. the date? september 1967. here are a few of my favorite excerpts from the various articles.

"The unhurried outlook seems to be one thing; the University itself is another, as charged with energy beneath as its reactor. At last it is becoming what Mr. Jefferson wanted it to be-the capstone of the state's system of education, a wellspring of diversified learning and the source of stimulating intellectual inquiry...

But behind all the latter day vitality, pervading it as mint does a julep, is the Jeffersonian tradition, and definitions of what that is depends on to whom you are talking, and when. On the one hand it is the student honor system; on the other, as someone has put it, "the God-given right to go to hell in your own way." It is abstract and material-the faculty's jealous guardianship of its academic and intellectual freedom, and the buildings which constitute Mr. Jefferson's physical legacy..."

---

"Students here no longer have cocktails before dinner each evening, as once they did, and the old practice of tipping hats to professors has disappeared (probably because students no longer wear hats): but at the University, the tradition of wearing a coat and tie whenever one goes out still prevails.

It is not a tradition set by any ruling on the part of the University; instead, it is based upon the assumption that the University man has maturity enough and sufficient pride in his personal appearance that he would want to appear presentable to the outsider, as well as to his fellow classmates."

---

"It will start out with an introduction to new friends in the dorm and very soon you, your friends & dates will be walking down Rugby Road to fraternity parties. Rugby Road...one of the most interesting by-ways around-a strange combination of fraternity houses, none of which look the same testifying to their guarded right to individuality. Rugby Road... clothed in bright leaves in fall, blanketed by gleaming snow in winter, fresh and spontaneous in the spring and crowned with a red, yellow and green stop light."

---

only excerpts from many articles worth a look. check it out.

and hey duke, enjoy the beating tomorrow night.

mmm

so, my trip to north carolina was capped off with a stop at bojangles right after crossing the nc/va border. sadly, bojangles is only found WAY south of the mason-dixon line. we used to have one in charlottesville, but it closed before my first year. that's about as far north as i think bojangles has ever been.

if you've never been to bojangles and experienced the incredibleness that is their chicken and biscuits, well, you're missing out. sure, popeyes is delicious, but bojangles simply puts it to shame.

if some enterprising entrepreneur opened a bojangles in northern virginia, would you eat there?

also, i went to the grocery store yesterday. and after having been called a "bachelor" by my 83-year old grandmother, i really felt like it once i realized the purchases i had made... cereal, a small thing of milk, ketchup, and beer.

let's see... another interesting tidbit: i actually purchased the taylor hicks cd yesterday. now granted, i used a best buy gift card so i didn't spend "my" money on it, but i bought it nonetheless. why would you buy the taylor hicks cd, you might ask? well, i felt like i had so much invested in his success that i simply HAD to purchase it. i said all last spring that no matter what happened to taylor on american idol, i would buy his cd. i fulfilled my promise. i felt pretty gay taking it up to the cash register... good thing i was also purchasing caddyshack at the same time. the two purchases kinda balanced each other out. is buying caddyshack somewhat sadistic (if you know what i mean, well, then you know)?

and how is the cd you ask? well, i'm glad i spent gift card money on it, let's put it that way.

charlottesville AGAIN on thursday for the duke game. look for a post about how much i despise duke and coach k in the coming days.

TMNT

"I've got one word for you dude: cowabunga. Cowabunga that chick in your underground lair all night long."

hilarious.

and in case you were wondering, raphael was definitely my favorite ninja turtle.

and in case you were wondering, yes i did put up a picture of michaelangelo when i meant to put one up of my boy, raphael. check the comments. thanks to prslavedc for the heads up/not making me feel too stupid!

thanks reddit.

action-packed you say?

we did it. we successfully completed an action-packed charlottesville visit in only one night. yup, just one night. what did we do in the space of just slightly more than 24 hours?

1. new target.
   
2. take-it-away. so much culture.
3. arch's. no, it wasn't boarded up, thank goodness!
4. mincer's... where we learned susie's head is misshapen.
5. the bookstore. who knew they didn't sell "virginia law" t-shirts there?
6. walked the lawn. who wants to go on larry sabato's roof?
7. drove around rugby/heckled soon-to-be sorority girls walking in huge groups.
8. uva/unc swim meet. we reminisced about hot tub time.
   
9. south street/christian's pizza/the crepe place/the downtown mall.
   
10. biltmore!
11. crashed lauren's apartment. home of antarctica and crazy apartment parties.
    
12. stood in line at the tavern and got annoyed at the grumpy old guy in line in front of us with a 15 person family.
13. so instead, bodo's! at least we didn't smell like syrup. bojoe!
    
14. john paul jones arena. i can't wait til i'm an usher there once i retire to charlottesville.
    
15. belair market. oh, but not the one you're thinking of. the secret one. good job susie.
    

conversation overheard from the weekend...

tennessee person #1: we used to have this incredible human resources lady that worked for us.
tennessee person #2: yah! what happened to her?
tennessee person #1: i dunno. i heard she moved to virginia.
tennessee person #2: damn.

fun weekend. i can't wait to retire...

gimme that hokie pokie now baby!

good win by the hoos on tuesday over the turtle.

good loss by the hokies last night to florida state.

2 days to charlottesville!

today's post is brought to you by the letter "N"

i have a habit, in case you haven't noticed, or maybe it's a policy... either way, of not mentioning people by name in my blog. at least full name. andy gets a mention every now and then, jeff (whose eagles lost last night!!) has gotten one or two, charlie of course gets the nod from time to time. but, for the most part, i usually don't mention names or simply use their initials.

but today's post is all about N. what can i say about N that could possibly be detrimental? well, pretty much nothing. N is awesome. ten things to further prove my point...

1. N loves driving to charlottesville. strange, but true. even when other people will, and have, might i add, quite graciously offered to chauffeur, N is always ready to hop behind the wheel.
   
2. N is quite possibly the fastest facebook-picture-tagging you putter-upper that i have ever known. N might actually be the fastest of all-time.
3. a corollary to number 1, N won't take gas money. N loves driving to charlottesville so much, that not even the ever-rising cost of gasoline can discourage her. N won't even take donations to help offset the cost. that is incredible.
4. and don't you even think about buying N a shot. not going to happen. if you do manage to pull it off... the mysterious $20 bill you found in your shoe? that was from N.
5. N is so awesome that she can make friends with anybody. and her conversational skills? fantastic. case in point: one time, N met a random person in a bar bathroom. who actually meets people in a bar bathroom? well, only people as fantastic as N. but N is so awesome, the greeting was followed by a 30-minute conversation about denim. yup, denim.
6. N is the only sk of importance. fact.
7. N is so ridiculously incredible that, yah, you guessed it, that's N on playboy.com. not in the tacky naked way, but in the classy way that only a few incredible people can be found on playboy.com.
8. N lives by the mantra that, "you only live once."
   
9. N is a fantastic flip-cup/beer pong partner. in fact, i don't think i've ever lost a game of either when N was my teammate. even against younger, in better drinking shape competition, N is always a quality anchor.
10. N, unlike other people i know, takes full shots for the full 60 minutes of a power hour. even in old(er) age, N can still pummel a power hour. what if N is doing laundry you ask? you better believe that shot glass and can of coors light makes the trip to make sure that annoying robe is finally dry.

i could go on, but i think you get my point. feel free to add your own awesome thoughts about N... because a list of only 10? let's be honest, that's just scratching the surface.

5 days until charlottesville.

the revolution

i joined myspace the other day. yup, i actually did it. i maintained for a very long time that myspace was nothing more than the drunk, trashy, ugly step-sibling of facebook. but i figured that, hey, with all of my free time, i should give it a fair shake. so the other day, i (somewhat) successfully made my myspace account. guess what?

...yup, still trashy. and hard to use. thank god i had andy around to help walk me through how to figure out some of that shit. i'm no dummy, and i'm pretty computer literate, but navigating through all of the "punch george bush in the face" ads and the dead links/server not responding messages is quite annoying. but hey, i survived and even got a picture up there and requested a few friends. i even had a few people request to be my friend!

so the question now becomes... do i pimp my myspace page? some people's pages are so ridiculous that you can't even read what is on there... once again, just re-inforcing the trashiness.

my kind of diet

so recently, jeff and i have been using our free membership to tysons sport and health and going a couple of times a week to workout. yesterday was the first day i didn't swim as part of my workout, and instead, followed jeff over to the bike.

never again. i have never felt worse for 24 hours in my life (well, i have, but this is just annoying.) fuck it, i'm just going to stick to what i know and what i do best... the pool. and you know what's worse? watching the calorie counter on the bike go up. it's truly depressing. my heart rate up to 190 for about 12 minutes of a 30 minute workout, and i burn something like 160 calories for the whole damn workout? yuck. swimming probably isn't any better, but at least there's no counter in front of my face.

oh right, but the point of this post... is that to me, a "diet" is simply what i've been doing: keep my current food intake (probably eating healthy about 1/2 the time), but add exercise! i'm not really sure if it's a great idea, but hey, it seems to work for me. i mean, in theory, it should work right? i guess i'd have faster results by completely changing my diet, but why sacrifice eating what i want?

on another note, good work hoos! i always like to see us crush somebody the caliber of gonzaga on national television. actually, i'm not sure the hoos have ever beaten anybody on national tv worth writing home about... maybe kentucky in the maui a couple of years ago... but i don't think, even in football, that there has been a good national tv win. can you remember any?