Back at IT

Finally I am getting my act together and back on the blogging train. Now that I have my computer refurbished and Karneval is over its back to business for me. If anyone would like a little run-down of what Karneval was like for us over here in Germany my roommate Matthew Goldsmith does a fabulous job of detailing our day/s and you can find that riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight HERE. Since I don't have to explain Karneval this will make my first blog back a little easier on the fingers.

One thing I would like to address quickly is this concept of evolution. I know I haven't been evolving like I should but natural selection will soon take its course. It takes millions of years for things to change but hopefully it doesn't take that long for me to add new things to my blog. I have been thinking of ideas but finding the time to implement these ideas also takes, yep you guessed it, time. Have you ever stopped to contemplate this idea of time. What would happen if the concept of time was abandoned? The world might implode. :) No seriously it might. Our lives revolve completely around the clock. As our culture becomes more technologically advanced we rely more and more on the all-powerful clock. You know when you wake up suddenly and the first thing you do is look at the clock. We always ask how long something is going to take or how long it takes to get there or I'll be there at this or that time. I think our culture, and I am not excluded from this by any means, gets so concernec with the concept of time that time ends up passing them by without them knowing it. To me, time is now. Yes, time is an integral part of society but sometimes we need to let time go for awhile and stop worrying. Really all that matters is right now. I believe one should plan for the future but really will the future ever happen, if it does it becomes the present. Right now I am typing to you, and right now you are enjoying what you are reading. I hope. Two things happening at the same time but yet still at different times. It is all a matter of perspective I guess. I am not about to go on a watch burning brigade through the streets of Werne, but aren't some of the best times in our lives when time seems to stand still. When we are so caught up in the moment to not even notice the hours fly by. On the surface my last two statements seem to contradict eachother, or do they?

Well lets get back to business. I will get off my philosophical soapbox and back to the task at hand -- Just for record I never had that whole bit about time in there before I proofread the blog, I seem to get more philosophical as the night goes on :). Patience is a virtue, right? Please sent all hate mail to my mother because she is a certified pyschologist (yes she does have a degree) and then you two can meet up and talk about why you have so much hate inside that you need to send hate mail because some guy won't update his blog with cool new things and just rants about whats on his mind (my english teachers/profs would be excited by the impressive run-on I just wrote. I did take a few english classes in college but its a matter of choice whether or not I apply that knowledge). Thanks Mom.

Alright, lets get down to business. The first slightly painful task at hand is to talk about Luddenscheid. If from the previous statement you still haven't figured out that we lost well now you know because I just said it.

I don't exactly know the final score of the game and I am way too lazy to look it up so you will just have to live with we lost by three. Thinking about this game in retrospect brings to mind the analogy of a rollercoaster, preferably The Wild Thing at Valleyfair right before I ride it for the first time.

Why? Read on my friends, read on.

Well, first off you never know what to expect from German officiating just as I didn't know what to expect from the ride. Was it going to be an uneventful ride or am I going to hurl some bodily fluids on the cute girl next to me? You never know what you are going to get until the game starts and you never really know what you got until the game is over. Mull that one over for awhile. As you can tell by the previous statement there is a lot of "I never know" going on here.

Secondly, the game had lots of ups and downs as anyone who has ever ridden or even seen a rollercoaster in real life or on t.v. can attest to. Lots of highs and lows. Sometimes you are as light as a bird and other times the ride is g-checking you into your seat. In other words sometimes you are defying gravity and other times gravity is defining you in a small little ball on your seat. That is kind of how it felt like for me during this game. We would get a sizable lead of around ten points and feel like we are defying gravity then forget to play defense, take quick shots, and no longer take care of the ball and now we are back at the bottom of the hill. This happened multiple times throughout the game. Very sickening indeed. I am actually getting pretty sick right now talking about it.

Thirdly, we were just flat out rusty. That can happen when a finely tuned and oiled machine (rollercoaster....i needed to stay with the analogy) is allowed to sit in the rain for a week without any attention to its detail. We came into the game and just missed so many shots we normally make.

Honestly, I never really felt like myself during the game. Maybe it was getting thrown out of our pre-game routine, maybe it was being off for a week. I don't know but I don't like to make excuses. As I learned on G's to Gent's a true gentleman always takes responsibility for his actions. I just didn't play as well as I should have. It won't happen again.

As for my other teams. I was unable to coach my men's team and they lost in Unna. Thankfully we still have a one game lead on the second place team with four games remaining, so we really need to put in some work here the next few weeks. If any of my guys are reading this, we still have practice on Tuesdays in case anybody forgot.

My U14 was off this week.

A little over a month and I will be back on US soil. The weather today was stupendous. The sun was out. It was probably 50 degrees. A rare, beautiful day in Germany. It honestly felt like the beginning of spring which I think happens a lot earlier over here. Which is nice.

That is all my friends
TJW

P.S. With spring comes impromptu soccer games and streetball adventures. I feel privileged to have weaved my way into one of each this past weekend.