Fake Summer Vacation

It's been a while since I've blogged. That is the duration of my happiness, basically. Now that I am in a foul mood I can return to the medium with a proper amount of angst.
Visiting Katie in Santa Barbara was fantastigreat. I spent around 5 days in the sun/fog enjoying both her and her friends. The meeting of the parents went pretty well (duh) and I felt like a part of her friend group surprisingly easily. I guess I have been well-trained for hanging out with a bunch of semi-obnoxious girls. Plus, I keep discovering that Katie and I have more in common than I thought. Basically our families are near identical matches for each other, just shifted a little older. It's nice.

It was a nice relief to have the (stretched out) visit go well, too. The first half hour after I arrived was definitely a little weird, if only to be seeing her outside of DC. It was sort of like we both had no idea what we were supposed to be doing and couldn't tell if the other person was the same off-campus. Luckily we got past that and had a blast for the next five days. Which I spent pretty much all of in her presence without tiring of her. Fantastic.

Also shitty due to the whole her-going-abroad-all-of-next-year thing. But I'm not thinking about that yet. Or so I keep telling myself.

Can't wait for her to come up here in a couple weeks and see how she fits in with you all. Will be interesting to watch, at least. (CS2 knows how true this is for me.)
Umpiring has been weird this year. There's an old umpire saying, which is that people expect you to, "be perfect on day one and keep getting better." I missed over half of the season, which is normally the time when everyone is working out kinks. Now I am still in that stage of slight discomfort with my mechanics and inability to focus while everyone else is geared up for the post-season. I have a couple more games this week, then a week off before the important games start. Hopefully I can get both the physical and mental stuff worked out before then and rock out when the time comes. This may be the first time I've ever had any doubts that would happen.

I'm really excited for everyone to be home. Good luck on your finals and (quick!) trips home.