Slice of Life: 11/29/14

      I feel my stomach bulge as I swallow another gargantuan mix of homey, rich food. It is impossible to not enjoy Thanksgiving, no matter how uncomfortable you feel afterwards. It is the one day of the year where it is not only tolerated to stuff your face with mounds of calories, but it is actually expected! Despite my thin appearance, I try to eat as much food as I can during any meal, hoping one day my body will finally use the calories to grow. Because of this, I am always hopeful going into Thanksgiving dinner that today will be the day when I will put on a few extra pounds.

          Dinner is drawing to a close, and the three others at the table (my close family) have finished eating. I try not to acknowledge the fact that they are all staring at me, and stuff my mouth with more turkey and gravy. After more eating, my plate is scraped clean, and I set my fork down. Before anyone can say something like "Let's clean up." or "Man I'm full," I reached into the bowl of mashed potatoes with my spoon, and scooped some out. I could tell everyone really wanted me to stop eating. Therefor, I had to amuse them.

          I took the mashed potatoes on my plate, which would have made about four regular fork-fulls, and balanced it all on my fork. Slowly I lifted it up to my mouth, and tried to fit them all inside. It took a couple of attempts, but I was able to do it, and left myself looking a bit too much like a chipmunk. Struggling to keep them in my mouth, I looked around at my family, and we all started to laugh.

          If there is one thing I learned from today, it is that it's hard to laugh with an over-stuffed mouth of mashed potatoes.

Slice of Life 11-21-14

       I am utterly and completely lost. The parents on the bleachers clap and cheer, the coaches on the benches yell out commands, and shoes squeak on the wood floor, and I hardly know what to do. My first basketball game... ever has been going fine, but I still have a ton of work to do to be half as good as some of the kids. The game is much more repetitive than soccer which I have always played. Back and forth. Back and forth. I scramble to get to my position each time we get the ball and lose it. Everything is loud, confusing, and stressful.

        I am running up and down the baseline, frantically trying to get open for the large orange ball, knowing that I am making no impact on the game what-so-ever. The ball is being passed around the three-point line, as our team is attempting to make a break-though. The ball is swung around to the other side, and accidentally bounces out of bounds. Time to defend. I am running backwards to our side of the court when suddenly my heel contacted Adrian's foot an knocked me off balance. Trying not to fall over, I increased my running speed, trying to get my feet under neath me. I forget the game as I completely lose my center of balance, and fall backwards, landing all of my momentum on my wrist, and everyone on the court burst into laughter.

       I didn't notice the pain at first, as I was lifting myself up from the pretty embarrassing fall I just had. It seemed as though as soon as the laughter on my team's bench died down, I felt a sharp and uncomfortable pain shooting up from my wrist, and I realized this might be a bit more than embarrassing.

Slice of Life 11-15-14

    I find refuge under the warm, soft sheets of the hotel bed, not even bothering to take off my winter coat. I lay there for a moment, before finally coming to my senses and leave my survival-instinct state of mind. I see flashes of memories from moments before: slush on the side walk, homeless people savaging from trash cans, and cold yet dazzled people silhouetted by grand city lights. My mother and I had walked through the center of downtown to pick up our dinner from an Asian restaurant, and returned back to our hotel, desperate to vacate the negative temperatures of outside.
     If I forgot about my numb face and stiff joints, the walk was incredibly enjoyable and beautiful. However, I was much happier to enjoy the city's view from the warmth of the fourteenth floor of the Marriot Hotel. I soon brushed back my sheets and sat up, taking in the harsh reality that I would have to leave the hotel the next morning.
     

Slice of Life: 11-5-14

    My heart beats and stomach tightens as I trot on to the well cut grass, preparing for the match. Pre-game jitters are a common occurrence not just for me, but everyone else on my team because we all are aware of the importance of the games we play. My cleats shift smoothly through the blades of grass, making an interesting and satisfying sound that I know all too well. I always remember the small gap in time when our warm-up ends and the game begins, in my world it feels like a gap in time.

    I have played and enjoyed the game of soccer (or football) for as long as I can remember, and it has become a very large portion of both my lifestyle and my personality. It is times like this (the gaps in space and time) that are the strangest part of the game for me, because I have a feeling of both nervousness and excitement. I am nervous to let my team down, but excited to preform well- as if mind is preparing itself for both situations and planning what it would do in each of them. I get to my position on the field... in front of the defenders and behind the attackers, where I truly feel at home.

    I feel the ten other players on my team surround me, forming little triangles and shapes between them, which is needed to be a good attacking team. Everything that we need to play a game is slowly forming as we are coming to the end of the gap in time. We have the kickoff- a good thing for putting the opposition under pressure. The ball is placed on the spot. Two of my players stand over it. Slow motion turns to fast as finally the game will start. The scream of the referee's whistle cuts through the air, and we have officially reentered the space-time continuum.