three seconds of bad decisions...

As many people know, graceful is not generally how I am described and yesterday was no exception. 


I went to Ann Arbor yesterday to assist with data collection for USA hockey's youth development program. This program brings in about 45 15-year-olds who are the best of the best of youth hockey in the country and, from there, invites about 22 to be on the age group USA youth hockey teams and move to Ann Arbor for two years. If I knew anything about hockey, I would have known that there were a ton of ex-Olympians and ex-NHL players there as parents of these participants. Many of these kids will eventually be Olympians and NHL players themselves.


Either way, we were there to assist in a small part of their selection. We administered psychological evaluations on things like use of psychological skills, emotion regulation, and arousal regulation. We then input all their data and create reports and profiles on each player. Then, the sport psychologist from MSU that we were there working with (who also works with the USA hockey program) sits in on their scouting meetings and selection meetings to help the coaches. The coaches have been scouting these guys for years and they also do a lot of playing, training, and physical testing while in Ann Arbor.


Anyways, it was a great experience and we actually worked a lot faster than they thought we would. We were done with data entry and were getting ready to drive home so I went to get my sweatpants out of the car so I could change out of the nice clothes I was in. I went out, opened the back of my car, set my keys down, got my stuff, and then went to shut the back of my car. Well, as the door was coming down, I realized my keys were still sitting in the back of my car so I lunged forward to grab them. Yes, this was a bad decision because the car wouldn't have locked anyway but I didn't have time to think about all that. Well, I stumbled as I lunged, fell down a little but still managed to get my hand stuck under the door. The door came down HARD on my hand and smashed it pretty good. Luckily, it didn't catch my fingers or anything because that could have been even worse.


Either way, my hand hurts and is swollen now but, other than being embarrassed by my stupidity, nothing is really wrong. 


Because nobody is here to share my sorrows with, I thought I would take pictures. My hands have terrible color apparently, but the left one is the one I smashed, below by middle and pointer finger. The right one was saved from destruction. 

That's about all that's gone on here of any excitement. Mikel is having a great visit but I'm ready for him to be back here! He should be home Tuesday night! I have been working a lot and doing lots of school work and will probably continue that through the end of the semester (I'm so ready)!


On to rooting for the Spartans today! Go Green!!

that was it?!?

After all the commercials, signs, billboards, radio commercials, and everything else we were ready for the census to come. Oh and you can't forget the letter in the mail saying to expect the census. I have to say that it was sorely disappointed when our census forms actually arrived. I realize it's important but come on, that was it?! All the buildup for nothing!


Either way, ours is filled out and sent back-- we're doing our part!

St Patty's day 2010

So St Patrick's day was BEAUTIFUL this year and a lot of MSU students took full advantage of the weather and enjoyed the celebration with a few adult beverages. I'm pretty sure I had a few students who indulged before coming to class on Wednesday!


Mikel and I drove around to look at all the students partying and we took pictures (of course!)....

This beautiful weather was short lived; it snowed yesterday!  Hopefully the colder weather doesn't stick around for long because I'm ready for spring and summer! 

happy days!!

Happy birthday to Uncle Roger yesterday and Megan Ritzau today!!


Today was St Patrick's day which I'm sure isn't news to anyone but we definitely had an eventful day here in East Lansing! Some of the best weather we have and an excuse to drink on a Wednesday is a recipe for disaster for many of the students here!


Mikel is leaving on Friday for Idaho and I'm excited for him and he's really excited but I'm not looking forward to be home alone. I wish I could go with him and visit everyone but I got to go to home in December and I have school here so, hopefully Mikel will say hi to everyone for me!

After a delicious dinner and a relaxing night in Indy, we headed to IUPUI for my symposium presentation in the morning. IUPUI is Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis) it rolls right off the tongue right?! Anyways, from what we gathered it seems like it started as two satellite campuses for Indiana University and Purdue University and they merged in 1969 to create a separate university. It's crazy though because they sell Purdue stuff, IU stuff, and IUPUI stuff all in their bookstore. 

Dr. Appleby (our professor from ISU that is AMAZING) was there and her dad is the one who set up the symposium because he is a professor at IUPUI (another Dr. A). I was part of a symposium on sport psychology and I presented with a group of other students about grad school experiences in sport psychology specifically. It was a pretty cool experience. Mikel took a bunch of pictures of the campus and their cool student center...

After the symposium we had a couple hours to look around Indy before dinner with all of the people from the symposium. We went to Butler University which has a really pretty campus. They were on spring break so it was pretty quiet but we got to look around...

They have a really cool old basketball stadium; it reminded us a lot of Holt Arena at ISU if they were to invest a lot of money into it. All of the athletic department offices were in it as well as this sweet mascot...

Indianapolis has a sweet children's museum. We didn't go but they have cool dinosaurs outside.

Mikel is a good sport...

There are a couple of the other pictures we took in Indy.

Where the Colts play...

And the Pacers...

The Big Ten men's basketball tournament was in town for the weekend so there was this HUGE tournament bracket on the outside of a big parking structure by Conseco Fieldhouse (unfortunately, MSU didn't make it very far). Pretty cool...

Lastly, this is dessert from our delicious dinner at Bucca di Bepo. MMMMM....

A good trip!

spring break

After our glorious stop at Bass Pro Shop, we continued on...


We weren't planning on stopping at Valparaiso but, when we saw the sign off the freeway, we figured why not? Well, they had a pretty chapel on campus but that was about it. It was pretty small and we both decided we probably don't need to visit again. 

After that trip we headed onto West Lafayette to check out Purdue. At this point the temperature was about 70 degrees and my pasty white legs were gracing the dashboard hoping to get even a glimmer of sun. It was a beautiful day and all of the students were out enjoying it as well. 

Neither of us knew all that much about Purdue but we decided we liked it! 

They even have a Purdue colored McDonalds like we have a green one in East Lansing for MSU. 

After we got the full driving tour of Purdue, we headed onto Indianapolis and got there not long after the sun went down. We were told that you will know the middle of the city because there's a "big circle thing" and they were not kidding. There's a huge, beautiful war memorial with a roundabout around it. We happened to get really lucky and get a sweet parking spot so we walked around downtown Indy for the night. We stopped and ate at Rock Bottom Brewery (they also have one in Portland where we also use to eat for ISU volleyball when we were in town). 

Also, the Big Ten Tournament for men's basketball was in town so there were teams and fans walking around everywhere. 

It's a very cool city-- well lit, clean, and relatively safe feeling. Indianapolis, we approve.


Also, we found a really inexpensive hotel room so that was an added bonus!!