(Thankfully) Boring | Fr 11/4

I didn't sleep much, but I feel pretty good especially for having just received the booster and flu shot. Gigi told me to watch out for my reaction and that I may have to miss volleyball, but I feel just as sluggish as usual without much sleep. Maybe it's speaking too soon, but I may just be built different.

Work is slow since we're only preparing a presentation, but I started slapping together an EDM playlist and Illenium is sending me into the shadow realm. I guess it's no surprise how music can make people feel emotions, but I don't listen to a lot of artists outside of festivals so this took me right back to the past weekend and I wasn't ready.

I laid down during the rest of the groups' presentations and fell asleep after singing along to a few heartache songs ("Rush Over Me" kills me now). Some of my dreams were ridiculous:

• Seeing people post about a lot of raves and parties on BeReal thinking that it made sense since it's the weekend near Independence Day
• Being at some training or event with a large group of new people:
• Hearing Brent talk about how he used to eat a lot of fried chicken to explain why he knows about good and bad spots
• A very muscular guy randomly massaging my traps very hard, which I expressed appreciation for before sharing about trying to optimize for muscle gain.
• Buying a chicken sandwich from somewhere only for the group to go to a supermarket selling similar ones for cheaper and then putting mine under the heat lamps of the supermarket's display.

It was nice having a clear mind and being free of physical tiredness, but I wasn't especially excited to realize I napped through lunch. Thankfully by some miracle I got out of bed right as lunch ended.

Our group put a real effort to present how the trainers wanted but nothing more, which is exactly how I felt about the whole training. After our presentation, I checked out mentally and set to myself with Josiah's old ball while reheating my lunch. It feels weird being able to play volleyball outside of the court, sort of like if I had a treadmill in my living room. Eventually we moved onto seeing the best presentations in every class, the awards ceremony, and farewell. I always feel excited to be done with whatever came before a send-off, but it's also always bittersweet leaving something I was used to like the bootcamp and now training. Afterwards I laid in bed but couldn't run from the heartache. After a short sad karaoke session I remembered Osu though. Even if the storms keep me from volleyball I will live a good life.

Osu wasn't that great. I started thinking about Sammy, since she was interested when I said I like to play rhythm games, and couldn't focus. Since then I've been hanging out and not doing much. I should try to be productive, but I'm feeling the body aches setting in. I guess the shots are doing their job, but I still want to play volleyball tonight.

I took a Tylenol like the pharmacist suggested and accidentally napped until dinner time. Then mom messaged me saying that she picked up my car and could drop it off before I left for volleyball, which was a great surprise. The exchange was smooth and the comfort of sitting back inside made me realize how much I took my car for granted.

Caiti wanted to drive to volleyball together, but told me that she was doing badly and had to pass. In retrospect I'm surprised how I just replied "Okkk" and didn't at least try to ask how she was doing. I figured the drive to volleyball could be fun to do alone since no one else from Dallas seemed to be going. I got to try using cloth tape I bought from the pharmacy last night to help my index finger sprain and it was okay, but the practice is good.

I walked into volleyball right as people split into teams, but mine started off so I still had time to warm up. The crowd was a bit larger than the past few Fridays, but still very manageable. I made some silly mistakes (bad habit of thinking I can hit with my right hand, contacting at the top of the ball when hitting a pipe or serves) but I got to have some fun anyways. My team was positive and I got some good chances to try blocking, which I feel more comfortable with after Wednesday with Oliver. My open play team was cool with playing 5-1 too, which was a fun chance to play middle again. Even though we didn't win, I still had a good time trying to get used to the formation and where to start for each point. After that game I saw people on an open court practicing serves and I felt like a child grabbing my ball to join in.

Afterwards people split by themselves so there wasn't a large group eating together and I just went home by myself. It was a bit sad admitting that I'm going home to chill by myself on a Friday night, but I had a lot of fun before (the Hello Kitty shirt got several compliments, which was funny) and I could use the slower weekend to catch up on sleep and errands. I also saw Sherry again, which was a lot of fun. She shared about DIVA: how the clinics to rate players will start in January, how we can pay $40 just for practices on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and how I should try out for outside hitter since it would allow for more experiences as opposed to always being middle since no one chooses the position.