Eat. Sleep. Ball. | Tu 12/6

I ended up sleeping at 6 AM and woke up at 8 for a KT meeting. Despite all the napping yesterday I feel like a zombie now. I think I'll still go into work though, just leaning on the hot chocolate for today.

I thought I left in time to get to work without trouble, but traffic was much worse than usual, which made me boil. Thankfully I had the calm music playlist on, which was exactly what I needed. I think there was work being done on the road, during rush hour of all times. I was late to stand-up, but thankfully I still joined in time to give my small update. It sounds like no one missed me though, which was relieving.

I made the forbidden pact and got coffee instead of hot chocolate to try operating better, and I can understand why people drink it all the time. It's like I can temporarily work as if I had a few more hours of sleep. It also seems like I react to caffeine relatively normally: no jitters, but I did feel myself energized.

Since the morning I've been talking with Yumei to try to clarify the steps she wants me to take in order to refresh the databus and recheck applications as a continuation from yesterday. I don't really know what I'm doing, but it's scary to also finally feel like I should. Thankfully she's been patient with me and I've been taking notes to both try to remember the steps and figure out why I need to do them.

Lunch was also surprisingly fun. I was tempted to eat alone to ease my brain, but Gonzalo and Vibha asked to eat together and our conversation was good. We talked about how Plano is boring, we would prefer living in cities, and reflected on how our college campuses were. It seems like the most common thing we can expect universities to do is make money, whether it be from taking it in tuition or begging alumni for it.

The afternoon was more of the same. Even though it doesn't taste that good, I went for more coffee and continued working on tasks for Yumei. Yvonne was sitting next to me and packed up just before 3 PM, which I took as my sign to leave too. Despite leaving pretty early and having a mostly congestion-free drive home, I found myself crabby at other drivers. Writing it now, I'm positive it was from sleep deprivation, but I'm sure my relationship with driving didn't help.

At home I continued to work until around 5:30 PM, put off eating yogurt, which I should stop doing since there isn't any benefit to skipping meals, and napped for too long yet again. This time it was from 6 - 7, when I was thankfully awoken by Eric telling me he was on his way to pick me up for volleyball. Thinking on it, volleyball has saved me from the napping shadow realm several times at this point and I'm so glad for it.

Playing tonight was fun since we only had 12 people and I'm positive I was the worst on the court, at least at passing. I got to play opposite and middle, which were both exciting. I felt like I got good chances to practice covering my teammates' hits and reading free balls to transition ealier. Even though I wasn't getting sets by the end of the night I didn't even care. I understand Hinata's transformation: defense is just as satisfying as offense, especially when you see yourself improving.

It's also a bit concerning getting used to playing 5-1. I hope it sticks around longer than when Josiah invited me to play on Mondays, which stopped as soon as I got used to it. I guess the joy from having something can be flipped into an equal amount of sadness when that same thing is lost.

Now I'm back at home letting food cook while I shower trying not to get lost in sleep hell. I swear I will improve the sleep schedule.