Cat's Corner

March 27, 2008

Me, JT (center), and Kelly after a day in the water.

We were packed for the beach ... and practice!

Welcome back everyone!

I just got home from yet another two weeks on the road. Of course, it never fails that it starts snowing as soon as I get settled into my condo here in Chicago! The weather seems to have followed that pattern all winter.

Anyway, the last few weeks have been full of hard work.

Since last I wrote, I was able to spend four days in Chicago with DePaul. The team had just returned from a successful trip to Fresno, Calif., so we had a day off before we went to work to prepare for our (Blue Demons) tournament. I really enjoy working with our girls, so anytime I'm around, I try to make the most of it by throwing live and working with the pitchers a lot.

I took off to California a few days earlier than Team USA to make an appearance and spend some down time in Monterey. I absolutely fell in love with that city! I've never seen such a beautiful coastline and driving around Pebble Beach was also amazing. I can't imagine scenery so gorgeous exists anywhere else

After Monterey, I flew down to Orange County a day early to hang out with Jenny Topping and Kelly Krestchman. My first day there we spent a few hours on Laguna Beach, and since I loved it so much, we decided to buy wet suits and repeat the trip the next day. The second morning we had our coffee, loaded up our car (see the picture below!) for the beach and took off to catch some waves. At first, I was slightly embarrassed that we were in wet suits, but after about 20 minutes of catching waves on our bodyboards I was thankful we had them - the water was cold, but we couldn't even feel it!

The big reason for our trip to California was that Team USA played was playing in Fullerton at the Judi Garman Classic. We faced some good competition and were even taken into nine innings by Louisiana-Lafayette, which was a good experience for our team.

Off the field, we did a little shopping at a store called Metropark. I think at some point in time, everyone bought something there, including me!

When I wasn't playing - or shopping - I was working with DePaul since the team was at the same tournament. I coached two games in-between playing with Team USA and I was very happy with how we bounced back after facing some adversity earlier in the tournament.

Easter Sunday was spent in my second home (as far as softball is concerned): Oklahoma City. We had an Easter egg hunt for all the little ones within the USA/ASA Softball organization, and then we did interviews with ESPN for some upcoming TV games we have.

In OKC, we took on Oklahoma State, OU, my DePaul Blue Demons and Virginia Tech. We got on a little roll, but then suffered our first loss on tour since 1996. It's just a reminder that anything can happen on any given day. You have to give credit where credit is due, though. Virginia Tech and their pitcher, Angela Tincher, played a great game.

Despite the loss, we'll refocus and keep going on our journey to Beijing. There's so much more that goes on during our tour than just games, and we are getting better day-by-day, even when we face setbacks.

I'm going to enjoy a week home in the snow! It's nice to be here for long enough to unpack and not have to repack right away!

Until next time …
Cat