	New friends in Virginia
Virginia- Well for those who actually made it through my last update, congrats! For those of you who didn’t have the 3 days to read it, here is the quick recap on the latest episode of “Day of the AVP lives.” My teammate and I, who were doing really well, broke up and unable to change my $600 flight I had to find a new partner for this past weekend’s AVP in Virginia Beach. On Thursday I arrived in Virginia Beach, a place I had never been to, so I was excited to put that star on my map of travels but a lot of anxious feelings due to playing with someone I’ve never practiced with! J Perhaps the most uncomfortable moment was flying almost 4 hours with Brooke (my old partner) sitting directly in the seat in front of me! Good thing I refrained from kicking the seat for 4 hours! Ha ha!! How ironic! J My friend, Chris Mcgarity was my hero this weekend and opened up his place to for me to stay so luckily that saved me some money from the already expensive trip. I also got to make some new friends in his roommates Craig and Rex. Once I got into Virginia we headed down to the beach and it was such a beautiful site. It was also so fun to see all the numerous people playing beach volleyball all together. Those are the moments I love just walking up to a court and asking if I can play and meet some fun people. If it weren’t for the heels and white shorts, I would have done that. The next day, I had a relaxing morning thankfully since we didn’t have to play in the qualifier and I had a great discussion with Chris’ roommate. Then I headed to the beach to “meet” my new partner, Angela McHenry. I practiced with her about 4 years ago when I first started playing and thought she was a really nice person. And.. she did have a SUPER cool first name! ha ha! I found her, and we headed to the court for our 1st practice, literally. We had to work out a bunch of things, since I was used to playing on the right side and play as defense. Unfortunately she did too! So I offered to play the left and to do all the blocking. Luckily I have had to play with everyone and their mom so I’ve had experience doing that. Practice felt pretty good and I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised about the weekend. After practicing in the humid heat, I grabbed dinner before running a camp for about 25 kids down the beach for my friend Chris. Even though I was tired, I knew this is what I love doing. Being able to give back to kids what God’s blessed me with is usually the highlight of my experience. This time it still stood true. I had such a great time with the kids, teaching them and laughing with them. Not only meeting these kids was a highlight, but ironically one of the athletes I first started giving lessons to 7 years ago, Libby, who is going to be a senior in college at Mercer (one of their best players) moved to Virginia for the summer. She came out to the camp too, and it was such a blessing to see her again! Afterwards, Libby and I went to Dairy Queen and we were able to catch up and it put such a huge smile on my face to see who she has become since her freshman year of high school. The next morning was game day and I truly didn’t know what to expect. I was a little worried how we would play together but wanted to give it my all. We drew #13 team and unfortunately it didn’t go so well and they beat us in straight sets. With about a 45 min break we were back playing against a team who we should definitely beat. But our strengths and weaknesses didn’t really complement each other and lost in 2 games again. Ironically if we would have won that game, we were supposed to play Brooke (my old partner). She actually played in the game after us and there was a moment when she went for a block and hurt her finger pretty badly. Although I was still hurting, I ran over grabbed some ice and took it to her. I didn’t agree with anything she did to me, but at the end of the day I want to be proud of me and the decisions I make. It’s hard when you are hurt by someone and know you need to still act in love and grace. I just wish that would have been different. But even though things didn’t go at all as I hoped with Angela McHenry, I was so thankful that Libby, Scott, Chris and his friends Rex and some kids from the clinic came by to cheer us on. It’s great to have people around to support you. As much as I wanted a real miracle playing this weekend, I was thankful for the miracle of being able to teach kids what I am so passionate about. The next tournament is this weekend in New Jersey which I won’t be at and unfortunately had to eat that expensive ticket, but at least I get to go to Dallas, Texas to run a couple of camps with my amazing friend and old roommate Janae Mertens before getting to spend a couple of days in Oregon at the end of this week. Thanks to those for the encouraging emails I got last week that gave me a little bit more strength to persevere through times that don’t make sense. Love you guys! Angela

New friends in Virginia

Virginia-

Well for those who actually made it through my last update, congrats! For those of you who didn’t have the 3 days to read it, here is the quick recap on the latest episode of “Day of the AVP lives.” My teammate and I, who were doing really well, broke up and unable to change my $600 flight I had to find a new partner for this past weekend’s AVP in Virginia Beach.

On Thursday I arrived in Virginia Beach, a place I had never been to, so I was excited to put that star on my map of travels but a lot of anxious feelings due to playing with someone I’ve never practiced with! J Perhaps the most uncomfortable moment was flying almost 4 hours with Brooke (my old partner) sitting directly in the seat in front of me! Good thing I refrained from kicking the seat for 4 hours! Ha ha!! How ironic! J

My friend, Chris Mcgarity was my hero this weekend and opened up his place to for me to stay so luckily that saved me some money from the already expensive trip. I also got to make some new friends in his roommates Craig and Rex. Once I got into Virginia we headed down to the beach and it was such a beautiful site. It was also so fun to see all the numerous people playing beach volleyball all together. Those are the moments I love just walking up to a court and asking if I can play and meet some fun people. If it weren’t for the heels and white shorts, I would have done that.

The next day, I had a relaxing morning thankfully since we didn’t have to play in the qualifier and I had a great discussion with Chris’ roommate. Then I headed to the beach to “meet” my new partner, Angela McHenry. I practiced with her about 4 years ago when I first started playing and thought she was a really nice person. And.. she did have a SUPER cool first name! ha ha! I found her, and we headed to the court for our 1st practice, literally. We had to work out a bunch of things, since I was used to playing on the right side and play as defense. Unfortunately she did too! So I offered to play the left and to do all the blocking. Luckily I have had to play with everyone and their mom so I’ve had experience doing that. Practice felt pretty good and I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised about the weekend.

After practicing in the humid heat, I grabbed dinner before running a camp for about 25 kids down the beach for my friend Chris. Even though I was tired, I knew this is what I love doing. Being able to give back to kids what God’s blessed me with is usually the highlight of my experience. This time it still stood true. I had such a great time with the kids, teaching them and laughing with them.

Not only meeting these kids was a highlight, but ironically one of the athletes I first started giving lessons to 7 years ago, Libby, who is going to be a senior in college at Mercer (one of their best players) moved to Virginia for the summer. She came out to the camp too, and it was such a blessing to see her again! Afterwards, Libby and I went to Dairy Queen and we were able to catch up and it put such a huge smile on my face to see who she has become since her freshman year of high school.

The next morning was game day and I truly didn’t know what to expect. I was a little worried how we would play together but wanted to give it my all. We drew #13 team and unfortunately it didn’t go so well and they beat us in straight sets. With about a 45 min break we were back playing against a team who we should definitely beat. But our strengths and weaknesses didn’t really complement each other and lost in 2 games again. Ironically if we would have won that game, we were supposed to play Brooke (my old partner). She actually played in the game after us and there was a moment when she went for a block and hurt her finger pretty badly. Although I was still hurting, I ran over grabbed some ice and took it to her. I didn’t agree with anything she did to me, but at the end of the day I want to be proud of me and the decisions I make. It’s hard when you are hurt by someone and know you need to still act in love and grace. I just wish that would have been different. But even though things didn’t go at all as I hoped with Angela McHenry, I was so thankful that Libby, Scott, Chris and his friends Rex and some kids from the clinic came by to cheer us on. It’s great to have people around to support you.

As much as I wanted a real miracle playing this weekend, I was thankful for the miracle of being able to teach kids what I am so passionate about. The next tournament is this weekend in New Jersey which I won’t be at and unfortunately had to eat that expensive ticket, but at least I get to go to Dallas, Texas to run a couple of camps with my amazing friend and old roommate Janae Mertens before getting to spend a couple of days in Oregon at the end of this week.

Thanks to those for the encouraging emails I got last week that gave me a little bit more strength to persevere through times that don’t make sense. Love you guys!

Angela