Time to start thinking about that thesis

Even though it's nearly two years away from completion.

One of my first grad classes at Pacific is my research methods course which every sport sciences student has to take. The premise of the course is to provide solid research in academic journals to start heading us down the daunting path towards a master's thesis.

I think I've finally come up with a concrete topic to research: the rise of beach (or "sand") volleyball to an intercollegiate NCAA-sanctioned sport. Not sure what the heck I'm going to argue or where I want to go with that, but I am researching all kinds of Title IX information and things like "gender equity in sport." If sand volleyball is picked up across the country, in order to ensure equality between men's and women's sports, most schools will have to either drop a program, or add two in order to keep spending and funds even across the board.

And the best part is that for our sports marketing seminar, class will be held at a River Cats (minor league baseball) game next week to see how media relations functions at the professional level in sport.

....Hmm, good thing I know nothing about that, right?

Bonne fête MONIQUE !

This morning I woke up to this email with the same title as today's blog post. All I saw in the title was "Bonne fête M" and assumed it was for either mother's or grandmother's day. However, neither of those fall in August.

Then I remembered: Today is Saint Monique's day! On the Catholic (and most European) calendars, each day is assigned a Saint based on his or her birth. If your prénom is shared with one of the saints, you get to celebrate on their day of birth.

That means someone needs to buy me a cake and throw me a party tonight. Or a beer will do.

Am I a grown-up now??!

What exactly makes someone an adult? Or a grown-up? And am I finally at that point where I envisioned when I was younger and people asked what I wanted to do when I was bigger?

Maybe I'm not at full-time salary status yet -- heck, the school is paying for my private education on top of my stipend, so I'll take it -- but I think I'm finally close to being classified as that dreaded word: a "grown-up."

For the first time in my life, I'm paying nearly all my bills and get this, I've finally moved into my own bedroom and have the first double-sized bed of my 23 years of existence! Granted, these are minor steps, but having a room to yourself in a house with a large bed might just qualify as heaven in my book.

So this is where my life is headed... I'm getting excited about new "adult-like" purchases and inheritances. Either way, I'm getting way more excited about grad school than I've ever been before. Unlike senior year of my undergrad career, I won't have to balance an ongoing thesis with regular classes. We only have two classes a semester, one of which is to assist with our research, and then it's all thesis, all the time.

Even though we haven't yet officially held class, we're already being asked to research thesis topics and I'm getting quite excited about finally being able to do my own line of study, on my own agenda. No general education b.s. that we had to suffer through during the first two years of our undergrad careers. This is the real stuff.

Again, in more ways than one, I'm "on my own." And a 9-5 workin' girl. Who ever thought I'd reach this point in my life, firing on all cylinders and enjoying it?!

Go for the gold

If you saw it last night, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh officially announced to NBC that they were going to take some time off from competitive beach volleyball to finally begin families with their husbands now that they're two-time gold medalists.

Karch Kiraly, one of the commentators for television, mentioned that they had hinted at that fact in the few months preceding the Olympic Games.

However, I just wanted to put this out there: I called it first. (Check out the date at the top of that page, booyah!)

I wanna get physical

...Please excuse the Olivia Newton John reference. It's one of those days.

So after working in athletics (with Division I coaches and athletes) for almost two months now, I've come to the realization that I really want to get in shape again.

Lo and behold, since 24 Hour Fitness is an Olympic sponsor, it's offering free trial periods to everyone throughout the duration of the Olympic Games. That's good for me! I'm seriously considering signing up when the Olympics are over and seeing how this fits into my budget. The thing I really enjoy about the facilities is how, as the name suggests, they are open 24 hours. I think my best times will be weekends and during the week from 8 p.m. and on. No one was there last night around 10ish. I didn't have to fight for machines like I usually do when I arrive around dinner time, after work hours.



Check this out though, last night I ran 40 minutes straight, covering a little over four miles. That's not a great pace, but a good start for me. Every day I've been building from 25 minutes of solid cardio on, and I'm not talking about jogging here, full on running to sprinting at times.

And I like it! Watch out, Cross-Country Monique is coming back.

iExpensive.

Ok, so I take back my iPhone post. It's going to end up costing me way more than I want, and I'll have to break off the family plan.

But I did, however, order myself a new phone since my two year contract is up for renewal! And it's the Blackberry Curve Titanium 8310:


I'm quite excited about it. When it comes I just have to take it to AT&T and get the newest 3G SIM card (clearly it's been a long time since I've changed anything in my wireless plan), see how much more it's going to cost to pay for Internet service which I can upgrade/downgrade at any point, and then perhaps purchase some new headphones/bluetooth system so I can legally drive and quit with the whole "speaker phone" deal. It's getting old, fast. Sorry if I'm ignoring people's calls, usually means I'm en route.

And the coolest thing about this phone is its GPS capabilities, which is a big reason I wanted the iPhone anyways. So yay for finally owning an up-to-date cell phone, because frankly I always have the cheapest, lamest models :)

Phelps Phever?

Let me first point out that I have no problem with all the media coverage and exposure Michael Phelps is receiving. He's doing ridiculously well and deserves all the spoils he's receiving after working so hard to get to this level.

In fact, watching him is getting me extremely excited and pumped for my upcoming two years working with collegiate swim teams.

The problem is not with seeing Phelps, but hearing him.

Yeah, I said it. After Michael tied Mark Spitz's record of seven medals in a single Olympics, NBC aired an interview between the past and future of the sport. And I was blown away at how terrible an interview M.P. actually is.

I wish I could find that interview online, because at one point I lost track of how many times Phelps said "uhhh" or "you know." No actually, we don't know, Mike. Ninety-nine percent of the viewers in the States have never come anywhere close to even qualifying for the Olympic Games. And he kept butting into the interview wanting to talk, when questions were posed for Spitz to respond.

In his defense, he's just accomplished a mind-blowing feat and was probably out of breath after the 50M Fly. Oh wait, that was over an HOUR before the televised interview. And earlier that day NBC interviewed the swimmer, who never once took his eyes off his Blackberry, texting his heart out.

Michael Phelps clearly doesn't need much swimming guidance anymore. What he needs now is an interview coach.

If I could find his interview on YouTube, it would be one of the worst recorded sports moment since Mariah Carey threw out an opening pitch in Japan.

UPDATE: I found the link for the Spitz-Phelps interview on nbc.com, here it is in a separate window (requires download if you don't already have the latest video player)

Fill 'er up

With gas prices what they are, I'm thinking about possibly saving up for a hybrid vehicle in the future.... very far future.

But luckily gas is sort of going down here. Despite this report done by the Contra Costa Times on the nation's highest gas price regions, Stockton has not actually hit anywhere near $5/gallon, let alone on the 4th of July.

When I was in Santa Barbara for the holiday, I remember seeing gas prices soar near the $4.70-80 mark, but Stockton's never really surpassed $4.40/gallon. To give you a good reference point, it's between $4.20-30 back at home in the Bay Area.

Stockton is anywhere between $4.00 and $4.30 for fuel, but yesterday I found an Arco in the back of the city charging $3.85/gallon. That's pretty manageable for me!

...Though I still would like a hybrid.

Un peu de drame

(And now, a little bit of drama)

Watching the Olympics last night, I felt a bit of the tabloid backlash surrounding the French swimmers. Thinking about the prospect of the French standing on that podium playing La Marseillaise actually made me somewhat excited to see the races heat up.

Let me backtrack a little so you know what I'm talking about:

Laure Manaudou, defending gold medalist in the women's 400 Free at the Athens Olympics was facing off against her biggest rival and the current girlfriend of her ex-boyfriend, Federica Pellegrini of Italy. I heard a bit about Manaudou while living in France, especially during the extensive coverage of the European tournaments and championships this past winter. Long story short, she's a huge celebrity in the French athletic world and was touted to be arguably one of the greatest French athletes if she could repeat in the Olympics.


Long story short, both Manaudou and Pellegrini slipped off the radar during that event, in which all medalists came either from Great Britain or the United States. So apparently all that off-season drama got to the European athletes' heads.

Over on the men's side of the pool, the French men's relay team was being touted as the favorite to take gold in the 400 Freestyle Relay. Adding in a bit of color, Alain Bernard told reporters that the French came to Beijing to "smash" the Americans. And while they did end up shattering the previous world record in the event by nearly four seconds, it was the American squad anchored by Michael Phelps and Jason Lezak who took home the gold.


So much for "smashing" the Americans.

I am really proud for the French though. This really puts them on the map as a world contender. And I lived there twice!

Olympic Fever

Who knew a few years back that I would personally know a handful of American athletes competing in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games?!

It's crazy to think that I worked with all eight U.S. beach volleyball players and two indoor volleyball stars while being on tour with the AVP last summer. It's incredible to watch these intense matches and see errors/big plays and know exactly what is going through those players' heads in that exact moment. That's the nice thing about being a sports journalist -- we get commentary on almost every single play from the athletes themselves. I don't know, I can't explain it, there's just this really big feeling of pride watching everything take place on the world's stage in Beijing.

And now that I'm working on swimming at the collegiate level, the Olympic swimming events are even more exciting and engaging than previous years (since I, myself never really was a swimmer). Michael Phelps?!?

Amazing. Who else could continually break his own world record time after time???

In short, Go USA! I'll be rooting for the American athletes all the way over the course of the next 14 days.

It's not a rivalry unless.... wait, it's not at all.

Obviously since I've graduated from and spent many years at UC Santa Barbara, my athletic loyalties lie with the GAUCHOS. However, this is somewhat difficult to manage working for another Big West Conference team in the University of the Pacific.

When I was first hired on board here in the athletics department, nearly everyone inquired as to where I spent my undergrad years because I am one of the few non-Pacific alumni to secure a job here. Apparently they like to keep it all in the family, especially with the grad assistants.

Anyways, most of the coaches shunned me, my boss almost didn't hire me and many other employees downright told me they were upset with me, solely because I used to be a Gaucho. (Once a Gaucho, always a Gaucho, right?)

After his resignation, the men's tennis coach even told me, "If that's your car with the UCSB sticker, I wouldn't be surprised to one day find a brick in the windshield. And you can't do anything about it because I'm moving back to Europe next week."

For a little bit of background, UCSB has won the Big West Conference championships for many sports over the years. Pacific, who historically has had a really good men's basketball program, only had a handful of teams finish above .500 last year. Not looking very good when measured against Santa Barbara's success last year.

So long story short, a bunch of coworkers have told me they don't like Santa Barbara because we're simply rivals.

However, as a fervent Gaucho supporter who attended/worked at many athletic events in my four years at UCSB, I never noticed such a rivalry. In fact, the only team we vehemently hated was Cal Poly because of the geographical location of the two schools. Last I checked, Stockton is five and a half hours north of Santa Barbara and less than an hour from UC Davis, another Big West team.

Did I miss something here?!

Get to work

Articles I have written/contributed to/published lately:

(These will multiply infinitely once my sport gets underway during its season)

Pacific Alum Ryan Brown To Serve As Assistant Coach In Olympic Games

Dan McCabe Hired as Ticket Operations Manager

Tigers Stay Sharp Midway Through Summer Play

Swimming Bios (Men's)

Swimming Bios (Women's)

Coaches Predict Fourth Place Finish For Pacific

And there will be more to come tomorrow. I love my job! We also have a formal BALL coming up in a few weeks. So there are things to look forward to...

iAnticipation

In two weeks, I believe I will be the owner of one of these bad boys:


Hopefully.

Supposedly, iPhones are super reduced to promote the 2G model and are under $200 if you get a new two-year contract. Well, my two years are up on August 18th, and you can bet your britches the instant I get off work I will be making my way to the AT&T store to ask about getting me the latest in cellular technology.

So this is why being a responsible adult with a full-time job is exciting and way better than going to school on your parents' dime.

Thoughts in my head:

-I received my official LARGE envelope from the University of the Pacific, meaning I'm accepted into the grad student program!

- I LOVE weddings, had sooo much fun this weekend!

- I hate my body, TMJ came back tonight and I cried in the car on the way home, massaged/iced/heat pack-ed my jaw/throat/neck/back for almost an hour and still am super sore. That'd be great if it wanted to go away soon...

- Back to reality tomorrow (and work on Tuesday)