Life, Vaulting, and Balance: Settling in and a little bit of practice

Julia and I are almost entirely settled in to our new apartment! We only have a few little things left to hang on the walls and such. But all the big stuff is done! That's a relief... I have really bad allergies and dust really gets to me so every time I move, the next week is pretty full of sneezing and sniffling. We really love the apartment mostly because of its location (right across the street from the KU athletics buildings and campus), but also because we both didn't live very far away. So moving was pretty easy, thanks to Julia's parents who came out from Kansas City to help us out! Thanks Linda and Tim, yall really helped! We had a little unveiling last night as Julia's older sister, Jessica and her husband Jarrod came over for dinner and to see the new place. It was fun finally having a place worth showing off! Granted, it's a very small, one-bedroom apartment, it's comfortable and everything is organized in a manner that makes it feel like you don't need any more rooms. It's very spacious feeling and I love it. Julia got to organize the bedroom and bathroom and everything just how she wanted (with a tad bit of input by me, ha), and I got to mount my 42" on the wall finally. I bought the tv in February and have been anticipating hanging it on the wall every day since then, ha. I love that tv. Anyway, More about vaulting and less about my boring life. I've been lifting and doing some light practicing lately and finally got to vault again last night. Football took over at the stadium and our indoor track will be done with it's renovations later this month I hope. So we put our board runway and mats out on a field behind our softball field. And THAT was my practice on Wednseday, ha. Ryan and coach and I set it up wednesday night and got done right as it got dark outside (pictures below) and we vaulted from 10 steps last night. It was awesome! It looks like it slants a little down to the left, but vaulting felt as good as ever! I think it's also a little downhill, which helped me get on a pretty beefy pole from that short run. I've never jumped on a 16' 17.0 pole from that run before. I think it's a 190 lb pole and that's pretty big for me from that run, since I'm usually on a 15'7" 18.2 (185 lb) pole. I was lovin it, and so was coach. I was really taking off well and putting a lot of energy into the pole, the only downside was that I wasn't getting it all back at the top. My feet kept falling out so I knew I was doing something wrong at takeoff. But we were just there to get some rhythm jumping in and not worry about technique as much. Ryan and I took about 12 jumps and called it a night when it got too dark to see the back of the box. I kept thinking I could take one more jump and one more and then one more yet, but every time you run down that runway during the twilight of the night, that gray box and gray sky and blue mats all sort of blended together and I had no depth perception. My last couple jumps were more of a "jump and trust it" theory. I actually did pretty well doing that and learned a little bit about myself. When I'm feeling confident and jumping well, nothing can stop me, not even lack of vision. I felt kind of powerful knowing I could take off and have a great jump while not even knowing when my pole was gonna strike the back of the box. I loved it and I love that feeling of confidence. I tend to lose it pretty quickly every now and then and it takes a while to gain back, but when it's there... it's solid.
I'm going to the Jammin and Jumpin street vault in Henderson, Kentucky next weekend and I'm really excited. A bunch of my friends are gonna be there and I'm feeling great jumping lately! Oh, and the best news yet... Julia can come with me! She got off work that Friday and we're gonna make a nice little vacation out of it! She's never been to Kentucky, and I can't say I remember spending much time there as a kid so I'm excited to see what's down there! Also, Pat Manson invited me out to a meet in Colorado on September 3rd and Julia might be able to come out to that one too! I mean, I'm not sure if I'm going yet or not. Depends on if I can get some sort of travel money or not but I love Colorado and I'd love even more to be able to spend Labor Day Weekend out there with Julia! Ok well it's time to get some much-needed sleep after spending no time resting this past week. Gosh am I glad moving is over. It just kills me. Ok here are some pictures of my "practice" Wednesday night, haha