Second straight morning waking up before 6, although it was 20 minutes later today. I won’t have the early Thursday the next two weeks, since my two appointments with Crista after today are in the afternoon.

I got home later than I had hoped Tuesday from Phillipsburg, but that’s volleyball. It’s like baseball, no clock and you can’t know when a match is going to end. I don’t like the fact that varsity matches in Kansas are mostly two sets out of three, but it does get me home earlier.

I would rather varsity matches, especially those in the postseason, be best three of five sets, but there’s no way the Kansas State High School Activities Association will go for that. There are more best-of-5 matches in the Kansas City and Wichita areas because there isn’t as much travel, but it’s not practical when teams are traveling long distances, as was the case last Thursday, when the schools came to Norton from over 100 miles away.

The triangular at Phillipsburg involved two visiting schools which are not that far away, Norton and Stockton. I had the longest trip home of anyone there! Then again, I wouldn’t be going that far if it weren’t for Caitlyn and Peggy.

Norton lost to Phillipsburg and defeated Stockton. The Bluejays have now played six three-set matches out of 11 so far. They’re 7-4 this year,  only one win shy of last year, when Norton was 8-26. The Bluejays haven’t finished above .500 in volleyball since 2005, when Peggy’s oldest child, Chelsea, was a senior at Norton and middle daughter Courtney was a sophomore. Caitlyn was 7. Norton made the Class 3A state tournament in 2007, but it was 13-20 after winning sub-state. At state, the Bluejays were beaten three times.

I had to get up earlier yesterday to get my work done, which I did by 10:45, even with a short nap between 8:10 and 8:40. I sorted through the pictures from the Norton-Phillipsburg match and uploaded them to Instagram. I’ll do the Norton-Stockton match today, tomorrow and probably into Saturday.

After my appointment with Crista, I’m planning to go to Kansas City for the first time in seven weeks. I need to get my car worked on tomorrow in Overland Park. I’m also going to Buffalo Wild Wings today and tomorrow; hopefully I’ll see Robb and Dawn at least once. I have to get home either Saturday or Sunday.

Not as much travel for next week, although I do have three straight days in Hays–two for Norton volleyball, and a Wednesday afternoon appointment with Crista in between. Then again, three round trips to Hays will be less than one to Norton.

I finished watching the season 18 premiere of Law and Order:SVU on Hulu. Now it’s time for me to shut this computer down, get cleaned up, and get on my way to Hays. I have things I want to do before the appointment, so I can quickly get out and head east.