Had another eventful weekend judging a boys gymnastics meet.  This time around, it was the level 4 state championships.  Judging is always fun, especially the younger boys.  They always remind me that regardless of how serious you have become with the sport, at the end of the day, gymnastics should be fun.  This is something that I often forget.  Being able to judge, seeing the kids, and chatting with coaches and old friends seem to be a great stress reliever.

With the time change on Sunday, I nearly missed the first session of the competition (yea terrible I know).  Although I changed the time on my cell phone (which also serves as my alarm), I guess I forgot to change the time on the room clock.  When I looked at it in the middle of the night, I I tricked myself into thinking that I had more time than I actually did when I fell back to sleep again.  In the morning, I got a frantic wake-up call from one of the judges but luckily they were able to stall the meet enough (5 minutes to be exact) for me to get there.

While judging was fun, I feel like the last several days have stretched on forever.  With the sad news of the quake and tsunami in Japan, I’ve been feeling emotionally drained and slightly frustrated.  Although I was relieved to hear that that none of my relatives and friends in Japan were harmed, it still pains me to think that there are so many other people that have lost pretty much everything.  I wish I could just pack up my stuff and jump on a plane to go help, but it seems like the situation is so bad that warnings are going out for travelers to reschedule their trips to Japan.  I’m hoping that things will start to turn around for them soon.

Here is another link for all of you that are interested in helping: http://tinyurl.com/45oemkj.  I also donated to the Red Cross the other day!

Red Cross - Japan