What to Choose

Okay, so I had an amazing weekend in the amazing, beautiful Phoenix, Arizona. The only hard thing about visiting Phoenix was trying to pick out a place to eat. I am not just talking about a dinner meal; I am talking about the whole course meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  My boyfriend and I tend to have a hard time picking a place to eat, so we both ask each other “What do you feel like eating?” or say “This time you pick where we are going to eat”. The funny thing is no matter what we ask each other our answer is always “I don’t care!” Ugh, I really hate when we both give each other that answer.

I do not like picking a place to eat because honestly, there are so many good places to eat at in Phoenix and it is so hard to pick. For example, there is: Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili’s, Red Robin, Ruby Tuesday, Olive Garden (I love this place), Denny’s, IHop, Poncho’s, etc. See, like I said there are so many good choices it is a difficult decision.

                On Friday afternoon, after watching the varsity boy’s baseball team play in a tournament in Fountain Hills we decided to go eat lunch. I have to say one of the best places we ate was our lunch at was Olive Garden. I had lunch with my boyfriend, Scott, his mom, and baby sister, and two of the baseball player’s parents, Levi Reyes and Dylan Barela moms’. We were all so hungry we had a plethora of the salad and breadsticks well we waited for our food to come out. I had ordered the Chicken Alfredo, which is my usual order…I do not like trying new things at a favorite restaurant.

                Okay so like I said “I do not like trying new things” well Scott’s mom had order a soup for her and the baby because they could not have meat due to Lent, a Catholic practice. The soup she ordered was spinach, it had some potatoes chopped up with some vegetables added in it. It did not look so bad, I actually wanted to have a bite but the baby was eating up all of the soup.

                As I was eating my lunch, I was surprised that the baby was still eating the soup. It made me think to myself "Dang that soup must be really good, I have to try it". Once I saw the baby finally done eating, I took a spoon full amount of the spinach soup. First, I took a smell of the soup and looked at it for about a minute and doubted myself. The second time I ate it the soup! It was...was very...good.

                I am not a big fan of eating spinach because back in my younger kid days I choked on it, from then on it scared me. Now I do not judge food by the way it looks, only by its taste! So now I am going to start trying new things at restaurants.

Good-Bye #11 Holbrook Jersey

“This has always been my biggest dream, I just did not think it would come this fast… My senior year, playing for a state championship! I have been dreaming of this day since I was a little kid, now it is time to make it a reality!” That is what I wrote on my Facebook status on February 18, 2012, the day the Holbrook Lady Roadrunners took on the Window Rock Scouts.

The game took place at the N.A.U. Skydome in Flagstaff, Arizona at noon. It has been awhile since high school basketball teams played at N.A.U., way back to the year of 2007.  When my sister, Kristin Ayze, was a senior and it was also the year the boy’s basketball team made it to the Final Four that season. Walking into the dome, waiting anxiously and butterflies running through my stomach was surprisingly an amazing feeling. It was awesome to see teams with their fans there to support them, and it made the crowd have such an amazing atmosphere.

It was halftime of the Winslow and Many Farms girl’s game, and it was our turn to go and get ready for our game. Walking into the locker room I had my earphones in, jamming out to Nicki Minaj trying to calm down my nerves. I was ready to go…my hair tied up, jersey tucked in with my warm-up over it, ankle braces on tight, and my shoelaces triple knotted. I took a deep breath and sat there with my teammates by my side; I looked at each and every one of them and believed they would play amazing no matter what the outcome of the game would be.

Before any game I have I take a second to myself and pray…which usually gets me excited during the warm-ups but I was too nervous. I mean, it is okay to be nervous for something you waited your whole life for. I spotted my family in the crowd there to support me along with my boyfriend’s family too; it was amazing to see people, “family” there for me.

“Introducing the starting line-up for the Holbrook Roadrunners! At guard, a senior, number eleven, Aaren La Rose!” I walked down to shake the other coach’s hand as well as our cheerleaders as they formed a tunnel for us to run through; I could hear the crowd going wild.

Holding our positions, the ball goes up…and the game began. All the thoughts that ran through my head was “hard work, defense, come on A.B. you got to be stronger, no stupid or lazy passes, and have fun!” I came out of the game with under two minutes left in the 4^th quarter, I had left the court giving everything I had in the game, and sat down with tears rolling down my cheeks.

Sadly, my dream did not become a reality…we lost by fourteen, the final score: 64-50.  Even though my teammates and I did not win the game, we also did not give up on playing. We kept pushing to play stronger defense until the time went out. We went to go shake our opponent’s hands and most of our opponents were my friends. They all gave me hugs and told me I did great, good game! Of course it made me cry more, I ran straight to the locker room so no one else would see me.

It is hard to lose a game like that, knowing it was your last year to play high school basketball, or even for me…knowing that was my last time wearing that jersey since I was a freshman. I cried my eyes out coming out of the locker room to see my families their waiting for me. The best thing they said was “There is only one winner at the end of this tournament but YOU are the winner in our hearts!” No matter if I win or lose, I am so thankful to have family that will always be there for me.

Guardian Angel

 It was an amazing day in Holbrook, Arizona. Shortly after watching the Moving Choir kids perform their dance performance in the auditorium. One of my teammates (Jessica) and I decided to go watch them for the first time this year and go up to Circle K to get a fountain drink. We did not think it was going to cost too much money to get two drinks, besides they were only 79 cents each plus taxes.

I told Jessica I think that I have a dollar in my bag and that we would not be short on money. We walked in with a dollar twenty-five out of coins! I know sounds funny that we did not just take in the dollar but Jessica said that we would be okay without it; she knows her math pretty well.  After trying to purchase our drinks we came out thirty-three cents short. I was so embarrassed it looked like I was broke and did not have money. We asked the cashier lady if we could run out to the car and come back in with the change; once we turned around our “guardian money angel” ask us how much money we were short.

The strangest thing was that he came out of nowhere. You know how the Circle K door has a bell sound when you enter the store? We did not even hear the bell sound go off, so it was weird because Jessica and I thought we were the only ones that were in the store. The guy was carrying a huge bag that had clothes hanging out of it, he had glasses like Mrs. Caffey but more dirty and had scratches on them, and his pants were dark skinny jeans with bleach stains on it. He also carried an empty gallon jug. He helped us with our change but Jessica felt so bad because usually she is the one that helps people out with extra money when they are short. We told the guy thank you and we really appreciated what he did.

                Jessica and I sat in the car for about a good five minutes trying to figure out where the guy came from. I mean, there was no Greyhound buses that stopped while we were in there just freaked us out. It was so strange to us because it was like it was meant for us to be there without the exact amount of change. Every time I go to Circle K I look for that guy but he is never there. He was one of those once and a life time things, he I called my guardian money angel.

NEW EXPERIENCES

Most people that know me know that I am a very athletic type of person. I love sports, it brings out a side of a person that I love to see…and that is competitiveness! But I have to be honest; I did not know anything about football. My first football game was back in my sophomore year during homecoming week. I felt so weird; I did not know what first, second, third, nor fourth down meant, or how many players were able to be on the field. I was a football rookie learner.
Over the years I have learned somewhat more about football, thanks to my boyfriend. His family loves to watch the N.F.L. games; they all have their own teams to cheer on. This year I was rooting for the San Francisco 49ers. I do not have a favorite football team but the 49ers caught my eye by how they played defense. The San Francisco did not make it to the Super Bowl this year but they sure surprised a plethora of people.
Ok, remember how I said I am not a huge football fan? This year’s Super Bowl was actually my first time watching and celebrating the Super Bowl. Crazy I know! You would think families get together only on birthday parties or huge holidays; but my boyfriends’ family gets together to throw a party for the Super Bowl. It was a new experience for me, it was amazing to see family spend time together and to have all that food to eat. They also put together a football pool game to see who wins money at the end of the 1st and 2nd half. I thought I would have the beginner’s luck of winning the pool game but I did not.
Not only was it my first time watching the Super Bowl but it was also my first time learning to make wings and taste some of some different types of chip salsa. There was so much food to choose from, they had everything from and that was: chips and dip, desserts, hamburgers and hot dogs, crackers with cheese or ham, vegetables, and drinks. I think today was the most I have ever eaten because with my boyfriends family there is absolutely no not eating around them. They will make you eat food, it is kind of intimidating.
The best thing about this party was even though none of their favorite teams made it to the Super Bowl, it was amazing how they all came together to watch the game. It is their tradition to do that, they all bring food, help clean up, sit and joke around; now that is when you know you have a great family.