Re-Re-Match

What a fun match! I can always look forward to a good game when playing against Rhonda. We have played each other 3 times now, all under the Sundowners Women's League; I lost to her in October, then we tied 3 weeks ago, and tonight I took the win.

I started out behind again at 2-5 on the first set. Finally stopped goofing around and caught up to 5-5, held serve to 6-5, Rhonda also held serve to force a tiebreaker at 6-6 and then I won the break at 7-2. Second set was just as intense; I was actually behind a game until the last possible opportunity: 0-2, 1-3, 3-4, 4-4, then won at 6-4.

Not quite the longest match I've played this season, but pretty close, lasting 2 hours and 15 minutes. Boy am I sore! But so worth it!

After our match, Rhonda told me she noticed that I have progressively gotten better. I have been playing a lot of tennis lately and am so happy to know that someone noticed my hard work. :)

Good game. Good game.

My New Weapon

I got my new tennis racket today! YAY! I've been demoing rackets for two months now and after serious deliberation, this Aero Pro Drive came out on top.








I could not resist - I had to include Rafael Nadal (tee-hee).

A Day In Court

"All rise. The honorable judge Evans presiding. Court is now in session."

A half an hour ago, the waiting area was full of "traffic offenders" anxious to defend themselves, I was one of them; ready to plead guilty but with reason. My offense? Violating Vehicle Code, Section 22350 - or simply speeding. I had my supporting documents and a persuasive/argumentative speech prepared; but, I was still real nervous about going into court.

There are 3 ways a traffic ticket can be dismissed:

1. The ticketing officer requests for the court to dismiss the case.
2. The ticketing officer does not show up to court to plead his/her case.
3. A trial takes place and the judge rules in the defendant's favor.
   

Time to go in...

The police officers were seated separately from the defendants. The room grew quiet as the clerks prepared for trial.
The judge began with roll call - calling out each case with the defendant's name and then the officer's. In the first two cases, the officers requested for dismissals and the defendants were free to leave. In the following three cases, the parties were to stay and defend their cases at trial after roll call.

Still waiting for my name to be called. Five more cases called - all dismissed. The room was becoming empty. I was growing nervous. There were more officers in the room than there were defendants, one of those officers were bound to be the one that issued me a ticket. Guess it was going to have to come down to a trial after all. I started to shrink into my seat. I was trying to go through my argument in my head, when finally...

Judge: Cressida Lloren Ong
Me: Present
Judge: Officer Harken. Officer Harken? Regarding case #: FL808401, the people are unable to continue at this time. This case is dismissed. Ma'am, you are free to go.

WOO HOO!!!! What a relief! Winning by default? Feels just as good to me!

It was not as bad as I had imagined. It was still pretty nerve racking, oh yeah. But, the officers were casual about the situation; even the judge had a sense of humor. Although it was not as bad as I thought, it's still not an experience I want to relive.

Are You a College Student?

You know you are a college student when:

• You lose track of what day it is. It does not matter, each day is the same - the day that you do homework.
  
• The concept of the "weekend break" is completely lost to you. "Saturday? Oh, you mean homework day?"
• You keep telling yourself: "Sleep is for the weak! Real students take naps!" - that should motivate you to stay up another hour.
  
• When you finally do get to take that nap, the birds outside your window are chirping loudly, welcoming the sun.
  
• Alcohol is the new water.
• Your main food groups are coffee and take-out.
• Your e-mail's inbox is full of correspondence from professors and classmates.
  
• Your day planner is the only thing keeping you from being insane.
• Looking at your day planner makes you want to become insane.

The best years of our lives? It better not be!

We're #1!

It's official. After tonight's win, my women's league has taken the number one spot! Woohoo! Yipee! Tonight's match was particularly difficult; since, we were against the other team in contention for the top spot. Our team won by a total of two sets - one from the 4.0 doubles and the other from the 3.0 singles - ME! I won both my sets at 6-2, 7-6 (10-8).

We have three more matches until the season is over and it's crucial that we stay at #1! Let's go Shooting Stars (that's the team name)!

Speed Demon

Seems like I've gotten into a habit of getting a traffic ticket right after another (see Ms. Jinxed & Another Ticket) . I just paid my most recent ticket last week; so of course, I have been extra careful on the road lately. Or so I thought.

I was driving home on the freeway from my tennis match and I sped right past a cop! I changed lanes and he came up right behind me!

S#*T!!!

My exit was coming up so I moved to the right lane. Sure enough, so did he!

F*$&!

I was freaking out! I cannot possibly get another ticket! Just then, I decided if he wanted to give me a ticket, I will make him drive further. I purposefully missed my exit to see if he'd follow...he didn't. *PHEW* Guess he was not going for me after all.

I gladly took the next exit and backtracked my way home - lawfully.

A Mental Game

I've only lost to one person in my women's tennis league and we had a rematch tonight. I lost the first set 3-6, that was disheartening. It took me a while to warm up and she just kept playing smart against me.

Coming into this match, I told myself: I will not lose!. Well, I already lost the first set and all I could hope for now is a tie (we don't play best out of 3, just 2 sets total - win both, or split). Still did not start off well, I was behind 0-3. Then finally, my serves started to pick up and I got my confidence back. All of a sudden it was 2-3. Then back in trouble at 2-4. Refused to give her a bigger lead and got up to 3-4. Then she held serve and I was in deep, deep trouble at 3-5.

"I will not lose this match! One point at a time. Come on Crissy!"

Held serve to get to 4-5, she had 3 match points and could not convert them. Losing that game so close to winning the match played with her head. Her mental game suffered and I broke her serve to get to 5-5. We each held serve to get to 6-6, again she had a couple of match points and I kept shutting her down.

I was determined not to lose, and my opponent was discouraged having to play a tie-breaker when she had several chances of ending the match.

Your mental game plays such a big part in tennis; it could make or break you in intense points. I have my weak moments; but tonight, I came out on top, winning the tie breaker 7-2.

Even though we split sets, technically a tie, I feel really good about my game tonight and how I pulled out of a hole. I did accomplish what I came in to do - I did not lose. We play the same team in two weeks and they may set up another rematch; looking forward to it.

Raining in Accounting

Interesting day at work. My office buddy moved out this weekend, leaving each of us to have our own office. While unplugging his computer, he managed to disconnect mine and that caused a lot of confusion for the office administrator. Waiting for my computer to reboot, which took longer than you think, I visited my friend who was training his replacement. His last day was supposed to be last Friday; but, he was persuaded to work one extra day for training purposes. We took this "new guy" around the area, showing him the nearby cafe, sandwich joint, and of course, Starbucks.

My computer finally started work. I was in the accounting office this time ( I have 2) and all of a sudden, our ceiling started leaking! Turns out that right above us was the upper floor's kitchen (so glad it was not their bathroom), and their water heater broke. Our ceiling was sopping wet that pieces started to fall off! Luckily, nothing important was damaged.

Weird day. Odd. Interesting

Nay to Spring Forward

I was late to work today :(, the first Monday after the time change. I forgot to set my alarm and my body's time clock just woke up the way it's used to, except now it's one hour late. Aside from losing an hour, most people like the spring forward time change. They love driving home and there's still light out. But what about the rest of us that get up at 6 AM? I got used to getting up with the sun; now, I am up before it. It doesn't feel right to be awake and it's still dark out, feels like I am getting ripped off or something.

Psuedo Captain

We had a mixed doubles match today and I showed up to support my team. It was at the same club where we took a 3-0 sweep a few weeks back; but, this round was against a different team. Apparently, we do well on these courts because we took another 3-0 sweep! Yay team!

Line 1 was played by our captain and Lisa H. After winning in straight sets: 6-2, 6-2, the captain had to rush off to tend to his other mixed doubles team. He then asked if I could finish his captain duties. Since I am planning on being co-captain for my women's spring league, I welcomed the practice.
Line 2, Brian and Shari, won in 3 sets: 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.
Line 3, Al and Lisa L, also won in 3 sets: 6-1, 6-7 (0-7), 6-4.

I did everything I was supposed to. Granted all there was to do was fill out a score sheet. :) Who knows, I may do well as captain after all.

Interesting Practice Tonight

The mixed doubles season is almost over; we have 3 matches left. There was tennis practice tonight and only 3 people showed up: Joel, Victor, and me - and all 3 of us are done playing matches for this season. Where were the people that are still scheduled to play?!

Anyway, aside from the attendance shortage, Victor was late, leaving Joel to kick my tired, sore, and lazy ass. All the men on this team are talkers, I've had my share of talkative men; but, this was a whole other level. Funny how one simple question: "what grip do you use at net?" turned into a half hour discussion. Can we play some tennis now? Reluctant to ask further questions, I just made a statement: "I need to work on my backhand volleys." Boy, did I open a whole new can of worms that time! Interesting, interesting practice. All in fun, I actually welcomed the advice and comments - way too sore to play hardcore tennis tonight.

Just Keep Pushing

Wednesdays are tough. It was not always like this. My schedule worked out well when tennis practices/matches were on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday/Sunday; in keeping with my commitment to getting fit, I added a visit to the gym every Wednesday. Then, the Tuesday practice was moved to Wednesday. Here is a glimpse of my Wednesdays:

6:30 AM Get up and go to work
1PM Hit the gym during lunch hour
2PM Clock out of work but stay to do homework (can't seem to get anything done at home)
5:30PM Leave work and grab something to eat on the way - lately its been a granola bar
6PM Tennis
10PM Starving!!! Eat a late dinner with teammates.
12PM Drive home
12:30 Homework
2:30 Sleep

And Thursday starts just as early... go to school all day and afternoon, then go to tennis practice again. I am dragging my feet today, and it's like that every Thursday. The tennis winter season is almost over and this Wednesday double-hitter will soon be over. I just need to keep pushing. Just a few more weeks! Then again, there's the Spring season that begins soon after.

*SIGH* push... push... push ...push... push...

The Beach

I'm supposed to stay away from the sun. I know this. Furthermore, it's verifiable that the sun weakens me. But, for whatever reason, I really want to go to the beach. I cannot swim, so it's not the water. I just want to sit on a lounge chair, with a cold drink in my hand, and sun bathe.

Is it vanity? Maybe it's the three different tan lines from tennis that I want to get rid of.

Is it stress? Maybe there's just a lure to get some R&R.

Is it California? Maybe living in "sunny Cali" is getting to me. OMG! I'm turning into an OC girl! (that's Orange County for you east coasters).

Whatever the reason, I think I'm going to find out the hard way why I am supposed to be sun-free. Expect a following ranting post. :)

Too Much Sun

The past few months have been great - health wise. I have not felt like a sickly person, and possibly even lived a life of a normal healthy woman. YAY!

Got a reality check today when the sun finally brought me down. I felt so weak and slow. Somehow still managed to win my final mixed doubles match though, probably due to my partner who chased every ball down for me.

I came home around 5PM, laid down to rest...and just woke up (it's past 10PM). Bummed that I did not get to do any homework today; but, grateful that this small breakdown did not occur during an exam week.

It's getting warmer now, I need to watch out.

Study Buddy

It's been difficult doing schoolwork at home. The past couple of weekends, I have tried going to coffee shops instead, and have been successful at actually getting stuff done.

After another failed attempt at studying at home this morning, I gave my friend, Ian, a call to see if he can be my study buddy for the day. Coincidentally, he had just arrived at Coffee Bean for his own study session and I decided to join him.

It's been a long day. I admit that if I was studying alone, I would have been home hours ago. Instead, Ian and I kept each other at Coffee Bean for a little over 4 hours. Agreeing not let each other go home, we took a break and ate a very late lunch/early dinner at the Lazy Dog Cafe. We then proceeded to a nearby Starbucks and finished out our schoolwork.

Now that was a productive day.