It feels good…
So I did the math. Since April 8th, I’ve been home a total of 16 days. I’m not complaining. I’m just happy to be home for more than five days.
Boy, was it nice to be able to buy a carton of milk last night and know that I’ll actually be home long enough to finish it. Yeah, unlike the science experiments I came home to in my fridge and dishwasher. This was the scary milk that I discovered in my fridge… [exp: may 4 2008] Oops. A couple more months and I could’ve posted it on the cheese blog.
I didn’t know milk cartons could do that. Mike says I get a free pass from recycling under these extreme circumstances.
As promised, here are the photos from the Sterling after-party in Charlotte on the last night of the tradeshow.
As for the tournament this weekend… I’ll just say that with all the work and very little practice and competing I’ve been doing lately, I gave myself a little break and tried not to put too much pressure on the outcome.
I actually ended up playing much better than I thought I would. I won my first three matches and, as usual, lost my last match on Saturday night against my fellow-Coloradoan-former-teammate, Bonnie Plowman. I think the final score was 7-4. I played pretty horribly and was so disappointed in myself. I know I said I wouldn’t be too hard on myself, but I had just come off a 7-1 victory where I played nearly flawless and broke and ran the final game. I was feelin’ great! I just made too many mistakes against Bonnie.
My next match was Sunday morning against tour champ, Heather Lloyd. In the very first rack, she broke dry and I ran down and scratched on the 8 ball. Ugh…
It was a total amateur scratch too. I think I was just trying to get too perfect. I had made so many nice, tough shots to get to that point that I felt so confident I could get the cue ball just where I wanted it. I didn’t want to put too much right-spin on it because I didn’t want to end up with a back cut on the 9 ball. Oh well. Hindsight…
She made some surprising, uncharacteristic mistakes against me. Before I knew it, I was down 5-0. Yikes! At 5-0, I broke in the 9 ball and then won the next two racks, including a B&R. I caught a gear and I was feeling confident.
Unfortunately, I made three significant mistakes that would cost me the match.
#1 - the above mentioned 8 ball scratch
#2 - missed a 9 ball (it wasn’t that difficult, I just babied it and undercut it)
#3 - missed another 9 ball in the final rack after making a hellacious table-length shot on the 7 ball
I did end up winning a few games to make it a somewhat respectable 6-4. After a couple innings of safeties on the 7 ball, this was the shot Heather left me. I just had to suck it up and make it, and I did.
I even got pretty good on the 8 ball. The mistake here was not being fully committed to either how full I wanted to clip the 9 ball or deciding to avoid it altogether and just coming out of the corner two rails for shape on it.
So, I barely grazed it and ended up with a back cue on the 9 ball. I don’t mind this shot, but I have scratched in that opposite corner pockets on it a few times and the thought had crossed my mind. So, I decided to put a little extra spin on it and bring the cue ball all the way back to the foot rail. Unfortunately, with the humidity and dirty cue balls, the spin grabbed just a little more than intended and I over cut the 9 ball. Final score: 7-4, not me. 
GGGGRRRR!!! I wasn’t ready to be done playing. I was really starting to feel good and hit the ball well.
Next stop for me: the Western Women’s Amateur Open in Payson, Arizona July 10-13. It was still a fun weekend and I’m happy to be home. Here are some pics from this weekend:
More pics and brackets, etc. to come.
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Arizona is just a stone’s throw from FastMikie’s Fun House, and the Pacific Ocean is just another few steps from there. To be so close and not experience this 8th wonder of the (pool) world would be unthinkable…