That was tiring...

I remember the second time we went through Kansas this past tennis season; we played I think five matches in like four days. It was pretty rough on everyone, and because we play singles AND doubles, it makes for a lot of tennis.

This trip wasn't that bad. Not even close. But it was still really tiring. I played four matches in about two and a half days, and I split sets in two of them, one of them was a pretty tight little straight set match, and one kind of got away from me. Anyhow, the good news is that I finally won a little bit and got through to the semi-finals in Men's 4.5

singles.

I played the top seed and lost in three sets. It was kind of stupid -- I was gassed by the second set. I played OK in the first set and won 6-4, pretty decent little set, but then after that I just started to play like ass and lost. Simple: You don't play your best tennis against a good player, you lose. I'm really glad that I went on the trip though. It was a fun experience in a cool little city, got to see some friends, meet some new players, get my ass kicked around a little bit...hmmmm.

Tonight I started court supervision at the City Park here in Pueblo. It is by far the sweetest job at the park -- I'm sure of it. Especially this week. The city is resurfacing the park courts next week so we are not charging any court fees or anything for two weeks. I am leaving next Wednesday, so that puts me in a perfect little span of time where all I have to actually do is inform people that come to play that we will be charging two weeks from now (when I will be thousands of miles away). You see, people get pretty cranky when I try to collect a $2 court fee from them. Some of them grumpily pony up the two bucks, some of them just get mad and leave, and some of them threaten me with violence. Oh well though, I won't have to put up with it for a while!

I just remembered that I took a few pictures of the courts and stuff in FoCo. They are not anything special -- I made no effort to take cool pictures, I was just snapping things off in a hurry. But whatever. The park that housed the tennis courts was an amazing place. Everything was so green, and the park itself was huge.

The thing I liked the most about the park was that the road to the courts was not a "through" road. At our park there is a road that goes all the way through the park and encourages cruising. At this other park, the road only went so far and then there was a parking lot. No one could cruise by and shout at the players, people didn't drive around and smoke...blah blah.

Still here, more or less

I'm still around. Actually right now I'm at work, but it's so fucking boring that I have resorted to walking around the room in circles. It's really bad. But anyhow, I guess there are some things to talk about.

• The Paper Cup went well. Greg and I won consolation open doubles and I won one and lost one in singles. I lost to Beau from the team, and since he is a stud I'm really not too broken up about it.
• I'm playing a tournament in FoCo next week -- should be interesting. I don't really know where I am staying yet, but it will be the first time that I'm all alone, no team, no coach, no family, no nothing, just me and my matches.
• I have also decided that I am going to work a Nike Camp at Fountain Valley in CO Springs this July. I'm just doing two weeks of it instead of the four weeks I worked in Boulder last summer. Four weeks of camp is rough; two should be pretty manageable. The place looks amazing, and it IS a Nike Camp, so that means FREE CLOTHING!
• It's interesting how I even got that job. Every tennis job I've ever had has nothing to do with any sort of tennis skill or qualification -- it's just that I have known the right people or made the right connection at the right time. The camp director used to coach Colorado College's tennis team and I played against him last year and so when he spotted me at the courts a couple weeks ago he offered me the job. It's that simple.
• I am still in mourning about last night's game. Don't talk to me for a couple more days. And don't look at the ESPN soccernet headline. Christ.
• This must be one of the perks of being a professional athlete. How sick.
• I bet that Roddick would trade being on the cover of this magazine for a win over Monfils (he lost). That sucks...I don't know if the clay brings out the best in the rest of the world or the worst in American kids or if it's some mixture of the two. I'm going to do a Hubie Brown, second-person impression here, so bear with me. I mean look at Roddick: You've got THE serve, you've got a big forehand, you move well, you are coming to net with more success than before, you've got every reason to feel confident in your game, but then you go out and consistently lay eggs on the dirt. And now you're starting to feel like your performance is slipping when it comes to hard courts. That's a hard situation to dig yourself out of. (⁄ impression).

Anyhow, some guy just came in for help. I gotta get.

Editor's note: 5/24/07

I apologize for the grammar errors that appeared in this post. I was at work at even though I wasn't doing anything else, I was feeling harried. Actually, I'm not sorry. Nevermind.