Trivia Night

So I just wanted to tell you guys a funny story. Myself and Kirsten Flower went to go get dinner in the downtown area on Amelia Island the other night during a freak monsoon. We decided to try a simple Italian restaurant but when we went inside the patio the main door was locked. So the owner came out and said they were closed for the evening due to flooding. So we ended up deciding on the Irish pub called O'Kanes next door (didn't feel like walking in the rain). We get inside and the hostess seats us in the bar room and tells us that it is trivia night. Meanwhile, we could have cared less about playing trivia, we just wanted food. So the woman in charge of trivia (Angie) comes over asks us if we wanted to play and we just decided sure why not, it would give us something to do before our food comes out. So just to paint a picture for you, me and Kirsten were the youngest people in there, we were the only table of 2 players, and we had the stupidest name for our group (not going to say, involves tennis though). Other tables had between 4 and 6 players, both male and female players, and cool kick-ass names like Sparta and It's the Freakin' Catalina Wine Mixer (from Step-brothers for those that don't know). So we are already thinking we are going to lose. The rules were simple, no using cellphones to check answers, no going to the bathroom with phone to check answers, no phone-a-friend. Simple. There were 6 rounds of 3 questions the categories were movies, tv, music, geography, vocabulary, and sports. And for each question you either had to give yourself 1 point, 3 points, or 5 points, and you could only use each of them once in a round. So Angie said if you know the answer use a 5 if you have no idea about an answer but a 1. So simple stuff. Here were some of our lucky guesses.
Which Hollywood character has been played by Russell Crowe, Sean Connery, and Kevin Costner? Me and Kirsten just looked at each other like who the hell knows. And then while Angie was coming around to collect our answers I remembered that Russell Crowe just starred in Robin Hood so I put that down and we got it right. Lucky guess #1

Hawaii consumes the most per capita of what Hormel food product? Again we had no idea of the answer until I remembered in the movie 50 First Dates that they keep talking about Spam. "Why don't you choke on your spam!" And Adam Sandler is given a box of Spam and Reese's before sailing off to Alaska. So we put that as an answer and got that one right too. Lucky guess again!

In 1744 who created the first mail order catalog? By process of elimination (1776 was the whole Declaration of Independence so we tried to figure out who was around at that time, and who was old enough to be around during 1744.) We thought Ben Franklin was so we chose him, and again another correct answer.

There was a halftime question and that was to name the these artists best selling album in the U.S. Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, and The Police. We only got Thriller and Born in the USA. The others were IV and Synchronicity. So with these we got an extra 4 points. And at that time we were in last place.

Some other answers were blood, Puerto Rico, Baltimore, John Elway, and Ozzie Guillen. (We only got the first 2 right.)

Then the final question of the night came and you could wager 1-16 points, if you got the question right you got however many points you wagered or you could lose those points. We decided to just go all in for 16, we had nothing to lose because we were in last anyway. But the question was to put these Johnny Depp movies in order from the earliest to the most recent: Ed Wood, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Edward Scissorhands, and Donnie Brasco. As soon as the question was read Kirsten's face lit up because she knows all about Johnny Depp, she has see all his movies and has even read his autobiographies. It was Edward Scissorhands, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Ed Wood, and Donnie Brasco. Perfect for 16 points!

Then when all the scores were totalled up Angie was read out all the scores and it turns out we came in 3rd!!! From last to 3rd. We were so excited and all because Kirsten knew everything there is to know about Johnny Depp. It was great, we even got a gift certificate to O'Kanes so we got a free meal. But Angie said it is very difficult for a group of 2 players let alone of the same sex to win in trivia. We felt like rockstars the rest of the night. hahaha.

Amelia Island 10k

So I finally played a professional tournament after a 5 month layoff. It wasn't the best result (lost 6-2 6-4) but I played a full match. I played and competed and it felt great being out there again. My goals for this tournament were to have fun, enjoy getting back into tournament play, and also just being able to compete against top ranked players again. Did I think I was going to win the whole tournament? no, but I just wanted to get out there, enjoy being out there, and to get some matches under my belt.

Stadium Court

My first round opponent was Tereza Hladikova (CZE), who I guess was top 200 a few years ago. So going into the match I knew the girl would be tough and knew how to work the points in her favor. We were scheduled to be 3rd on after 8am so you would think I would get on by let's say 11. Well not in this case. The two matches before me went 6-4 and 7-5 in the 3rd sets, and I didn't get on until after 2 in the afternoon. We also had to switch courts because the matches were taking so long. But I didn't really mind. However, I did have to warm up about 3 times thinking that I was about to play my match but ended up having to sit back down and wait for the match ahead of me to finish. That part sucked a bit. But on the plus side, I got to play on the stadium court which was cool because they use to hold the Bausch and Lomb WTA tournament at this same site for 20 years and that was the court that players like Davenport, Sharapova, and Schiavone played and won on. So that part was awesome.

Well anyway, we walk onto the court and it's like David vs. Goliath but David (aka me) loses. During the match I figured well she's tall so most likely she is going to have a big serve and indeed she did. It was like trying to return Isner's serve. I tried standing farther back from the baseline to try and get a good read on the ball but I ended up leaving too much court open and she would hit an ace or a monster serve far away enough for me to just get it back and she could tee-off on it with her forehand. Or I stood back and it would still kick up high over my head. All I could do was laugh at some of the serves just thinking they were too good. But a few games here and there I got good enough reads were I stayed closer to the baseline and just reacted to her serve and attacked the return and that worked a few times, enough to break her a couple of times. That helped my confidence a bit. I served ok during the match, but not good enough to hold every time, and when you play and opponent with a great serve the importance of holding is much greater. So I got broken multiple times and that did me in. I didn't play badly, I just was rusty. It was one of those matches were you're hitting the ball great but the ball isn't going exactly where you want it and need it to go. I also could have worked the points a little more, instead of bailing out and trying to hit a winner instead of rolling the ball back deep and starting the point over. But those things come with time, and a lot of match play and that's what the next few weeks are about. So I'm looking forward to my next tournament in Williamsburg, VA this week. :)

A walkway around the courts. So pretty! I had to add it.

Women's Open

In preparation for my tournament next week (first in about 6 months) I signed myself up for a Women's Open this weekend just to make sure I knew how to play and score a match. Now, it definitely wasn't a big tournament (only 4 entries) but hey, a match is a match right? The tournament site, was held in beautiful Palm Beach Gardens at the Ballen Isles Country Club. (Fun fact alert: Venus and Serena live there in one of the million developments there.) But the site was wicked nice. It has about 20 clay courts and some hard courts, a large club house, swimming pool, and golf courses spread throughout the development. So you get the point, it's nice. Anyway, back to tennis, in my first match I played a girl from the Bahamas. I've never seen or heard of her so I didn't really know what to expect. We both checked in at the tournament desk and the tournament director runs through the list of saying we play 2 out of 3 sets, tiebreakers at 6-6 the usual. Then I hear we'll be playing a Coman tiebreaker. I was like what? I have no idea what that is! (I found this hilarious because I was joking around with friends a few weeks back saying that I hope the rules and scoring hasn't changed since my 6 month absence. Well, apparently it has!) I don't know if it's new or I've just never had to play it, but it's just like a normal tiebreaker except you change ends after the first point and after every 4 points, which I have to admit is a bit lame having to change sides so often. But oh well I didn't have to play a tiebreak anyway. I won my match 6-2 6-0. I wasn't that nervous during the match but I could tell after not playing for so long my feel on the ball was off. (My drop shots were like lobs landing at the service line, and my hands at the net were like that of a brick layer's hands, not soft haha.) But as the match went on things seemed to settle down and I played pretty well for my first match in months. My next match was ok I guess. I won 6-0 6-0. The girl I played wasn't very good, so I guess you could say I practiced my serving and returning during the match. But I finally played some matches and that's all that matters. I can't wait for next week when I play a 10k in Amelia Island and another the week after in Virginia. Those matches will be much more difficult but I'm looking forward to playing again. For now it's just baby steps and like my dad says it's all practice until I get to the US Open. Haha. I'll be sure to write during Amelia Island, so adios until then.