Listen, I hate to break up the mood
So bunny_hugger's first round would be against the New Jersey champion and ... oh, would I love to give you the game-by-game results. But as a non-competitor, I wasn't allowed back into the one aisle (of three) reserved for the Women's North American Championship Series. There was a streaming rig set up, and people for a Ypsilanti pinball podcast (``No Fun --- All Salt'', according to their logo, which features the Ypsilanti water tower) were explaining the game on-screen best they could. But that was only one rig, and with eight matches going on at once, there was only a small chance of bunny_hugger being on screen. In fact, for all the time she was there, she'd only be on the stream once, for the third ball of a game she won on the second ball. The streamers mis-identified her during it.
Though I couldn't watch in more than the occasional glance if she were on one of the few games in line of sight from the next aisles, that probably wasn't too bad, really. bunny_hugger has the idea that she plays better when I'm not watching, or at least where she can't go between balls to rail about how outrageous and unfair whatever just happened was. I was relieved when she won their first game, though; a best-of-seven series gives you a lot of time to recover, but better than recovering is being in a dominating position.
And, happy to say, she won the second game too, leaving her in the enviable spot of having beaten her opponent on one of the opponent's choices. After that, I wandered over to the VIP lounge where competitors and their family got to wait in-between rounds and watch the stream and also grab snacks. I am not too proud to eat a bunch of Oreos I really didn't need to, here. Also, to see that they weren't streaming bunny_hugger and didn't look likely to anytime soon. When I went back out I saw that bunny_hugger was pacing around and figured that meant the worst, that she'd lost one or even two games. Not so; they were just waiting behind a big line for, I want to say, Road Show. I'm not sure if that's one I saw her come from behind on the last ball to win, or if that was a game in a different round, but she did do that, always a good feeling. The day would see bunny_hugger make a specialty of third-ball rallies to win the game, reinforcement that she's getting better as a competitive player.
After three wins bunny_hugger started entertaining the idea she might sweep her first opponent. She would not. New Jersey took a win, I forget on what. Let's say Jurassic Park, a game people kept taking her to and that's hard to master. It was not the dreaded reversal of momentum, though, just the other competitor having her high-water mark. bunny_hugger would get back to winning, taking her fourth game and winning the match.
For months now, she said that all she wanted to do was win one round. She'd done that now. What would she do next?
I'm feeling like Jackson County Fair rides. But the photo gallery thing seems to not want to load, let alone upload things, so those will just have to wait a while too.
Trivia: It was on dives number 713 and 914 in 1977 that the three-person submersible Alvin spotted the deep sea 'smokers', with the first known extremophiles. Source: Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers, Simon Winchester.
Currently Reading: The Sum of the People: How the Census Has Shaped Nations, From the Ancient World to the Modern Age, Andrew Whitby.