Tennis Season Finale
Warning: If you click on any of the cuts there are lots of pictures so it isn't very friendly to older computers >>;
So I'm a little bit behind on tennis, but only because it was the very end of the season this last weekend D: Makes me sad, but I took lots of photos, stalked lots of girls, got to stare at lots of legs and of course watched some awesome tennis. We had one last home game of the season where I did get to play singles. I still lost, but it was 2-6 2-6 which is better than I've done all season so at least it shows that I'm improving. However, I'm fairly sure we lost the doubles 0-8, or at least it wasn't any better than 2-8. That's the first time I totally can't remember the score :x But I remember my partner wasn't feeling well that day and was about ready to pass out, so that wasn't good. The match we were supposed to have the next day got canceled because of rain again. Ironically it was bright and sunny that day, and raining the day of the match we did have. Oh well, it was a good note to end the season.
Took this one day after practice with my phone. The courts are so peaceful~
Of course, that wasn't quite it. There's also this huge tournament that goes on in Ojai, California every year which we got to go to. We stayed at this hotel that was literally right on the beach and it was really awesome. The floral wallpaper really grows on you after you see the ocean view and hear the waves at night, or drink coffee in the morning on the balcony.
This seagull would not leave me alone... there was a pidgeon that kept annoying me too but I didn't get a picture of it.
The beach, seagull free~ This was the view from our balcony.
The beach/coastline from our balcony.
So this time we left the night before we were supposed to play so that we would be well rested when we got there. Well... when we got there it was like a typhoon. The wind was whipping so hard it was a huge ordeal just to walk down the street to dinner, but we managed.
I'm making this one really small so you can sort of see it >> it's terrible but it's so hard to get everyone at once. One of the girls is hiding behind me >>;
There were dollars everywhere like this, so we made one and wrote all of our names on it~
That one's our dollar~ It was my partner's idea to make the circles into tennis balls :P
After we figured out rooms and got settled into the hotel we basically got to sit around and chat for most of the night. Each room had three girls in it and this time I shared a bed with my doubles partner.
Yes you read that right, mirrored headboard. That's me and my gorgeous doubles partner
Her picture is cuter :x You can see the lovely floral wallpaper too :P
We stayed up until like 1am just talking and fell asleep with the gas fireplace/heater on and the door open on the balcony so that we could hear the waves. In the morning the other girls had matches early, but since I was only playing doubles I didn't have to go until about noon. I woke up at about 8 anyway and ate the continental breakfast at the hotel. Which consisted of Costco muffins and bad for you cinnamon danishes, and coffee. It was crappy coffee, but I managed. When I got there I warmed up with my partner and it kind of started raining, but luckily the weather was nothing like it had been the night before. I knew something was going on though when our game got postponed (not because of the rain). But we played eventually and lost pretty badly 0-8. Afterward we went over to one of the other groups of tennis courts at a nearby park to watch our other doubles team play, and after a few minutes our coach got approached by the coach of the team that had just beat us. Evidently they substituted someone wrong in the doubles and got disqualified, so my doubles partner and I got to go on to the next round.
I spent the rest of the time there staring at this one girl that I had been stalking for months (well okay, it was for all of two days at two events) and afterward our team wallowed in our nearly complete defeat and went off to watch some of the Pac 10 people play at a racket club nearby. There was this awesome doubles game going on, which I don't think I got a picture of :/ but we sat and watched for maybe a half hour before deciding to go back to our hotel. Oh wait, stole some pictures from my doubles partner:
These courts were so cool, they were stacked and brightly colored. And that girl was hot >>; but it's so far away.
That night we went out to a sort of fancy dinner at an Italian place across the street from our hotel and everyone got all dressed up. It was so strange seeing everyone with makeup and their hair down and in skirts and stuff since all season we've only seen each other in sweatpants and tank tops.
My doubles partner and myself again. She did my makeup, I could never get it to look like that.
Everyone at the dinner table all dressed up~
The amazing tiramisu I split with my doubles partner~
On the beach after dinner.
The beach after dinner. The sunset was gorgeous.
The team all dressed up~ Can you spot the doubles partners? >>; hint: we're standing next to each other. All three pairs :P
After dinner we went out on the beach and then back to the hotel and stayed up pretty late again talking and having fun. I got really close to the girls in my room and ended up telling them a little about my fandom and stuff I write, and I got to shower with my doubles partner :P Girls are so weird, even when they're straight they flirt so bad you'd never know. Anyway, eventually I got to bed but since the next day was going to be our last day at that particular tournament I decided that I wanted to stalk that girl one more time. She had two morning matches starting at 8am, and I got my ass out of bed at 7am just to go watch her play. Someday I'll steal some of the pictures my other roomie took 'cause she went with me, but my camera takes pictures far away for some stupid reason so mine turned out bad.
After watching her breeze through a match and watching the first part of her second that started at 11 (the first was 6-0 6-1 the second 6-2 6-0) I had to go off and play my own doubles match at the park venue. When we got there all the courts were taken so my partner and I warmed up in the parking lot, which I don't recommend. Too much chasing balls. And when we finally got on a court it was one right next to the gate rather than in the middle where it's hard to see. It was the game my parents had been waiting for all season. I was right up close so they could see, it was a good doubles match and I think my partner and i played our best tennis. However, there was a reason the girls we played had made it to that round and we lost 0-6 0-6. In fact, after us they made it into the quarterfinal round before losing in a very close three set match.
So after our loss we drove out to Ojai proper, since most of our matches were in Ventura. The closer you get to Ojai the better the matches were, and it really showed. We got there and wandered through this beautiful park where there were tennis courts everywhere tucked into the woods along this bike path. We found a picture of our coach years ago when he had been the runner up in the doubles competition and then my roomies and I decided to go get something to eat. We found a good pizza place and had some coffee at the place next door before heading back to watch some men's tennis. But partway through the match coach called and had us go off to watch the women, which I totally wasn't complaining about (though the other girls were :P ) So we went and watched the end of a couple of doubles matches and got to go check out the clay court~ And while I was out there I found one of these tennis balls that actually said Ojai on it. Coach said that all the balls used to have that on them, but for some reason this year they didn't so I got lucky and found one up there by itself.
Yup, it was kind of greyish clay.
Clay courts with a gorgeous view~
My Ojai ball~
Eventually we made our way back to the men's courts but the match we had been watching was already over so we ended up leaving and heading home. Coach took us on this wind-y mountain road and made everyone sick, but we made it back in one piece somehow and I spend the entire next day sleeping :P
So I'm a little bit behind on tennis, but only because it was the very end of the season this last weekend D: Makes me sad, but I took lots of photos, stalked lots of girls, got to stare at lots of legs and of course watched some awesome tennis. We had one last home game of the season where I did get to play singles. I still lost, but it was 2-6 2-6 which is better than I've done all season so at least it shows that I'm improving. However, I'm fairly sure we lost the doubles 0-8, or at least it wasn't any better than 2-8. That's the first time I totally can't remember the score :x But I remember my partner wasn't feeling well that day and was about ready to pass out, so that wasn't good. The match we were supposed to have the next day got canceled because of rain again. Ironically it was bright and sunny that day, and raining the day of the match we did have. Oh well, it was a good note to end the season.
Took this one day after practice with my phone. The courts are so peaceful~
Of course, that wasn't quite it. There's also this huge tournament that goes on in Ojai, California every year which we got to go to. We stayed at this hotel that was literally right on the beach and it was really awesome. The floral wallpaper really grows on you after you see the ocean view and hear the waves at night, or drink coffee in the morning on the balcony.
This seagull would not leave me alone... there was a pidgeon that kept annoying me too but I didn't get a picture of it.
The beach, seagull free~ This was the view from our balcony.
The beach/coastline from our balcony.
So this time we left the night before we were supposed to play so that we would be well rested when we got there. Well... when we got there it was like a typhoon. The wind was whipping so hard it was a huge ordeal just to walk down the street to dinner, but we managed.
I'm making this one really small so you can sort of see it >> it's terrible but it's so hard to get everyone at once. One of the girls is hiding behind me >>;
There were dollars everywhere like this, so we made one and wrote all of our names on it~
That one's our dollar~ It was my partner's idea to make the circles into tennis balls :P
After we figured out rooms and got settled into the hotel we basically got to sit around and chat for most of the night. Each room had three girls in it and this time I shared a bed with my doubles partner.
Yes you read that right, mirrored headboard. That's me and my gorgeous doubles partner
Her picture is cuter :x You can see the lovely floral wallpaper too :P
We stayed up until like 1am just talking and fell asleep with the gas fireplace/heater on and the door open on the balcony so that we could hear the waves. In the morning the other girls had matches early, but since I was only playing doubles I didn't have to go until about noon. I woke up at about 8 anyway and ate the continental breakfast at the hotel. Which consisted of Costco muffins and bad for you cinnamon danishes, and coffee. It was crappy coffee, but I managed. When I got there I warmed up with my partner and it kind of started raining, but luckily the weather was nothing like it had been the night before. I knew something was going on though when our game got postponed (not because of the rain). But we played eventually and lost pretty badly 0-8. Afterward we went over to one of the other groups of tennis courts at a nearby park to watch our other doubles team play, and after a few minutes our coach got approached by the coach of the team that had just beat us. Evidently they substituted someone wrong in the doubles and got disqualified, so my doubles partner and I got to go on to the next round.
I spent the rest of the time there staring at this one girl that I had been stalking for months (well okay, it was for all of two days at two events) and afterward our team wallowed in our nearly complete defeat and went off to watch some of the Pac 10 people play at a racket club nearby. There was this awesome doubles game going on, which I don't think I got a picture of :/ but we sat and watched for maybe a half hour before deciding to go back to our hotel. Oh wait, stole some pictures from my doubles partner:
These courts were so cool, they were stacked and brightly colored. And that girl was hot >>; but it's so far away.
That night we went out to a sort of fancy dinner at an Italian place across the street from our hotel and everyone got all dressed up. It was so strange seeing everyone with makeup and their hair down and in skirts and stuff since all season we've only seen each other in sweatpants and tank tops.
My doubles partner and myself again. She did my makeup, I could never get it to look like that.
Everyone at the dinner table all dressed up~
The amazing tiramisu I split with my doubles partner~
On the beach after dinner.
The beach after dinner. The sunset was gorgeous.
The team all dressed up~ Can you spot the doubles partners? >>; hint: we're standing next to each other. All three pairs :P
After dinner we went out on the beach and then back to the hotel and stayed up pretty late again talking and having fun. I got really close to the girls in my room and ended up telling them a little about my fandom and stuff I write, and I got to shower with my doubles partner :P Girls are so weird, even when they're straight they flirt so bad you'd never know. Anyway, eventually I got to bed but since the next day was going to be our last day at that particular tournament I decided that I wanted to stalk that girl one more time. She had two morning matches starting at 8am, and I got my ass out of bed at 7am just to go watch her play. Someday I'll steal some of the pictures my other roomie took 'cause she went with me, but my camera takes pictures far away for some stupid reason so mine turned out bad.
After watching her breeze through a match and watching the first part of her second that started at 11 (the first was 6-0 6-1 the second 6-2 6-0) I had to go off and play my own doubles match at the park venue. When we got there all the courts were taken so my partner and I warmed up in the parking lot, which I don't recommend. Too much chasing balls. And when we finally got on a court it was one right next to the gate rather than in the middle where it's hard to see. It was the game my parents had been waiting for all season. I was right up close so they could see, it was a good doubles match and I think my partner and i played our best tennis. However, there was a reason the girls we played had made it to that round and we lost 0-6 0-6. In fact, after us they made it into the quarterfinal round before losing in a very close three set match.
So after our loss we drove out to Ojai proper, since most of our matches were in Ventura. The closer you get to Ojai the better the matches were, and it really showed. We got there and wandered through this beautiful park where there were tennis courts everywhere tucked into the woods along this bike path. We found a picture of our coach years ago when he had been the runner up in the doubles competition and then my roomies and I decided to go get something to eat. We found a good pizza place and had some coffee at the place next door before heading back to watch some men's tennis. But partway through the match coach called and had us go off to watch the women, which I totally wasn't complaining about (though the other girls were :P ) So we went and watched the end of a couple of doubles matches and got to go check out the clay court~ And while I was out there I found one of these tennis balls that actually said Ojai on it. Coach said that all the balls used to have that on them, but for some reason this year they didn't so I got lucky and found one up there by itself.
Yup, it was kind of greyish clay.
Clay courts with a gorgeous view~
My Ojai ball~
Eventually we made our way back to the men's courts but the match we had been watching was already over so we ended up leaving and heading home. Coach took us on this wind-y mountain road and made everyone sick, but we made it back in one piece somehow and I spend the entire next day sleeping :P