Tennis Season.

Finally the time has come. Tennis season is here. All this hard work is finally being put to good work.

This last weekend, we as a team traveled to Plano, Texas for a tournament. Thursday morning at 5 o'clock all seven of us plus our two coaches, loaded into a 15 passenger van. Oh the joys...Sally and I took the back seat. Two of us to a seat, except Maja got the front bench all to herself. Everyone pretty much fell back asleep once we started the long drive. Everyone except me. I just minded my own business in my own little bubble next to the window. I allowed Sally to sprawl out in the remaining space to sleep. All of the other girls seemed to have their own little positions that they were comfortable with. I enjoyed the amazing sunrise, the view of absolutely nothing and...well yeah, that's pretty much all.


Every so often one of my coaches would look back to see what everyone was doing. Of course my teammates were asleep 3/4 of the time. I would just look at them and give them a thumbs up or flash the piece sign. They would just smile at me and go back to chilling in the front. After a couple hours of driving, we would stop to fill up on gas, and of course take a pee break. Or as I like to call it, the "Pump and Dump" (Pitch Perfect movie reference). We stopped for breakfast at McDonald's, drove many more miles, stopped for lunch at Subway, drove more, in between driving we would stop for gas and bathroom breaks. I seriously would have liked to have seen us girls from a different perspective. Like as someone on the outside. I mean, how funny would it be to see a van pull up, seven girls, one by one, sprawl out in weird ways, all walk (or race) to the bathroom, pile back in the van, and take off. Alright it might not be as exciting as I might think, but we are kind of hilarious in the things we do.

To keep ourselves entertained while on this 14 plus hour drive, when some of the girls were awake, we played Would You Rather, Your Car My Car, and just told random stories while jamming out to music. Stupid games, but we were laughing so hard. Would You Rather is pretty easy, you just take turns saying weird stuff like, "Would you rather have a small head or shark fins for arms?" Then the other people make a choice. We came up with some pretty weird stuff. Your Car My Car...so dumb but Sally and I were dying of laughter. I seriously think we gained a six pack of abs right then and there. You just watch the traffic going the opposite direction and every other car is yours, every other car is theirs. Pretty much you just see who gets nice and crap cars and even semi's.

Finally after many miles and hours we arrived in Dallas. Not quite Plano, but close. We drove through town a little. The tall buildings in the dark with their lights shining looked awesome. An hour or so later, we arrived in Plano. We enjoyed dinner at Chick-Fil-A then drove over to our hotel. This time we could unload and stay unloaded. It sure felt good to smell fresh air and move more than five inches. Our coaches told us our room assignments and gave us our room keys. Maja and I roomed together. Team meeting took place in our coaches room. We got our prep talk on the days matches to come and rules of our stay. Nothing we couldn't handle. They never said no jumping on the beds, so I stayed  happy. 

Collins College is where we played the majority of our matches. We played two teams a day. So four matches a day. Meaning by the end of the day we played some good tennis and were tired! Anyways, in college you play singles and doubles. Three doubles teams and six singles positions. That's why the four matches. Our first set of matches was against Collins College. Kayla and I are doubles partners. We lost but we put up a good fight. Not going to lie I was really nervous. This was our first match ever. After all of us were done with our doubles matches, we moved on to our singles matches. I am seeded number four in singles. I'm pretty proud of that. Not to proud of how I played in my first singles match though. I lost. I know I could have beat this girl. I can beat anybody when I put my mind to it. As a team we lost to Collins. Pretty bad actually. None of us were happy, even our coaches. We moved on though and improved our mindset and physical game. Ready for our next set of matches. Did I mention it was super cold? No? Well it was! It rained a little bit and was windy. I'm sure glad we had our sweats. The weather got better as the day went on, but to say that it was enjoyable to play in is a big overstatement.

 

Next we played a school called Seminole. We had to drive to a nearby high school to play them. On a side note...the high school's football field cost over a million dollars. It is super big and reminds me of the University of Utah's football stadium. No joke. Wish I had a picture to show you guys. Anyways...Kayla and I won our doubles match, which made us super happy. We needed a win to help us with our confidence. Plus winning just feels good anyways. If I could remember I would tell you how the other doubles did...but I can't. I played one of the same girls from doubles in my singles match. I lost the first set. But I wasn't giving up. I may have struggled a bit mentally, but I pulled myself out and won the next set. Since we split sets we had to play a tiebreaker. I won the tiebreaker. I was so proud of myself for winning the match! I was also the deciding match for our team win. With my win, we won as a team. Great team win for us. After 4 matches of tennis, our ups and downs as a team and personally, we were some tired girls.  

We headed back to the hotel to clean ourselves up then headed off to a nice team dinner. That day (Feb 14th) was also Patricia's birthday so she got to choose where we went to eat. She wanted Italian food, so we found an Olive Garden near by and went there. It was super delicious!! We are so funny as a team. I seriously don't know what our coaches think of us. We were laughing at some pretty funny stuff while at dinner. Team bonding is the best.

Saturday consisted of four more matches against some pretty good schools. First we played against Cowly. They are ranked 4th in the nation. Ha whats funny as that we beat them as a team. Kayla and I won our doubles match. It was a tough match but we pulled through. Another great win. I unfortunately lost my singles. Like I said, we won as a team against them. Which is a great win. After all of our matches we headed off for a lunch break. Our last and final set of matches were against NTCT. We played a great doubles match but lost. Same with my singles match. I could not be upset with how I played. I played great. My opponent just had the edge over me.

Playing tennis for a whole weekend was super fun. I loved every minute of it. Even though I was nervous, but a good nervous. I'm always going to be nervous for my tennis matches but it is something I am just going to have to get over.

That night we went to Chili's for dinner and had a lot of fun again...we also took a lot of pictures. You'll just have to take a look.

 

What a great lookin' team. (Left to Right)  My coach Shaka, Sally, Kayla, Kindra, Maja, Pedro (Ashley), Patricia, Me and my other coach Meghan.

Saturday night Maja and I went to the hot tub out by the pool. It felt so good. We sat right next to the jets and tried to get massages. Then we went to bed. We were so tired. In the morning we quickly ate breakfast, then at 7:45am we all loaded back into the van to make our long drive back to good ole Thatcher, AZ. Once again I didn't sleep much. I just don't sleep on car rides like that. My parents would beg to differ though. When they drove me down here, I think I slept the whole time. Anyways...Sally and I played 20 questions...That is pretty much a story all to its self. We came up with some crazy stuff. We had a lot of fun. The van drive home didn't seem to be as long as the way to Texas. I don't know how that works out, but I know our coaches were sick of driving. As were we sick of sitting in a van for 14 plus hours. Hey I saw the Mexico boarder and we drove through Border Control. No worries we passed inspection. We just told Maja and Patricia not to talk. Ha ha just kidding. No but really. Ha ha

Traveling to Texas and playing tennis was a fun experience. I would love to do it again. This is my dream and I'm living it. I couldn't ask for a better team or coaches. The only problems I need to fix are my own. We all have our own struggles to make us better/stronger people.

Live. Laugh. Love.

- LCK

Adventures To Come.

Holy cow time flies. I'm sorry for neglecting my writing. Other things have been on my mind I guess. Weird how that happens.

All my new classes are going great. Waking up for Chemistry at 7 o'clock in the morning can often be a struggle, but I persevere. I love my English class. I love English in general, but having the right teacher helps a lot. We have been reading stories then figuring out the theme, conflict, symbols and irony. I have actually liked reading the stories and really thinking deeply about them. My writing class can be a struggle sometimes. I have it right after practice, so on the days that I have class I take along my longboard so I can cruise to class. I don't often make it right on time, since practice ends at 3pm and that's when class starts, but I arrive soon after. I get so bored during that class though. I thought it would be fun and upbeat along with everyday writing, which I love to do. But the teacher makes the class stupid. Not saying that the class isn't good, but I sit in the class zoning out, counting down the minutes until we are done. We are assigned reading and writing shorts, which aren't hard. We have a quiz everyday on what we were suppose to read. We don't necessarily talk about writing or take notes. Which I would actually like to do more of. At 7 o'clock at night I have math. I love math, and I love the teacher I have. He explains everything so well. The only thing I don't like...is having class at 7pm. 

The time has finally arrived. Tennis season. I am super excited. We have great potential as a team. Next Thursday we head to Texas for a tournament. We will be driving down there in a 15 passenger van. With 9 or more of us in there....for more than 14 hours. Its a good thing we get along as a team really well. Very hard for a group of girls to do. We may love each other now, but I'm thinking after spending that much time with each other, in so little space, that all might change. All in all though, I think we will have a blast. Playing in this tournament will help us see how we compare to other schools. We will play two matches a day. Two Friday, two Saturday then start the drive back to good ole Thatcher Sunday. Our coaches told us to pack light. Allowing us only our tennis bags and another small bag. No worries. I am a pro light packer. I packed for a family Oregon week trip in a medium sized backpack. Really the only necessities that you need are deodorant, toothbrush and a clean pair of undies! No but really...one pair of pants, two shirts, a pair of shoes, and my favorite watch and I'll be set. Our coach made the suggestion of someone bringing a straightener, blow drier and such for everyone, so everyone isn't packing one along. All my teammates look at me and say, "Loni you're in charge of that." Everyone laughed. I don't own a single one of those things. No need when you have short hair like me. Which allows me to be an even lighter packer. I seriously can't wait. The next Thursday after our tournament we have our first home match. I hope we can show what we have learned and practiced at our practices. In short...I hope we win! My nerves will definitely kick in soon. We have been practicing for about six months. Its our time to shine and show everyone what we are made of.

Nice tan lines right? I'm pretty proud. Sock and watch. Always the best.

We have a new addition to our team this semester. He name is Sally Stover. She is from AZ, and this is also her first year like mine. We have become the best of friends. Seriously. We are together whenever we are not in class or when she is not working. We tell each other everything. Especially about the boys that we find cute and attractive....ahh....what? She is also my Biggest Loser watching partner. We both love The Biggest Loser so the day after it airs on TV we watch it online together. The two of us get so into it. Then we cannot stop talking about it. We are weird I know. But most best friends together are. Speaking earlier of my hair, I got my hair cut by Sally's sister who just lives a couple blocks away. She did it right in her house in the kitchen. It was super convenient and she did an excellent job. Better than going to the EAC cosmetology school and having to pay $7 for a hour long haircut. The girls that would cut my hair would do a good job, but they were so slow. Because they would have to get it checked by their supervisor or not be sure if they were doing it right, plus they were hesitant and slow. I seriously could have cut my hair faster and better. Actually probably just faster not better. Not sure how it would turn out. But being able to have Sally's sister cut my hair is nice. You all know how much I love my hair.

This might not be a surprise to many of you who know my true personality, but a lot of people here on campus know me. I am not trying to be self con-seeded either. The majority of them probably know me from the boys basketball games. I am their #1 fan. I have my little yelling cone, I know all of the boys names and I am not embarrassed to yell out weird things to the opposing team or stand up and dance on the bleachers during time outs and half time. Many of the people who sit next to me tell me that I am so funny and that they love sitting next to me. I have so much fun and seriously don't care what people think of me. I can yell really loud too. This last week was our homecoming week. Weird because we had one last semester too during football season. Anyways, when I arrived at the basketball game one of the student counsel members came up to me and asked if I would be in the halftime relay. I was hesitant at first. I may not be afraid to stand up in the crowd and cheer and be weird, but being down on the court in front of everybody is different. I asked if it would be embarrassing or weird. The kid said, "Can you make a layup?" I answered yes. He then assured me that I would be fine and that it would be fun. He said, "Come on, I see you at every home game. You are so funny and cheer the best. I know you would love this." I finally agreed to be a part of the relay. Halftime came and I walked down to where we were suppose to meet. Me and 11 other people listened as they explained that we would be put into teams and from half court we would have to get inside a sleeping bag, crawl to the free throw line, climb out, shoot a layup, then run the sleeping bag back to our teammate who would do the same. Sounds easy right? Yeah, it was. I had two baseball players on my team. Actually I kind of told them we would be on the same team. I knew with them on my team we wouldn't lose. There were four of us total on my team, three teams racing. We won. I didn't expect anything less. Now I'm sounding confident and a little self con-seeded. I hate loosing though. Our prize was one of those plastic cups with the straw filled with candy, a Dairy Queen gift card and a card saying we get a free t-shirt. Not a bad prize for what we had to do. It actually was pretty fun, and all my friends were cheering for me. Now even more people know me. That's what I strive for. Whenever I meet someone I make sure they know my name and give them the task of saying hi to me on campus whenever they see me. Or even if they don't know my name, they at least say hi. Many of the football players give me high-fives on campus they think I am a cool girl, plus they see me a lot. It makes me smile every time someone says high to me.

I haven't caught anymore frogs on campus lately, but I did catch a little lizard near my apartment. It was super cool. Its been getting warmer and I have a nice tan coming on. Other than what I have talked about, no new adventures. I'm still a college student eating college food, doing homework and sleeping in between.

Look how little it is! I wanted to keep it. But that probably wouldn't have been the best. Our fish probably wouldn't have enjoyed it.

This is how I rock out on a Friday night. Lookin' my best. Just lettin' out my joy.

Chemistry homework....ugh. This is how I felt about that. Alone upstairs in the library. That's my hangout station.

Peace be to you. -LCK