04/05/2025 - Oh Yeah Pt.2

Today's Rating: 8/10

Song of the Day: Goodbye - Bo Burnham

Current Book: Why Time Flies - Alan Burdick

Another great day yesterday. I think tournament weekends have to be some of my absolute favorite times. There's something so refreshing and invigorating about the absolute change of pace it bring to my normal day to day life. Instead of having a day built around work or errands, tournament days are built around my favorite activity.

I unfortunately woke up at around 3:30 AM yesterday. Strangely enough, I checked my phone, and it was precisely 3:34 AM which is fairly consistently (within the range of 1 or 2 minutes) when I typically wake up in the mornings. The current book that I'm reading is about time and how we perceive. The author mentions a similar phenomenon happens to him although his time is 4:37 AM which I found very interesting. I never thought the experience was unique to me, but I didn't think it was common enough to read about.

I managed to stay in bed for another hour and a half and got officially up around 5. I continued reading for an hour or so at my desk (with my light bar plugged into a power bank since our power was out). I then went on my walk early since I had a busy day of the tournament ahead of me. In total, I walked 3.2 miles in 60 minutes. I got home around 7:45 and made a small breakfast (something I never do but knew that I needed today).

I made my way to the courts ~ 9:15 for my match at 9:30. It was a repeat of the last tournament's singles final against a local high schooler (who I think is rated top ten in the state). Unfortunately, the conditions were quite windy again, so we both had to deal with that. He demolished me 6-2 6-2 in a rather humbling affair. It's incredible how much better he plays in tournaments than in casual hitting (which I feel is typically reversed for most players). His serve in particular was unreturnable.

But overall it was still very fun! Next up was the doubles semi-finals against the team that has won several of the last few tournaments. I wasn't too worried about this match admittedly. I'm not sure why, but I seem to be the kryptonite for both of these players. They always play really bad against me. In the tournament before last, one of them even said "I don't like playing you". My partner and I ended up taking it 7-5 7-5 after a brief rain delay.

We followed this up with getting on the court for the doubles final hoping to get this in before the rain further delayed us. We were getting beaten pretty badly (6-1 3-0) when the rain moved in. My partner is from out of town and needed to head back, so we ended up forfeiting. The match was a ton of fun though. We finally got a court right in front of the crowd which is always fun to play in front of.

After the match, I got a really nice compliment from a mom of one of the girls playing on the court besides us. She said if I was ever to give tennis lessons to let her know since she really liked the way I play (focused on fun). That was really nice to hear. We chit-chatted for a bit after that before heading home for the night. Maddie and I got a large order from Darrell's (two cheeseburgers, fries, and cheese sticks) to replenish some calories. We watched a rather funny movie (You're Cordially Invited) and headed to bed since we were both pretty tired.

Overall, a great day and a perfect continuation to my two week break from work. Maddie and I will be heading out for an out of country vacation for the next two weeks, so this will be the last post until we get back.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!