Archive for "Confessions"
Rally for Hope and 21 Years
Posted on August 10, 2023 by Ching under Confessions, Life, Pickleball.
I don’t always play in charity pickleball tournaments unless (a) I get peer pressured into doing it, or (b) I have a personal connection to the charity organization. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Hanbeen You and I played in the Rally for Hope pickleball tournament benefitting HopeNet that was held at Chicken N Pickle.
HopeNet is a faith-based nonprofit organization that provides mental health services (coaching and counseling) to anyone at any income level. While I’ve not personally used HopeNet’s services, their Director of Community Impact Jo Lynn Bright, was the therapist/counselor that helped Brian and I get through some challenges we faced over ten years ago so I feel a special connection to the organization. Besides that, I feel like there is a need for mental health services to be accessible to everyone and not just those who can afford it. We all need help at some point in our lives and we may not necessarily have the resources to get the help we need so I am extremely grateful that HopeNet exists.
On this day, our 21st wedding anniversary, I feel extremely blessed and grateful that we are where we are today. And we would not be here if not for Jo Lynn.
Anyway, on a less series note, I played in the charity tournament because I really wanted to support HopeNet but we also got free food and free shirts (pictured above). Seth Mountain and I wore ours the next day at the iPickle Nation round robin at Riverside and ended up unintentionally matching. And then, I found out later from Nathan Peters (who I recently partnered with for another tournament so more on him next time) that the first place team got $200 each in prize money so I am definitely playing in this tournament again next year. LOL.
P.S. Thank you to Hanbeen for partnering with me. No thanks to Steve Vetter and Jen Tiano for knocking us out of the bracket. (Steve and Jen T took second and Nate and Jen Reifschneider took first.)
P.P.S. Happy 21st anniversary to us. Our marriage can now legally drink. Cheers!
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Low Key Birthday Weekend
Posted on November 4, 2021 by Ching under Confessions, Life, Movies.
I’ve been feeling a bit down lately and so I haven’t really been my usual jubilant self. This translated into a pretty low key birthday — unlike previous years when I’m celebrating my birthday every single day of the month for three months straight until the end of the year. It’s just weird. Maybe this is what a mid-life crisis feels like? Anyway, I’m trying to be as normal as possible despite not feeling completely like myself. It might be time for therapy again. I haven’t done anything because it’s not really negatively impacting my health and those around me but I do feel strange so perhaps I should do something about it?
But I digress, in an effort to be normal, we decided to have people over last weekend. As you know, my birthday usually falls on Halloween weekend so, whenever we have a get together around the time of my birthday, costumes are usually encouraged. I love costumes but I’m not one to go all out either so I try to keep things as simple as possible while still trying to be clever. One year I was little too clever with my “domestic goddess” costume idea I kept having to explain to people what I was dressed as all evening.
This year, no one understood what I was — yet again — so I ended up renting 13 Going On 30 for $4 just so people would see “the dress.” I was supposed to be Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) and Brian was supposed to be Mattie (Mark Ruffalo), which is a super easy costume for him since it’s just jeans and a button-down shirt. Brian has outgrown the whole costume thing and doesn’t really like dressing up for Halloween anymore. Not sure he ever really enjoyed it, though he seemed to a long, long time ago. Maybe we are just old and not fun anymore?
Speaking of the movie, I rented it so I actually sat there and watched some of it. It came out almost 20 years ago (2004) so I didn’t remember much of it except for the iconic scenes. I really enjoyed watching it again and it even made me cry in parts. And, no, it’s not because I’m depressed. Movies have always made me cry — even the ones that are supposed to be funny. I’m not exactly sure why.
Here’s a preview of the movie for those of you who have never seen it.
So yeah, it’s a romcom (aka romantic comedy) and not a drama but I still cried. But There’s Something About Mary made me cry too; as did Shrek and a bunch of other movies. I think I’ve yet to watch a movie that didn’t make me cry or move me in some way. Even stupid movies make me cry. Maybe in those situations it’s because I’ve lost two hours of my life I will never get back. I don’t know. I’ll pay better attention next time and try to figure out exactly what is going on and why my face is suddenly wet with teardrops.
At the risk of ruining the movie for you, it’s a happy ending. She comes to her senses, rewrites her future, and marries her best friend. I actually really like this movie. It had enough funny parts to keep me entertained. It’s cute and, even though I’d seen it before, it still made me cry. Happy endings always make me cry.
I sometimes wonder if happy endings make me cry because I don’t understand how it’s always the most mundane things that supposedly bring people happiness. The ending showed them moving into a pink house in the suburbs and it looked like she might have turned out to be a school teacher or maybe a housewife and not a big time magazine editor with a fancy New York apartment. Maybe I cried because even though she had everything she’d ever wanted in her alternate life, she ended up hating herself and wasn’t happy? Once she realized what she had become, she decided she didn’t like herself very much, and I guess I didn’t understand it. I mean, it’s entirely possible to have everything you want and not hate yourself. Why couldn’t she be a big time magazine editor with a fancy New York apartment AND still marry her best friend? I guess that wouldn’t make for a very dramatic movie but it makes me sad that you can’t have both.
Anyway, I forgot that the whole alternate future thing happens while she’s in the closet at her birthday party so I thought it was perfect that I watched the movie on my actual birthday. Maybe it’ll start an annual tradition of watching it every year on my birthday just to remind myself of what happiness looks like because I tend to forget sometimes. Until next time, GNG.
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Life Happens
Posted on October 13, 2021 by Ching under Confessions, Life, Travel.
The other day I got an email from one of my hotel rewards accounts. I asked Brian about it because I wasn’t sure if it was a phishing scam. Something happened to my account but I hadn’t logged in and done anything. After Brian did some investigation, he found out that someone had hacked into my rewards account and redeemed some of my hotel points. They used my hard-earned points to book a room in China. This naturally pissed me off. I mean, I would like to visit China (not right now — but at some point) and I would like to be able to use my points. Scammers just make my blood boil.
Thankfully, Brian got it all sorted and they are giving me my points back. I haven’t checked yet but I’m hoping that my points will be there for me to use on a future stay. These points really do help to keep your travel costs down.
For instance, when I traveled to Arizona for a PPA tournament back in February, we stayed at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa which is easily $500 a night. Our hotel costs would have been nearly $3000 if I didn’t have enough hotel points to cover most of it. Anyway, points are very important.
Speaking of shitty things happening… My websites also broke this week. First, www.ictpickleball.com broke. Then when that finally got fixed, this site broke. My host restored this site from backup but, in the meantime, I lost two blog posts that didn’t make the last backup. So much crap happens.
But there are good things that happened too… On Sunday, World Pickleball Day of all days, I finally beat my friend Karen Fox at singles. I have never ever beaten her, in the history of us playing singles against each other, ever. I usually get a handful of points at best. We played one game on Sunday and I beat her 13-11.
It reminded of the time that I played singles against my friend Donnie Lesperance a couple of months ago and almost beat him. He ended up beating me 12-10 because I couldn’t close the game. If I ever beat Donnie in a game of singles, I am throwing a huge party!
Here’s a group photo of those of us who played in the World Pickleball Day pickleball tournament at Chicken N Pickle in the afternoon. Not many teams competed but we had a ton of fun. We got food and drinks and even got goodie bags. Oh, and I won some silent auction items. So, while we didn’t win at pickleball, at least I won some things. LOL.
On Tuesday I received compliments about my pickleball game from a couple of pickleball players that I admire and respect. Melissa Youngers paid me a compliment on how I played in Monday night league and then later that evening Steve Vetter said I played “incredible” in our Tuesday night league in a group text with a couple of other friends. Two compliments from a couple of amazing pickleball players in the same day is pretty darn awesome.
There are some other crappy things that have happened to me of late that I don’t really want to talk about. It’s nice that there’s these occasional, little rays of sunshine to keep my mind off the negative stuff. Anytime I go through a rough patch, I always remind myself to count my blessings.
I have actually gotten out of practice but I think I’m going to start this again just to preserve my sanity. Every morning start my day with three key things I wish to accomplish and then, at the end of the day, think of three positive things that happened or three things I’m grateful for right before bed. I’m absolutely certain that if I commit to doing these things consistently each day things will start to change for the better and even more good things will come my way.
That’s all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful day. GNG.
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The Winter Soldier
Posted on September 30, 2020 by Ching under Confessions, Life.
I had some friends from pickleball over one night and, when we went down to the basement, Jen T was like, “Is that Pat on your wall?” I burst into a fit of laughter because of my sheer and utter nerdiness. Why, yes, it is Patrick Smith (and also Jocelyn Devilliers). What do you guys think of it? The poster was an early birthday present from my friend Matt Mayfield and, being a fan girl through and through, I had to frame and hang it.
Here are a couple of pictures that Matt took of the guys signing the poster, which proves the authenticity of their signatures.
I actually saw these photos posted on Facebook and, at the time, had no idea that the poster was for me. Matt said he would give me one but I thought he was just joking. I didn’t realize he was serious. I happened to be at Chicken N Pickle the Tuesday before Pat’s birthday when Matt came over and surprised me with the poster. I thought it was ironic that I was getting a present when it wasn’t even my birthday but I guess it’s in honor of Pat’s birthday. Besides, any reason to get (or give) a present is as good an excuse as any.
Anyway, Pat and I are friendly but we aren’t close friends. Our relationship is mostly fan girl to pickleball idol but I still felt compelled to do something nice for him for his birthday. Karen had this brilliant idea to get fan shirts made. It was perfect timing too because that previous weekend Lauren McLaughlin (of Live with Lauren fame) christened Pat with his official pickleball nickname – the Winter Solider. Karen gave me free reign on the t-shirt design so I decided to embrace his new nickname and hashtag by putting it on our fan shirts. I pictured something like the “I <3 NY" shirts but with #WinterSoldier underneath it and Nicole with Simply Charming Designs executed on this vision perfectly.
Karen and I gleefully wore our “I <3 PAT SMI" fan shirts to pickleball during Pat's birthday weekend proving, without a doubt, that we are his biggest fans.
Karen, who is an amazing cook, also baked a delicious cheesecake for Pat on his birthday. We got to enjoy it on Saturday evening and then she brought him a slice the next day. Karen makes such delicious food. So far I’ve had her lasagna (twice), peach pie, Dutch baby pancakes, and cheesecake, and I have enjoyed all of it.
Anyway, Lauren saw the fan shirts we made and she wanted one too but she wanted a tank top instead of a t-shirt. I got these very special white ones made for the two of us and sent hers as a gift to show my appreciation for the very awesome nickname that she gave to Pat. I can’t wait to see her wear hers! There’s an APP tournament coming up that it will be perfect for — the Cincinnati Pickleball Open coming up in a couple of weeks will be hosted by Jocelyn Devilliers and Patrick Smith. Lauren will be one of the commentators for that event so I’m hoping to see her wear her shirt then. I won’t be there in person but I’ll wear mine at home to show my support. At least we can twin from afar.
Speaking of showing support, I got a couple of other shirts made for me and Karen for the weekend of the Cincinnati Open. We got blue shirts this time because it’s Pat’s favorite color. I’m so excited to wear these shirts because I think they turned out great. Also, Nicole got them done early enough that we can even wear them this weekend for the Texas Open, which Jay and Pat are playing in together.
Besides the Texas Open, the Wichita Fall-Out pickleball tournament is also happening this weekend. It sucks that they’re happening at the same time because I know some people really wanted to be able to play in both tournaments and had to make some difficult choices (can’t be in two places at once). Anyway, I’m glad that tournaments are happening again. One of these days I’ll be able to play in one. Until then, GNG.
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Speaking of Grilling
Posted on April 22, 2017 by Ching under Confessions, Funny Musings.
We got coordinating aprons for our friends who were celebrating back to back birthdays the last couple of months. They were all like, “Did Flip and Ching get a good deal on a bunch of aprons or something?” LMAO.
We got the KC Chiefs one for Cory because that’s his favorite football team.
We got the New England Pats one for Jay because that’s his favorite football team.
We got an Alice Cooper/Motley Crue “All Bad Things Must Come to an End” tour apron for Rune because he is the biggest Motley Crue fan ever.
No special sale or anything. We just happened to come across all three of these and so we got them because we like to give identical gifts to everyone. It’s kind of our thing. Everyone gets the same gifts. LOL.
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