Another Weekend, Another Tournament
Posted on November 19, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies, Travel.
I traveled to Great Bend last weekend for the Turkey Classic. I hadn’t been playing indoors on wood gym floors much over the last year or so but my friend Ramon Lozano is one of my favorite mixed doubles partners so, when he asked, I couldn’t say no. We had dinner plans with Madison and Lindsay that Saturday night but mixed was scheduled for Sunday so I accepted the invitation thinking I could do the dinner and then just drive over and back on Sunday.
My friend Sandi Dobbs (mother in law of Mason McCanless, another pickleball friend) invited me to play in women’s doubles. I was already going to be there for mixed anyway and there weren’t many teams so we were trying to help them out. Plus, Sandi said I could spend the night at her house so I wouldn’t have to drive back and forth on both days. Then, come to find out, there weren’t that many women’s teams signed up so they were going to consolidate all of the play to Saturday. Anyway, it was a bit of a mess but it all worked out.
If I were only playing mixed I probably could have left Wichita around 10 o’clock because mixed wasn’t until the afternoon and it was only a two hour drive. With gender doubles starting at 8:30 AM, Karen and I left her house at 5 in the morning to get there with plenty of time to find the school and settle in.
I told Karen I’d been waking up in the middle of the night at 2 and 3 AM because I hadn’t been sleeping well lately. Little did I know it was all training for the day of our early morning drive to Great Bend.
Karen Fox, Jen Reifschneider, Sandi Dobbs and me
The day before the tournament, Karen’s women’s doubles partner Janelle Lindeman backed out and so Karen ended up getting Jen to fill in. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because she got a partner upgrade.
There were some last minute women’s sign ups so instead of having to play with the men, the women ended up with their own division. There were eight teams that were divided into two separate brackets after pool play.
Jen Tiano and Jenny Cole (holding the frozen turkeys in the above photo) won the top women’s bracket with Karen and Jen taking second (pumpkin pie filling prize) and me and Sandi in third (stuffing prize). They didn’t actually send you home with the food. Those were just props for the photo. But you did get a gift card so you could buy your own food. I’m actually grateful for the gift card because I don’t really like stuffing that much. LOL.
There were twice as many men’s doubles teams as there were women’s so they ended up with multiple brackets. These were the top guys: Chris Heck and Klee Watchous (first place), Ramon Lozano and Jeret Johnson (second place), and Justin McClung and Shawn Clark (third place).
There were 20 or so mixed doubles teams that played in the afternoon so there was a gold bracket, silver bracket, and bronze bracket. I’m not sure what happened in the other brackets but Wichita swept the gold bracket with Jen and Chris taking first, Jenny and Klee taking second, and Karen and Bo (not pictured because had to leave to deal with his car troubles) taking third. Ramon and I finished in fourth, losing to Karen and Bo in the back draw.
We joked that Chris, Jenny, Jen, and Klee flew in (yes, Klee flew the four of them in) just to do some exhibition matches. LOL. Chris joked that the drive from his house in West Wichita to the hangar in Benton was half of the drive time to Great Bend, which a little exaggerated but somewhat accurate. The drive would have been 2.5 hours from my house but it was only a little less than 2 hours from Karen’s house. I’m glad she decided to ride with me because it made the drive go by super quick. It also gave the two of us an opportunity to catch up.
Tomorrow Karen, Ramon, Bo, and I are playing in the team tournament at Nahola. I’ve only ever done it once and it was a complete fluke. I wasn’t part of a team but rather a last minute fill in. The teams this time are stacked with great players. It should be a super fun, competitive time.
Until next time. GNG.
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No Medals but Had a Ton of Fun
Posted on November 18, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies, Travel.
Some people bring back medals from their out of town tournaments. I bring back new friends which, in a way, is even cooler than medals. One of my favorite things about going to pickleball tournaments is making new friends and reconnecting with friends I’ve made from past tournaments. It’s a lot like ZINCON in that way.
Brian and I originally planned to drive down to Oklahoma on Thursday night because I wasn’t sure what time I was playing on Friday but, when I found out that our division wasn’t starting until 11:45 am, we decided to cancel our Thursday night stay and only spend one night at the hotel to save money. We were originally going to take Saki with us but then realized we wouldn’t be able to take her inside the tennis facility so she ended up getting boarded which ended up using the money we saved on our hotel stay.
This tournament was set up differently in that tournaments are typically held on Saturday and Sunday. This one held events on Friday and Saturday. Gender doubles was on Friday and then mixed was on Saturday.
I played with Jen Reifschneider in women’s doubles. I’m glad she agreed to play because I originally only had mixed lined up. This was only our second time playing together. We played together for the first time in ICT Fall-out back in September. We did pretty well (getting further than any of the other local women’s doubles teams in our division) and I had a lot of fun playing with her. I had high hopes for this tournament but also knew that it would be challenging because it was a sanctioned tournament and typically players play their actual level (or sometimes lower) instead of playing up.
We had the misfortune of playing against the gold medal team in our first round and then just had a rough go during our second match. I felt like we really should have medaled because even the gold medal team felt like we were their main competition (we were the only team to take them to 3 games, until the championship match) so I think we were just unlucky.
Anyway, once we were out, I took advantage of the time to catch up with friends like Michael McLemore who I only ever see at pickleball tournaments. I also enjoyed watching everyone play and taking a few pics.
We had dinner at Industry that evening. Our group consisted of over 20 people. Most of us were from Wichita but some were from Hays. We also made some new friends. I invited the two girls who won gold in our division to dinner because (a) I had no bitter feelings at all, and (b) they were super nice. I ran into Jenna earlier that day in the restroom and she was super complementary about how Jen and I played. She didn’t gloat and wasn’t a jerk so I invited her and Danae and Danae’s husband Barrett to join our group for dinner. Incidentally, she lives close to the restaurant and Danae and Barrett were both staying with her so it worked out perfectly. We did have to add another table and a couple more chairs but we made it work and everyone seemed to have a great time visiting with one another over dinner. Pickleball peeps are the best!
We just keep adopting people into the Wichita Pickleball family. LOL.
Here are some pictures of our food.
I tried to get as many food pics as I could but it was just too difficult because everyone was so far away from me.
Brian and I got a couple of the charcuterie plates to share with everyone as we waited for everyone to arrive to order dinner. As is what typically happens, we ordered way too much food. Brian and I only ate half of our pizza and we couldn’t do anything with the rest of it because we were staying at a hotel (Avid) and going home the next day.
Speaking of our hotel, I got to meet Alvaro Terron Gonzalez aka the Spanish Sensation or Jay 2.0 at breakfast the next morning because he just happened to be staying at the same hotel. He is super nice and graciously agreed to take a photo with me. I think he is still getting use to the idea of being famous.
Brian says he think I am more famous than Alvaro. This never would have occurred to me had this guy not asked to take a photo with me when I was at Riverside Tennis Center last week. He said “his mom is a huge fan” – his words not mine. Maybe Brian is on to something and maybe I am really more famous than I realize?
I am usually the one fan-girling so to have someone ask to get a pic with me kind of made me feel special. We’ve come full circle, friends.
And speaking of full circle, my friend Justin (one of our friends from Hays) recently posted this on Facebook. Naturally, I got a kick out of it. Alvaro is super nice. I found out that he is good friends with Michael Douglas, my mixed partner for that tournament. Any time that he wasn’t playing he came to watch us play.
He was watching when we played against Kali Wilson and Kyle VonAhn and saw our heartbreaking 15-13 consolation bracket loss which ended our tournament run. I thanked him for coming to watch us and he said it was fun to watch and then also added, “Too bad Michael didn’t show up today!” to mess with Michael – LOL – who was standing right there. Alvaro is not only nice and handsome but he also has a great sense of humor, and he is climbing the ranks of my list of favorite people.
Speaking of Michael, here’s a picture of him in the awesome team shirt that I had made for us. I had to make a different shirt (rather than a Wichita Pickleball one like mine and Jen’s) because Michael is from Tulsa, OK area.
I think I did great on the shirt design because the tournament director Gene Click totally got a kick out of it. #NailedIt — I wish there was a prize for best dressed because Michael and I looked amazing in our team uniforms.
You are probably wondering how I got teamed up with Michael for the SMASH 2021 tournament. That is a really cool story actually. We met through the ICT Classic pickleball tournament back in June. He and his partner Deana Holman sent me and my partner Mason McCanless into the consolation bracket on their way to taking bronze.
Even though we lost that match it was quite memorable. He said he was amazed how Mason and I managed to win the first game 14-12. I’m pretty sure we were down 0-8 or some insanely huge deficit like that. Michael said was super impressed at the significant amount of mental fortitude it took for Mason and I to turn that game around and actually win it. As you can see from the screen shot above, we lost games 2 and 3 pretty decisively (11-5, 11-5) probably because it took all of strength and focus to win that first game. LOL.
I think Mason and I would have made a deeper tournament run had we not encountered the silver and bronze medal teams so early in the tournament. That was unfortunate. But, anyway, those were the circumstances with which I met Michael. I guess I must have made quite an impression because he invited me to team up for a future tournament.
Being a lower level player, I was naturally super excited to have someone of Michael’s caliber invite me to play. I was like, “Wow. Seriously?” I didn’t even care what the tournament was or when it was. I was all in.
I had my mixed partner lined up months in advance but didn’t have a women’s doubles partner but, as luck would have it, Jen Reifschneider just happened to be available so I managed to snag an amazing women’s doubles partner too. If I was going to podium at a sanctioned event, this was the one. This is the first tournament ever that I’ve ever had teammates who are much higher level than me.
I didn’t come home with any medals but it was such a huge honor playing with both Michael and Jen. And, I also got some compliments on my game. I mean, I could have played 3.0 and 3.5 (because my ratings in women’s and mixed are actually low enough that I could have) and medaled rather than playing 4.0 in both events but how much fun would that have been? Plus, Michael says I belong in 4.0 so I guess I’m going to continue playing 4.0 for a while until I make some podiums.
Progress is slow as molasses but I’m still truckin’… until the next tournament. GNG.
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Fall 2021 Mixed Leagues
Posted on November 10, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies.
I had the privilege of playing in two really awesome mixed leagues this past session. I got to play in the Tuesday night mixed competitive league at Chicken N Pickle with my friend Jamie Lynch and also the Monday night 4.0+ mixed league at Nahola with my friend Ian Carr.
My new friend Tony Mathews was supposed to play in the Chicken N Pickle league with me but his work schedule shifted before the league began. The most disappointing part of this was that we were really looking forward to playing together. I even invested in a couple of team shirts.
Tony is the first partner I’ve ever invited to play with me who’s been completely engaged from the beginning. He picked our team name — Wonton Typhoon — and helped design the shirt graphic, and yet he didn’t even get to play. None of my other partners have ever cared what we called our team or cared what the shirts looked like. I basically just gave them a shirt to wear and that was that.
I came up with a draft design of our shirts based on the team name that he came up with and, much to my surprise, he was like, “Do I get to see the design?”
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It was fine with me but unexpected because no one has ever cared before. After seeing the shirt graphic he wanted to add some Chinese to-go boxes with our names underneath them. Then he wanted the graphic on the back instead of the front. And he didn’t really want the to-go boxes as part of the graphic. So we took it out but left the one on the front left chest. He also wanted to use a specific font that was more like an Asian font instead of just a basic, regular font. There was a lot of back and forth and reworking of the design before he approved it. |
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This is the first draft of our team t-shirt design collaboration based on the feedback he provided.
This is the final result of our design collaboration.
Here’s a close up of the to-go box and name on the front. Mine says “Ching-a-Ling” and his says “Daniel-San” (his middle name).
But it didn’t end there. For the first version of the shirt, I forgot to confirm the size of the main image on the back so it ended up being too small. Tony wanted it as big as possible so then I asked Nicole to make another version with the design as big as she could possibly make it on the back.
So now I had two versions of this shirt which didn’t even work out because the shirts turned out to be too big. I ordered shirts based on the size he told me to get but the shirts run big so then I ordered a smaller shirt and got another made. While I’m waiting for the third shirt, I find out that his schedule has changed and he can’t even play. So now I had three extra men’s shirts that I couldn’t use.
As the league session is about to begin, I am now without a mixed partner but, as luck would have it, my friend Jamie agreed to play with me. Jamie is an amazing pickleball player and an excellent mixed doubles partner so this actually worked out great. I could not have gotten a better last minute mixed doubles partner.
The only downside is that Jamie has an aversion for matching outfits so I really didn’t know what to do with the shirts. I gave the correctly sized one to Tony and then I just had these other two shirts hanging around. I was still hopeful that one day I would get to play with someone who would not only fit in the shirts but also be willing to wear them.
I still wore my shirts every week that we played, even though my partner didn’t want to wear his. Anyway, I wasn’t too concerned about not having matching outfits because Jamie was an excellent mixed doubles partner in every sense which totally made up him not wanting to wear the shirts.
Jamie is so good that, for the first time in a long time, I was part of the #1 seed team going into league tournament night. We played two matches each week for six weeks and the league tournament was held on the seventh and final week. We only had two losses during the entire session — against Dropping L’s (Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance) and against Steve and Jen (Jen Tiano and Steve Vetter) — which was the best record of all the teams. The #2 seed team — Volley Llamas (Jen Reifschneider and Ian Carr) — had three losses. However, Jamie and I really only lost one match together that league session because the loss to Steve and Jen happened the week that Darren Snyder subbed for him.
Here are the team standings for our league leading up to tournament night.
#1 – Wonton Typhoon (my team)
#2 – Volley Llamas (Jen Reifschneider and Ian Carr)
#3 – Steve and Jen (Jen Tiano and Steve Vetter)
#4 – J & S (Jenny Cole and Scott Wolford)
#5 – Conmans (Kim Blackmon and Matt Conrad)
#5 – Dropping L’s (Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance)
#6 – K & M (Kim Knotts and Michael Harris)
#7 – Chudley Cannons (Rachel McMahon and Kyle Long)
#8 – Watch Out (Erica Lopez and Zach Nguyen)
#9 – Shake and Bake (Amy Poynter and Ryan Kellenbarger)
#10 – Pickle Busters (Dawn Hazelwood and Caesar Naftzger)
I felt like Jamie and I had a really good shot at winning the league tournament this session but he was out of town on league tournament night. I got Matthew Rochat to sub for him. He was an excellent sub and as an added bonus the two shirts I had lying around actually fit him.
I wish there was a prize for best dressed team because we looked so legit in our matching outfits! Besides our dope team uniforms, we actually played really well together despite it being our first time ever playing together in a competitive setting. Maybe the matching outfits helped?
We didn’t win but Wonton Typhoon did pretty well.
Being the #1 seed, our team had a first round bye. We on our first match comfortably against Watch Out who defeated Chudley Cannons. Our next match was against Steve and Jen. They are one of the toughest teams in the league because Steve is probably hands down the best male player in the group but we Jamie and I can usually beat them. Even though Jamie isn’t the best male player, I think he understands how to play mixed better than any of the other guys in our league with the exception of Donnie. I really needed Jamie that night.
Matthew is a great player but mixed doubles is not his forte. I had to keep encouraging him to poach and also complimenting him on good poaches all night long so that he would continue to do it because he doesn’t like to poach and feels bad whenever he does. And, to win at mixed, it’s all about the poaching and put-aways. My super awesome setups are often wasted when I play with a partner who can’t capitalize on them.
That loss put us in the consolation bracket where we had to face off against Volley Llamas who had an amazing win against Conmans so they were still riding high from that. Jen and Ian are also a super tough team because they’ve been playing together a lot and have actually won some tournaments together but they’re also beatable when I am playing with Jamie. Perhaps he is really that good but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he knows what balls to give me and what balls to take. Not having as much experience playing with Matthew definitely put us at a disadvantage. We ended up losing that match which ended our tournament run.
Here’s a link to the tournament livestream. We didn’t get all of the matches because we could only stream one court but we did get five hours of tournament footage.
Not making the finals when you are the #1 seed is disappointing but I was very happy with how we played overall. I think Matthew and I gelled pretty well as a team. We had good communication and, although he could have been more aggressive with the poaching, I was satisfied with how much he took vs. how much he let me play. I told him not to feel bad about our losses because these teams have been playing together for a very long time. We actually performed quite well for not practicing and not having played together at all. If we had a little bit of practice together, I have no doubt that we could beat all of those teams without even breaking a sweat. I’m not one to exaggerate so you know I truly believe this. With a little bit of time investment, I think we could be a serious contender in the mixed competitive leagues.
The other mixed league I got to play in this session was the Monday night 4.0+ mixed league at Nahola. I signed up for that league not knowing that I needed a partner. Thankfully, I ran into Ian during Friday night open play two days before the start of league and he happened to be available. It was great playing with Ian because he is an excellent mixed partner but the downside of this is that he got be really familiar with my game (more specifically my weaknesses) which he then could turn around and use against me on the Tuesday night league when he is playing with his normal partner, Jen.
That league was also full of talented pickleball players. There were seven teams, listed below in no particular order.
Kayla Keuter and Gary Miller
Kim Knotts and Daniel Nguyen
Greta Siemens and Bryant Hart
Colby Fugit and Ben Meyer
Heather Griffin and Chris Wilson
Melissa and Brent Youngers
and then me and Ian Carr
The league at Nahola is fun but, since there are only two courts there, you only play one game to 11 instead of playing full matches. You do get to play several games in one night though but, if you lose the game, you don’t get a crack at them again until the following week. It is also only one game to 11 on tournament night so you don’t really have time to make adjustments. If you can’t adjust mid-game, you’re pretty much hosed. That’s typically me because I play like a cruise ship — slow and steady and unable to make a quick 180. It takes me several points and sometimes an entire game to course-correct.
Tournament night on Monday was a bit disappointing because two of the seven teams were missing. Melissa/Brent and Colby/Ben weren’t there. We basically just did a round robin followed by a single elimination bracket. It was kind of anti-climactic. I would have much rather skipped the round robin and did a best 2 out of 3 games to 11 single elimination (or double elimination, if time allowed). I couldn’t really get in the mood for it because it didn’t feel like a real tournament. It felt like just another day playing rec ball. Anyway, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
The next round of Monday night mixed league at Nahola is for 4.5+ so I’m not sure if I can get in it but we did start another session at Chicken N Pickle. Jamie is playing in men’s competitive on Wednesday night this session which left me without a partner for Tuesday night mixed. However, Colby reached out to me a few days ago about taking her spot and playing with Dustin. She will probably return next session when she’s feeling better.
This session at Chicken N Pickle is only five weeks long. Last night was our first night and Dustin and I, playing as Designated Dinkers, are off to a great start. We beat Ian and Jen (Volley Llamas) in 2 straight games and we also beat Steve and Jen in 2 straight games. It was a great league night overall.
I still have several things I need to work on but I have killer defense and, when my third shot drops are on, they’re good for some free points. We did get some free points on my serve too, which is unusual because there is absolutely nothing special about my serve. I think the other teams were probably having an off night. Off night or not, it’s good to get those matches out of the way and come out unscathed. I think I’m finally getting the hang of this pickleball thing!
Until next time. GNG.
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Wild Lights at the Zoo
Posted on November 8, 2021 by Ching under Date Ideas, Things to Do.
Over the last couple of years, Brian and I have opted out of the whole handing out candy on Halloween night. When we first moved into our neighborhood, we were so excited. We would have buckets of candy to give away only to have a handful of trick or treaters. It never failed that we would find year old candy in our pantry from the previous Halloween that we would just throw away because, even though we fully intended to consume the candy in the coming weeks or months, we would inevitably just forget all about them only to find them months or sometimes years later. It just seemed so wasteful.
Our neighborhood just doesn’t get enough trick or treaters because it’s not as cool as College Hill where they have several streets of homes with super elaborate Halloween decorations. So we decided over the last few years to just turn off all our lights and opt out of the whole thing. Typically, we would hide in our basement and watch movies all night.
This year I decided we should do something different. I purchased tickets for us to see Wild Lights at the Sedgwick County Zoo. Some of my friends had gone and posted really cool pictures on Facebook and so I thought it would be fun for Brian and I to check out. I figured Halloween night would be perfect because then maybe it wouldn’t be quite as busy as a normal evening.
Here are some of our favorite pictures from that outing.
We tried to take pictures of everything so it’ll feel like you were there with us too. I hope you all get a chance to check out this exhibit, though. It is pretty neat.
Until next time. GNG.
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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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