Bidding Adieu to Toronto

Tonight is my last night in Toronto before I drive back to Buffalo and then head to Raleigh, North Carolina, to visit my buddy since high school. I haven't seen him in 3 years, so our reunion has been long overdue.

I spent most of the day walking around Toronto, and just taking in the different neighborhoods. I wanted to take pictures but I was listening to music on my iPhone and didn't want to take it out to snap a photo. I didn't want to seem like a tourist. I walked to the riverfront, the CN Tower, the Ontario School for Art & Design, amongst other places in the downtown area.

My buddy Paul lives in Greek Town so there are many Greek stores in the area. We had dinner at a Greek restaurant called Astoria, and it was quite good. I got Lamb Souvlaki and he got Moussaka. No cute Greek waiters, unfortunately, but the food made up for that oversight.

I am heading to my alma mater, the University at Buffalo, before flying out to NC. I want to get a new UB sweater and try to visit an old advisor of mine. This is all depends if I wake up early enough to do all this before my 11:50am flight.

Maybe I should go to sleep?

Almost Ready To Go

I just got back from a birthday dinner at The Porch and I am going though my packing checklist for all the items I need. The weather may be iffy while I am there so I need to bring some cold/wet weather clothing. Everything is laid out and ready to be stuffed in the luggage I just bought. It's got wheels, y'all! I never owned proper luggage and I got a start 7-piece set from Target that's pretty sturdy. I have to start somewhere.

I am loading up my iPhone my stuff to keep my occupied during my flight.


I just got the new Solange album, which is surprising good, so ripping my copy of the CD that arrived (just in time) from Amazon.com. I also have some videos that I want to watch so they are being loaded as well.

Not sure if I am going to bring my laptop because I will be tempted to do work, and that's not a good thing. So I think I am going to leave it at home ... but how will I upload my pictures? Hmmm....

I will be blogging here and using Twitter while in NYC.

Still nervous about the flight, but I am heading east no matter what.

NYC Trip: Broadway Shows

My trip is next week and I am increasingly becoming nervous/excited as my departure date draws nears. Other then the US Open, I am going to see a couple of shows on Broadway. I currently have tickets so see Xanadu and In The Heights, but I might see one more show but I am not sure. The group I am going with are going to see August: Osage County, but I won't be going with them because I plan on meeting with some some friends. I wouldn't mind seeing Wicked, Spring Awakening or South Pacific ... but I will see what my schedule allows.

Heading to NYC

It has been confirmed.

I will heading to NYC for the US Open the last week in August. I wasn't sure about going but I found a cheap ticket and a friend of mine had a free hotel room that I was invited to stay in ... so I would be stupid not to go. In order to thank him, I will buy him a couple of dinners while we are in the city.

While there, I will take in a Broadway show or two and, most importantly, to see a couple of friend who live in NYC who I haven't see in ages (you know who you are).

I am excited and a bit nervous, but in two weeks I will be back in my home state after three years. My mom will not be happy that I will be 6 hours away and won't be able to go back home to Syracuse. But I will be back for Thanksgiving in November, so hopefully she won't be too upset. I think I might make a trip to Poughkeepsie, NY since it is only an hour from the city to visit my best friend since I was 12 years-old. He and his wife had a baby last year and I haven't had a chance to she the baby yet. I may wait until Thanksgiving so I can have more time to hang out with them.

So I am getting ready for my trip and looking over the TSA's list of items you can bring on the plane. Man .. they are strict!

Going To The 2008 US Open?

i am contemplating whether or not i should go to the 2008 US Open. A group of my tennis mates are going and I was asked if I wanted to come along. I am tentative on going, mostly due to my fear of flying, but other than that I don't see why I shouldn't go.

Pros:
- Haven't been to NYC since 2001.
- It would be my first time at a Grand Slam tournament.
- I would be able see a couple of my friends who live in NYC.
- I would be able to see a Broadway show (Xanadu, In The Heights, Gypsy, Wicked, and/or Chicago).
- Get a chance to meet some of my favorite tennis players (Venus! Roger Federer!).
- I have vacation days I have to use or else I will lose them.

Cons:
- Flying.

Hmmmm ... I will decide at the end of the week because I need to buy my plane ticket.

Tournament: Austin, TX

Well, hello again readers! It has been a while since I have posted, but I am back with stories to share of my travels to Austin, TX this past weekend.

Tennis

I was in Austin for a tennis tournament and it was my first tournament in the B division. I had a great year last year with tournaments and I felt it was time to move up a level. I had no expectations that I would get very deep in the tournament, but I wanted to at least win my first round in single. I did that, pretty easily in fact, but lost in the second round.

The weather was good compared to other years, but it was windy as heck. I would toss the all in the air in it would float, almost pause in the air and move either left or right depending on the wind. That coupled with the highest bouncing courts I've played on made the conditions a bit difficult. I didn't adjust to the conditions well and blew a lead of 4-2 in the first set of the 2nd match. I was just completely frustrated and just gave up because I couldn't serve due to the wind. My serve is my "bread and butter" and if that goes I usually have a tough time. But even with the tough conditions I served pretty clean with only 5 double faults. I have been working on developing a kick serve since January and it really helped my game.

My doubles partner and I lost both our doubles matches. It was a combination of bad play and the wind ... but mostly bad play. After winning a tournament and being in the finals in another in the C division, we decided to move up a level. It was a learning experience and showed up what we need to work on to become competitive.

I am going over my tournament schedule for the next year and I want to add a couple out of state tournaments. I am thinking of going to New Orleans, LA for a tournament in April, but more than likely I will head to San Diego, CA. I think I will be heading to Houston, TX for a club team tournament in May if I make the team. Other than that, I will be doing tournaments around DFW.

Night Life

Friday (3/14):

Since I was out of the tournament fairly early I decided to go out with some friends and do the bar thing. The first night we went out to a bar called Charlie's and it was just a simple local bar. When we arrived there around 10:30pm there wasn't many people -- but when go-go boys took the stage the place began to fill up. This when the night started to get interesting.

There was this tranny there wearing a HUGE fake ass. I mean the girl has legs like pipe cleaners, but the hips and butt of Beyonce. It was so abnormally big that she had to continuously pull down this short dress she was wearing because her ass was trying to escape. I was dared to go and grab it, but I declined.

Later we were talking and having drinks -- Sprite for me -- when we were approached by this older gentleman from New Orleans who wanted to take a picture 2 of the 4 people in our group. I was pushed aside and the photo was taken. It was just a (not so clever) ruse to introduce one of my friends to his 60+ year-old friend. My friend JH was cordial but declined his advances. About 10 minutes later the 60+ year-old guy came up to us. We all thought he was interested in my friend, which he may still have been, but he ended up hitting on me. It was a bit awkward ... for me that is, but my friends were having a ball. My friend CS mentioned that we were thinking of going to a bard called Chain Drive, and the 60+ year-old guy began touching my chest and telling me how much I would be loved there. It was all in good fun. He offered to buy us drinks but we declined and headed to a new location.

We ran into the tranny again and my friend JH was dared to get a photo of her butt. He isn't one to back away from a challenge. So he walked over to her and asked for a picture. The tranny was with her friend but she like "Girl, hold my purse." She gave her best over the-shoulder-against-the-wall-while-poking-the-ass-out pose and smiled for the camera. JH must have taken 8 pictures of tranny, and one of her friend so she wasn't left out. If I get one of the photos I will post it.

We left the bar around 12:30am and headed for the hotel.

Saturday (3/15):

After our tennis banquet, a group of people when to 4th Street and hit up a couple of bars.

We first went to Rain. When we entered the bar I expected to get carded so I reached for my wallet but the security guy just waved me in. I really thought I would get carded but the fact that he didn't kind of made me sad. I guess when I haven't shaved in a week I no longer look underage. The person after me, who was in our group, got carded and he's in his mid-thirties and had gray hair ...and he got carded ... but whatever.

We get in and we see some people we know from Dallas and begin to chat. We get our drinks and find a place to chill. My friend CS is trying to figure out what kind of guys I like but point out people in the club and asking if I am interested. This goes on the entire night. I was being goaded into dancing by my friend but I declined their offers. We watched people dance while talking and witness all kinds of foolishness.

There was this one girl attacking gay men on the floor. I am sure she thought she was dancing, but she was basically performing simple assault on them. Miming fellatio, taking off their clothes and very aggressively pulling on their jeans and belts. We thought it was fun ... until I was in her line of fire. She looked at my group and everyone was pointed to me to be her next victim. I declined, but she keep coming towards me. I declined again and the girl gave her purse to her friend, jumped over the railing onto a speaker and then leaped at me. The next thing I knew I had this 98 lbs. girl in my arms writhing wildly. So I had my drink in one hand and her in the other. It all lasted for about a minute before it was over. And to be truthful, it kind of loosened me up a bit.

After a couple more drinks and a Beyonce club mix, we went on to the next place.

We were greeted with two lines in front of Oil Can Harry's: VIP and non-VIP. We waited in line for about 15 minutes before entering the bar. I never been to OCH before and the atmosphere was a bit different than Rain: the guys were older, the music was better, and just seemed like the people were friendlier.

I was in the middle of a conversation when this guy comes up to me and start grabbing me. I seen this guy giving me "the look" at Rain but I wasn't interested. Started rubbing my chest, caressing my face and kiss my cheek. Even with all this he seemed like a nice guy and we chatted for a bit. He told me that he was from Irving, TX (near Dallas) and he thought I wasn't like the other Black guys in Austin because I wasn't weird. He asked if I was embarrassing him, which he was, but I decided to just roll with things because he doing this in a non-threatening way. We has a laugh and I broke away to rejoin my friends. It was around 2am and they stopped serving drinks it was almost time for us to go ... but not before the got a show.

There was this guy dancing around throughout the bar like it was his one private stage. He was dancing on the bar, the railing, and the stage making sure he was the center of attention. The had his target set SW, one of the people in my group, and it got kind of out control. Grind, kissing, tea-bagging ensued. I guess SW forgot he had a man at home. But I guess what happens in Austin, stays in Austin.

We were getting ready to leave when I spotted this guy. He was about 6'1" with broad shoulders wearing plaid shorts, t-shirt, and canvas slip on sneakers with socks. He was kind of nerdy looking ... but I like nerdy guys. I was going to make a move but he got pull on dance floor by some people and the dance floor is like my kryptonite. Soon after we left the bar.

Other

I was really looking forward to Austin because there is this guy I met Houston, TX, who lives in Austin and was attending the tournament. I wasn't sure of his status but I later found out that he was seeing someone through a friend, but through the tournament I felt him looking in my general direction at lot. The only interaction we had was at our banquet. I was behind him in line and he said:

"What is this? (referring to the Alfredo sauce with chicken chucks)
Maybe it's calm chowdah?
"I know, right."

Fascinating, huh?

Anyway ... I had fun and I will be returning to Austin next year for the tournament. If not sooner.

Tennis Tournament: Houston, TX

I have been out of town since Thursday to participate in a tennis tournament in Houston, TX. I went to the event last year with disastrous results, but this year was far better.


I came back with some hardware to add to the collection. My doubles partner and I finished in 2nd place in our division, and I feel good about our pairing. This is only the second tournament together and we made the finals each time.

Our final match yesterday we won our first set 6-0, but in the beginning of the second set I became injured. It wasn't bad at first but it progressively got worst to the point were I couldn't run or move as agilely as I did in the first set. I kept it hidden as much as I could until the third set when I told my partner. He didn't care whether or not I retired from the match, but I still wanted to play because I still wanted to make my opponents work for the win. I strapped my knee/calf injury with tape and continued to play but my injury was now apparent and the opposing team used it to their advantage. And, you know, I don't blame them. They played really well and deserved to win the match. Congrats to them!

I also made the semifinals of my singles division, which I lost 6-1, 3-6, 4-6. My opponent found a weakness in my game and used it to his advantage. My weakness: slow, high-arching lobs. It makes me have to generate my own power which could create a lot of unforced errors on my part. I have to practice taking the ball out of the air to take time away from my opponent. This is one of many things I will be working on before I move up a division in January 2008.

There was a bit of drama in one match, but this is the second year I had some type of drama in Houston. My quarter-final opponent basically called me a cheater and requested the official to judge line calls. Which was fine with because all the questionable "out" calls were four or more inches out of bounds, so I didn't sweat it. I began not to like this guy when after he won the first set 7-5 and then condescendingly told me what a great player I was and I should be winning everything. That is such a head game. I tuned him out, and won the set second in a tie-breaking 7-3 after a two hour rain delay.

I won the third set 7-5 but I was not excite with my overall experience. This by far was the worst experience at a tournament. This guy repeatedly yelled and screamed obscenities, took a minute or more between points (when the max. allotted time is 20 seconds), and I never said a word ... until he pissed me off. He twice called the official during middle of a game, thereby delaying it, and once refused to wait for the official to arrive before resuming play. I called him out on all his behaviors in front of the official. I took some satisfaction when I won this match with a couple a fist pumps, and shook his hand. To make things worst, this dude had the audacity to come to my semifinal match AND try to give me tips. Instead of reading him before sending him on his way, I decided to be polite because I was representing my tennis club in Dallas since I am a board member. Luckily he left before he pushed me over the edge.

Overall, I had a great time in Houston. I had some delicious Greek food at Niko Niko's, got to hang out with some great people, did a bit of clubbing, and developed a crush on this very handsome guy from Austin (who I think was giving me "the look" during our banquet). Unfortunately, this was the second time I didn't get a chance to explore the mall to which our host hotel was attached.

Maybe next year.

Road Trip 2007 : Day 5 (From San Diego to Los Angeles)

Our last day in San Diego, we planned on going to the San Diego Pride Parade but after no luck find a parking spot, I finally gave up and made the decision to bypass the parade altogether and head directly to Los Angeles.

Half way to LA we stopped in Oceanside, CA for food. We walked along the pier and finally stopped at a Bubble Tea. After a croissant breakfast sandwich from Crepes Up! and peach flavored tea, we got back on the road.

We finally reached the outskirts of the LA and we hit TRAFFIC. The traffic jam added about 30 minutes to our travel time but we finally made it to our hotel in downtown LA. Not before getting lost due to Google Maps faulty directions. The hotel was nice, but the thing that I hate is when you shell out big bucks for a hotel AND THEN you don't have free wi-fi Internet access in your room. Why is that? Anyway ... we checked in, freshened up, and headed to Hollywood.

More traffic later, we finally made it to Hollywood & Highland Center right next to the Kodak Theatre.


We exited the mall and headed to the Graumans's Chinese Theatre. The plan was quickly abandoned when we saw of all of the tourists. It was so jammed packed full of people that I began to feel claustrophobic that I had to get out of there. We stopped at a local drug store for water and we began to walk down Hollywood Blvd. to Sunset (Strip) Blvd. We thought were heading toward the gay area but we obviously going the wrong way. I did want to ask for direction to the "gay area," for obviously reasons. But my friend had no shame and we got back on course and we were in the gay area in about 10 minutes.

The gay strip in West Hollywood was an experience considering it is so much bigger than the gay strip in Dallas. The guys, on the other hand, were so generic in LA. It seems like everyone looked the same but in a different race. It was weird. We took a break at a bookstore, and I noticed a woman reading the new Harry Potter book with a cup of Pinkberry. I asked where the nearest Pinkberry was and she pointed me in the right direction.

Before entering Pinkberry, the doorman greeted me (yeah...they have a doorman) with a "Welcome to Pinkberry!" and I had to figure out what the hell was Pinkberry so I could make an order. I thought it was ice cream but it actually some kind of frozen yogurt treat. I got a green tea with raspberries, blueberries and chocolate chips. It was weird, yet delicious.

We made our way back to the Hollywood & Highland Center three hours after we started, and the crowds were still huge. On our way to the food court I saw someone familiar. I have seen him somewhere but I wasn't sure where ... until it hit me.

Okay ... I am going to ask you not to judge me when I reveal how the person was. Thanks!

I recently watched a documentary called Mr. Leather, that Rich wrote about on his blog FourFour. I really liked it, but Rich ... not so much.


His name was Gannon Grey. Gannon was walking in front of us in a "Butch Bear" long-sleeve t-shirt and I excitedly I told my friend who was. I know the guy wasn't "famous" but I still excited. My friend told me that I should go talk to him but I couldn't work up the nerve to introduce myself, so I decide to stalk (in a good way) him a bit further. After he got himself a cookie/ice-cream treat from Nestlé and took a seat in the middle of the food court, I decided to make my move. I casually walked up to him and asked if he was from the documentary, which he confirmed my identification, and we chatted for a minute. I was a wreck. He was very nice to indulge me. He was much more handsome in person than in the documentary. He was a bit more grey and thinner, but handsome nonetheless. This even made me more nervous, so I decided not to ask to take a picture with him because I had to get out of there before I made a lost it.

We walked around the mall a bit more before heading Santa Monica Beach.


Santa Monica Beach was fun ... scary, expensive, cold ... but fun.

We had dinner at the Third Street Promenade were we had to wait almost and hour for pizza. It took about 20 minutes before our waiter even greeted us. We were not happy about our service.

We heading back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

Road Trip 2007: Day 4 (San Diego Con't)

We slept in late, and then had breakfast at the hotel. We were supposed to have a free continental breakfast, but they ran out of food. I don't know how, but they did. So we had to order from the menu and given a 10% discount. After breakfast we set out to walk around the downtown area.

Our first stop was Horton Plaza, which is a mall in the center of downtown.


The mall was as beautiful as it was confusing to navigate within it.

From there we headed south toward the bay and the Gaslamp Quarter. I saw tennis courts on top of the convention center and I tried to get there to view the conditions and to see if I could rent a court. Unfortunately, the courts were for guest staying at the Marriott. But I was able to get this picture:

photo coming soon

We walked to PETCO Park where the San Diego Padres play. I confused it with the stadium where the San Francisco Giants play because I know very little about baseball. I thought about going to a games because there was a lot of hoopla about a tribute to Tony Gwynn. We decided against it and continued our walk for a couple more hours before heading back to the hotel for some rest.

Our next stop was the San Diego Zoo:


This is the view from the Skyfari, which I was keen on taking but regretted it soon after because we were up so high. I have a fear of heights, y'all.

The zoo was nice, but most of the big cats were sleeping because it in the middle of the afternoon. We did a bus tour of the park and I got some good shots of the animals from my vantage point.


My friend told me that his friends urged him to visit the San Diego Zoo because it was one of the best zoos. I only found it okay. I think the Toronto Zoo was much better, but the last time I was at a zoo was 12 years ago.

Back to the hotel for a change of clothes and then off to dinner in Little Italy.

We walked from our hotel to a place called Zagarella Italian Restaurant, and had dinner on their terrace. Our waitress was nice, yet forgetful, but it didn't spoil our dinner. During the course of our meal there was their guy (which I assumed was Eastern European) pacing next to our table on the terrace. I thought the was an escort, but I can't confirm that because I didn't ask. We finished our meal, and then walked to Extraordinary Desserts for, what else, dessert. I got Gianduia (description: Myer's Rum laced chocolate cake layers are married with hazelnut buttercream, chocolate mouse, and boysenberry perserves.) It was delicious.

Back to the hotel for digestion and sleep.

More San Diego Zoo pictures: here

Road Trip 2007 - Day 3 (San Diego, California)

There were more mountains to traverse at break-neck speeds from Tucson, AZ to our next destination San Diego, California. I think we went up and down two mountains ranges but there was some neat stuff along the way. There was a wind farm, huge sand dunes that seem to comes from nowhere and a water channel that was redirected from the Colorado River for irrigation of Southern California.


When we it the suburbs of San Diego and the entire landscape changed. There were expensive houses on the side of mountains, stores and TRAFFIC. The traffic wasn't terribly bad, said the guy who is the passenger/navigator, but it was definitely much more congested. We ended up going the wrong way en route to our hotel but we eventually got back on track and made it to the downtown hotel. After checking in, and see the amazing view of the bay from our room, we heading out to the Historic Old Town section of the city.

We had lunch at a local restaurant called O'Hungry's, and when we finished we decided to walk around. We hiked up a hill leading to Presidio Park, which I wasn't too thrilled about because I didn't have proper footwear ... but I trucked on away. At the very top of Presidio Park you could see the bay/ocean and all the congestion on the highway. From there, we headed to gay (or as it described, "alternative") section of San Diego called Hillcrest.

When we arrived in Hillcrest (after getting lost) we found parking and began to walk around the area. Hillcrest is much bigger area than the gay section of Oak Lawn in Dallas. We walked for blocks and there seemed to be rainbow flags posted everywhere. But like Dallas, there are new condos being built everywhere for ridiculous amounts of money. We drove around the downtown area for a bit and then made our way back to the hotel for a bit of relaxation.

Since we were both still stuffed from our late lunch, we decided to head out for dessert. When I told some people I was heading to San Diego, I was urged to visit Extraordinary Desserts. There was a location two blocks from were we where staying, so we walked for some sugary goodness. The desserts were indeed extraordinary. I got the Triple Chocolate Mousse which was made more extravagant with the addition of edible flowers and gold leaf. I made plans to go back the next day to try something else.

Now completely full, we headed back to the hotel for sleep.

Next ... second day of San Diego.

Road Trip 2007: Day 2 (Lincoln National Forest and White Sands National Monument)

Originally, our route to Tucson took us south of Carlsbad towards El Paso, Texas, but due to the suggest of someone I know we decided to head north and visit White Sands National Monument. Armed with a set of new directions, we proceeded on our journey.

An hour or so into our trip the elevation began to rise quick as we traveled up through the Sacramento Mountains. The road was abundant with twist and turns that put my stomach into knots. I have with issues with heights, and adding sharps banks at speeds of 50+ miles per hour nauseated me. We reached the height of the mountain and stopped in a town called Cloudcroft, NM for gas and provisions. After filling up the tank we began our decent down the other side of the mountain. As we made our way down we entered in the Lincoln National Forest.

From Lincoln National Forest Photos

We snapped a few pictures and got back on the road.

Further down the mountain we saw a long a strip of white mass near the mountains ahead. My friend thought what we were seeing was just a mirage, but the it was just to massive to be that. Shortly after we saw signs pointing us toward Whites Sands National Monument, which proved what we were seeing was real.

We arrived at the park and made our way to the information desk to get information on the park and its attractions. Sleds were available in the gift shop to slide down the sides of the sand dunes. They were expensive, but it is something one should do while at the park. And they bought back the sleds at the end of your stay so you don't end up losing too much money. We grabbed our sleds, paid the entrance fee and proceeded through 1.3 miles of white sand.

From White Sands National Monument Photos

The sand dunes were massive and walking up them took some effort. On the very top of the dune everything was extremely brights that it took sometime to my eyes to adjust to the light reflecting off the white sand. The view of the dark hazy mountains in the distance against the white sand was worth the squinting. The warm sand between my toes, carefully avoids the fire ants, felt great. After taking in the view, we decided to slide down the dunes. My friend was braver that I was by going a ~75 degree slope, and then proceeded to fall of his sled and somersault backwards down the hill. Fortunately, he was okay ... but I found a more gentle slope to conquer. I got on my sled and got stuck in the sand. I hopped further to the edge of the slope but no progress in sliding. I just went deeper into the soft sand before sliding (slowly) down the hill as my friend and a bystander laughed along with me. Covered in sand, my friend made the observation that were forbidden to take sand out of the park, but we did not have much of a choice when it was lodged in every possible crevasse. After a couple of hours walking along a few trails, we decided it was time to hit the road.

A few hours later ....

We made it to Tucson, AZ. Nothing more to say about that. It looked okay but we decided that it wasn't worth venturing around. A couple of hours prior to our arrival the cities experience a bad monsoon which caused some damaged around the city. We experienced some wind and rain, but nothing too serious.

Dinner at Denny's and the back to the hotel for rest.

Next stop ... San Diego, California.

More Trip Recaps and Photos Coming Soon

I haven't been with at my computer because I have been out and about on vacation. I will have a recap of day 2 and 3 of my trip tomorrow. I am at the Grand Canyon now at the swankiest hotel thus far on my trip. The freaking hotel has a bowling alley. For real! But it cost $5 per game so it is totally not worth it.

Updates coming soon...

Road Trip 2007: Day 1 (Carlsbad Caverns National Park)

I am currently on a 12 day road trip, but I plan on updating my blog daily with photos and stories from my journey. Places I will travel during my trip:

Carlsbad Caverns National Park (Carlsbad, NM)
White Sands National Monument (New Mexico)
California (San Diego and Los Angeles)
Las Vegas, Neveda
Grand Canyon Nation Park (Arizona)

... and other stops in between. This would be the farthest west I have ever traveled so I am extremely excited (and a bit nervous) to see other parts of the country. It should be a fun trip. I am with a friend of mine, and this would be our third road trip together. Our first road trip we ended up going to Provincetown, MA; and our second trip was my move from Buffalo, NY to Dallas, TX.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

From Carlsbad Cave...

We almost didn't make it to the caverns because we didn't leave our hotel until 4:20pm and the caverns closed at 5pm. We booked it to the park and got our tickets with a minute to spare. I got a bit sick in the car due to the increasing altitude, high speeds, and winding roads. The sickness passed and we got on an elevator and headed down 750 feet.

Seeing all of the stalactites, stalagmites and the pits which seem to lead nowhere was very interesting. Too bad that tour was somewhat ruined by the Rangers rushing people out because it was closing. But they were nice about rushing out of the caverns and gave us some additional views by turning off the lights.

If you are ever near the Carlsbad Caverns, it is a must see.

Travel, Tunes and Tennis

Is the week over yet? This past week was extremely busy.

I had to go on a very short notice trip to San Antonio, TX for work. I was suppose to go this week but for a project, that has been nothing but problems, got bumped up to immediate priority and I had like 36 hours to prepare for the trip. I left this past Thursday at 6am and I got into San Antonio at 10am. It was a really good drive. There was hardly any traffic and I had my iPod full of music to keep me entertained.


I am totally obsessed with Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album. I listened to it at least 10 times during my trip. I've only seen Amy Winehouse in pictures and thought she was rock and/or pop singers. I was reading a blog post on Dallaspenn.com and he posted some songs from her latest album. I was shocked to heard a r&b/jazz/soul type voice coming out of this girl. I download the album and been listening to it for a couple of weeks now. When I get my Björk CD next week, I will have to purchase Back to Black as well.

This past Saturday, I was in a tennis tournament at a country club in North Dallas area. I won my quarter final round, but lost in the semifinals to the number 2 seed in my division. I wasn't sure joining the tournament because it was being held at a location frequently visited by a guy I used to date name Michael. I haven't seen or heard from him since the last tournament because, basically, I didn't want to. I thought if I saw during the tournament I would be with my group of people and I would be able to brush him off. But this didn't happen. During the middle of first round match he placed on the court right next to me. I was not happy about that because they guy I was trying to avoid was now in my eye line and I couldn't avoid him. By tried my hardest to do so.

He continuously stared at me during my match, but I refused to make any eye contact thereby avoiding making any kind of connection with him. I did take a few glances at him while he played and, I must admit, he looked good. The long curly hair was much shorter, and he lost about 15-20 pounds. If I were a masochist I would totally tried to make something happen between us ... but I am not, so I didn't. But he looked really good. Is there something wrong with me for saying that? I think if I find a guy I am attracted to, I will always be attracted to them for some biological reason. Or maybe I am just attracted to the wrong people?

I wonder if I could be the problem?

Back in Dallas

I got back from Austin yesterday afternoon, but ended up sleeping the entire day. I was exhausted from the drive and from all of the tennis. My body is still sore from a grueling 2.5 hours two set match, which I lost 7-6(4), 7-5. My serve was on, my backhand was steady, but my forehand sucked so badly. I lost so many points on my forehand.

I reached my goal and I didn't get bounced in the 1st round. And my doubles partner and I made it to the Quarters. So all in all, I did fairly well. I pulled out of a tournament this Saturday because I need to recover. My next tournament is on March 24th.

I will be soaking in Icy/Hot until then.