Thought Provoking Reminders/Quotes

I will update this frequently as I come across quotes that touch me: 

• RESILIENCE - the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched.Dictionary.com 
• We can either watch life from the sidelines, or actively participate.  Either we let self-doubt or feelings of inadequacy prevent us from realizing our potential, or embrace the fact that when we turn our attention away from ourselves, our potential is limitless. Christopher Reeve  
• “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot... and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that's precisely why I succeed." Michael Jordan 
• I've learned that you are only a failure if you quit. Unknown age 12 
• A pessimist complains about the wind.  An optimist waits for the wind to change.  A realist adjusts his sails. William Arthur Ward   
• We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are. Anais Nin 
• Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens.  Not by what life brings to us.  But by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes.  It is a catalyst, a spark that created extraordinary results. Author Unknown 
• We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle
• Forget regret. That shot has been shot. Its the next shot that matters.
  Obviously, there is little you can learn from doing nothing.
• What you get by reaching your destination is not nearly as important as what you will become by reaching your destination. - Zig Ziglar
• Make motivation a habit and you will get there more quickly and have more fun on the trip.- Zig Ziglar
• "Everything you ever accomplish in your life starts with your mind and your heart. The clearer you are about what you want to achieve, the quicker you will accomplish it."- Sheila O'Connor
• "Discipline is not habit, it is intelligence born from the desire to succeed."
• Always aim for achievement, and forget about success. - Helen Hayes, the actress
• Keep your head down and admire the shot. - Sev, from AZB forums
• Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them, and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them! -Zig Ziglar
• Practice may not necessarily turn you into a great player, but without it you don't even stand a chance. -Phil Capelle
• Pool is 90% mental....the other half is in your head!
• Play the table not your opponent.
• If you really want to be good at pool, don't play half a$$.
• Take what the table gives you.
• When playing safe, don't just try to hide the cueball, think of where the object ball is going as well as the cueball.
• If the safety is just as hard or harder than the shot, go for the shot.
• Some people pay to be a spectator in their own game.
• Being a great player has a great advantage.
• Whatever you do, make sure you get on the correct side of the object ball! - Diana Minor on 9-Ball
• Accelerate through the cueball on ever shot - Rodney Morris
• All the shape in the world will do you no good if you don't make the damn shot...
• Just like golf...play it where it lies.
• When you're in a game you do what you must to win. When you practice you strive for PERFECTION. - Sailor of Racine
• Everyone is a shot maker ..that's where you start to Learn; it always stays with you. Learn the cueball. Pool is one thing - it's the cueball. The other 15 balls are objects you play with while playing pool with the cue ball.
• Learn how to separate yourself from mental and physical distraction.
• Be still.
• "My best advice to you is make sure you still have fun." - John Drew Hager
• The 5 most important words in pool are STAY DOWN AND FOLLOW THRU. - Mike Stephens (Great bar room player)
• "You know what really surprises me is how many people don't watch the ball hit the pocket. If it don't hit the pocket why does it matter where the cue ball is going. You have to follow through with your eyes"! - Danny Medina

Vegas Tourney Timeline

Weeks before:

• prepared or thought about preparing (lol)

Weekend before:

• played some straight pool,
• ran lots of errands for myself and Mom, and prepared house

Monday before:

• got nails done and pedicure after work

Tuesday before:

• finished a lot of projects at work
• ran errands for Mom after work
• rested

Wednesday before:

• got as much done at work as I could before leaving town
• got my hair highlighted after work
• then packed until midnight

Thursday, May 7th:

• shuttle to airport
• arrive in Vegas
• checked in
• unpacked
• practiced

Tracie and I

• ate at Kady's
• practiced some more

Friday, May 8th:

• played scotch doubles from 9am until around 6pm

AZBilliards friends I finally met! Watchez, Me, and DerekDisco

• placed two in the money in Scotch Doubles
• had too many shots with good and new friends at the center bar for many, many hours Friday night! :)

My bodyguard, Justin and I (he's actually smiling!)

Toasting for the camera! I forget what the red-colored shot was. lol

• broke new little camera that night :(

It's suppose to be flat - it broke :(

• visited TAR BAR

Saturday, May 9th:

• watched some really good matches

Me and Monica

• ate nachos
• played my match at 430pm (played badly and lost 2-4)
• still hungover
• bought another new camera at Walmart
• visited TAR BAR

Me and AZB'er Dave (SpiderWebCom, or Spidey as I like to call him)

• ate a Kady's in the wee morning hours

Sunday, May 10th:

• slept in (needed that!)
• watched good matches
• then went to Circus Circus to spend Mother's Day with the Parra's (that was awesome!)
• visited TAR BAR
• watched more good matches
• watched poker

Crispian playin' poker (I learn a lot from him)

• then played my 10pm match. drama during the match. won 4-3. lots of friends watching.
• ate a Kady's in the wee morning hours

Monday, May 11th:

• won my match at 9am 4-0
• won my match at 1030am 4-1
• ate too many nachos
• lost my noon match 2-4 :(
• got in the money, though, in singles!
• watched more good matches

Ernesto Bayaua, playin well.

• then went to the Mirage buffet
• then to the Venetian and gambled some money away

Tuesday, May 12th:

• slept in a little
• then watched good friends become master players!
• ate at Kady's
• rested
• watched poker
• gambled at the Riv

$25 slots with Juan!

Wednesday, May 13th:

• team event, 9 am, we win 11-2
• lunch at Kady's with teammates

Team lunch/breakfast - me, Amanda, Tori and Monica

• watched matches
• watched poker
• team match at 3pm, we win 11-4
• watched matches

Posers, Amanda and I

• visit TAR BAR
• played team match at 7pm. up 5-1, lose 10-11. ouch! :(
• practiced
• ate a Kady's in the wee morning hours

Thursday, May 14th:

• rested; slept in
• practiced in TAR BAR
• watched team matches
• won team match at 7pm 11-0
• waited and waited for next team match
• went to TAR BAR

TAR Booth!! Fred and Eddie, talkin it up on the live stream

• watched other team matches
• our 930pm match didn't start until 11:15pm!
• we lost 9-11 :(
• we got in the money, though!
• practiced; exhausted!
• ate a Kady's in the wee morning hours

Friday, May 15th:

• didn't sleep well at all (too much on my mind) :(
• stayed in bed most of the day :(
• finally got up around 3pm
• watched half of one match
• met my Team at 530 pm for a VERY nice steak dinner at Kristophers!!

Team Dinner at the great steak house in the Riviera

• had a blast - drank a lot of wine!

Wine, wine, wine. Monica, Amanda, Tori and I, with Christy lookin at us.

• drank some more near bar area in Riv, met new friends
• stayed up late!

Saturday, May 16th:

• slept in
• went to Mirage buffet with Amanda and two friends (had Champagne brunch!)

Champagne brunch at the Mirage. Perfect ending.

• gambled at Mirage
• went back to Riv to pack and try and get some rest
• visited hostess to try and get my room rate dropped (successfully - yay!)

Sunday, May 17th:

• woke up at 5am
• out the door by 6am
• at airport at 630am
• last meal in Vegas - pizza and Cinnabon (I always do that in the airport before I fly out of Vegas)

• 830 am flight delayed until 1030am!!!! Ugh.
• got a ride from airport
• got home
• hugged my Momma!
• fixed the TV and A/C, computer still broken :(
• fell asleep on recliner after tacos
• fell asleep again after unpacking

After Vegas:

• not exhausted, just a little tired
• trying to catch up at work
• ready to play pool already!
• going through all the pics
• updating my blog ;)

Back From Vegas

BCAPL 8-Ball Championships is where it's all at!

Had fun, maybe a little too much fun, and there were some down times for me, but overall, it was a very nice vacation for me.

I limped in the money in all my divisions: scotch, singles and teams. Overall Tournament Trip One-Word Experience: WOW!

Will try and write more later, but wanted to give a quick update.

Took lots of photos and will get them posted soon.

Here are a few teasers:

Me, Ravi, and Amanda

Diamond Tables!

Fred and I in the TAR booth.

Team - We've Got the Runs!

Me playin more slots.

Tina, and I partyin'.

Arrived in Vegas

Got to the shuttle place in time, to the airport in time. Had a driver pick me up (he even had my name on a card!) and off I went to the Riviera. I asked him to stop at CVS so I could buy some bottled water and some snacks (so I don't get poked in the eye in the casino).

BTW, as we walked to the car, the driver said "God Bless you Jerry" to a guy being pushed quickly in a wheel chair. I didn't think anything of it, as the driver had already talked to several people at the airport. So, I figured it was just another guy he knew, but oh, it wasn't just ANY Jerry, it was Jerry LEWIS! He was 50 pounds lighter and being rushed toward the airport, but it was still cool to see the 83 year-old legend.

BCAPL 8-Ball Championships is where it's all at!

I was able to get the tower closest to the food court! I was so darn happy; it was awesome.... UNTIL... I went to the food court to get my favorite fried rice with no onions and to my astonishment, only 2 restaurants are open out of 10 for remolding, and the Chinese place is one of the closed ones! AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!

OMG. The fried rice with no onions was my staple for the next ten days. I am devastated.... :(

I will check out the Food Court again soon - seemed there were curtains around certain restaurants and just MAYBE they switch out certain ones a day to remain open (this is the optimist in me). :)

I did get to get some practice in. At first I was moving my body at the end of my stroke, but after that was pointed out to me, I played better. Whew. ;)

I am super tired. We play our first scotch match at 9am tomorrow morning. After that it's every hour, if we stay in. So I need some pool-stamina rest.

G nite.

Okay, so I Have....

I guess I have been getting ready for BCAPL Natonals in Vegas .

• I have read the 8ball section of Play Your Best Pool by Phil Capelle.
• Almost done with reviewing Play Your Best 8Ball by Phil Capelle.
• Been taking ten flights one or two times a day at work for the last two weeks.
• Had a 4-hour straight pool session last Sunday.

To be fair.... I haven't been practicing conditioning my fundamentals and I have not had enough sleep this week. Both could severely hurt me... :( especially lack of sleep for the potential long day on Friday for Scotch Doubles will be rough on me (and my poor partner who will have to carry me).

Now I just need to pack!

See you there. Come on up to me and say hello. :)

Potty Mouth

Well, it's that time of year when we all try and decide together what our team name will be for Vegas BCAPL 8-Ball Nationals. Some teams keep their league name, some teams combine players and form a new team. We are the latter, and therefore wanted to come up with a good, new team name.

We have 6 players on our team (Amanda, Christy, Tori, Moni, Corina and myself). Amanda came up with a name that we all LOVED!

Victorious Secret

I even had a friend's Mom start on a cool design for our shirts:
We were looking for the perfect shirts when we heard back from the BCAPL that another women's team had already signed up with that team name. Darn it! :( We were back to square one and had to think fast - time was running short.

We quickly threw names around via email and Amanda was looking at websites for names and actually found a real good website for women's teams: http://prettytough.com/athenas-to-zodiac-girls-team-name-ideas/

Then Amanda said,

"I also found this on the Internet: "We've Got the Runs."

Immediately Amanda and Moni loved it, while I sat there looking at my email in disbelief.

Moni says:

I can see it now. People will ask what is your team name and we say "We've Got the Runs" and then people reading it on the charts saying "Check out this team...."We've Got the Runs". I hope I can get over the giggles whenever I hear us say our team name.....this is cracking me up soooooo much.

It is freakin' hilarious. Let's just not make our shirts brown...doh!

I then said to myself "WTF" and replied to their email:

"WTH, life is short.
We've Got the Runs has my vote."

Christy replies:

Really??? Really...
You guys are crazy....

Corina gets online a day later and says:

I missed all these emails yesterday, but i sure hope we went with 'we've got the runs'...it's too perferct

I believe Tori told Amanda that was cool with her and Christy agreed as well (of course we ALL agreed NO brown shirts).

We picked out our shirts last week and had them embroidered with our new, hilarious team name!! A friend created a graphic for us, but we decided the name was enough (ain't that the truth, lol). But I wanted to share the clever idea!

The only down side is: Moni told us this via email a few days later:

Just wanted to let you know that our team name is indeed “We’ve Got The Runs”. It is listed on the BCA entries list so it is in black and white for sure.

The folks at the BCA office told me that when they print out all the charts and post them on the board it will only print up to 15 characters so on the charts it might be listed “We’ve Got The R…….” . Oh well, all is good.

So, look for "We've Got the R..." on the charts or hear our team name called out on the intercom, "We've Got the Runs go to table 12 please."

LMAO!

Ahhh, good times!