Celebrations, Good and Bad

After my teammates and I came home from winning TWO ACS Nationals titles, they each had families to come home to to celebrate with!

Here is a pic from one of my teammates' welcome home from her kids:

I thought it was super SUPER sweet!

Another teammate lives with her Mom, and so she was waiting home for the huge hug!

And the final teammate, her Mom was actually IN Vegas with her so they were able to celebrate on the spot (okay, later that weekend in Vegas).

I feel very happy for my teammates, because I wouldn't wish my welcome on anyone:  I came home to an empty house.  I am not here to take away from my teammates' blessings, and that's the last thing I want to do.  But if I am to be honest in my blog entries, I have to say that coming home after such huge accomplishments to an empty house, with no one to even hug or share my achievements with was actually extremely depressing.

As you all know, my Mom passed 2 1/2 years ago, am an only child, and have no children.  No roommate, either.  My lovely dogs Lily and Izzy ALWAYS welcome me home, but they didn't know I came home as a 3-time National champion.

I have to say:  It sucked.

Most of my friends live too far for anyone to even say, "let's go celebrate."  (luckily one friend contacted me, who I will mention in a minute)

I'm NOT saying that we all need celebrations after a big accomplishment.  But I am saying coming home to no one and nothing was down right brutal, sad, and depressing.

Unless you are in my shoes, you have no idea even remotely what I am trying to say.  Let's just say it was a very lonely time and I was very sad.

Even one of my girlfriends told me this:  "I watched your team after you all won the second title.  Everyone was SO excited!  And every one of them got on their phones to call their families and loved ones.  Not you, though.  You were smiling and happy, yes, but you simply put your cues up and turned in the score sheet.  You didn't jump on your phone or text or nothing.  It was eye opening."

I don't want to harp on this, so let me share that my teammates and I DID celebrate the night of our wins, IN Vegas!  Although Janet was with her family in Vegas, Courtney and Nina and I went to MGM across the street from the Tropicana to try and find somewhere nice (and not super expensive) to eat.

After a couple of shots

We finally ended up a WolfGang's place.  

I admit I was apprehensive, but I was WRONG.  I LOVED the food.  AND, we got champagne, too!   So, we toasted our wins with the sparkling.  It was super cool!

It was a lot of fun!

After I came home, my friend Julie (who I wrote about recently) was so happy for me about my wins, she offered to meet up and have a toast.  It meant so much to me, that yes, I cried.  More than once! It was so very moving for me, and she had no idea how tough things were going.

Here we are:

So, coming home was bittersweet.

Can't take away that I'm a National Champion, though!  I just know in my heart my Mom and Dad are proud of me.