Shooting Terminology

My boss plays golf pretty often - at least 2-4 times a month.  When he can, he will leave work a little early using his vacation time, to hit the links to get some good time in on the golf course.

His son came into town from college and he mentioned he was going to leave work early on Friday to go shoot.

So, as the afternoon came, I heard him getting ready to leave. 

"You going to play gold today?"

...mumble mumble...." shoot"

I asked from my office through the wall towards him, "What?"

He replies a little louder, "we are going shooting."

"Golf?"

"No...shooting."

I asked intrigued, "Shooting what?"  Since it's not golf, is he shooting pool with his college son??

"No, we are shooting guns..... at the gun range."

"Oh!  Well, hell you have to be more specific about 'shooting' when talking to a pool player."  LOL

Pool and Co Workers

A coworker of mine texted me the other day and said he got a table for his house and wanted to know what type of cues he should buy.

Some good ones, but at a decent price.

First, why am I just now hearing about this?? lol.

He said he was searching on Amazon and wanted some advice. 

Wait, Amazon?

So I recommend McDermott and Lucasi, and then suggested a billiards retailer website instead.

He replies with, "I'm looking at this brand, comes with 4 cues, called Valley House.  Are they good?  I don't want professional but a step up from Walmart."

I admit, I was confused and then a tad disappointed.

I looked them up real quick on Amazon - 4 cues for $83.  Not bad for recreational home use.

I told him, "I never heard of them, but just looked them up and they seemed fine to me." 

smh

No Showboat

I have written several times that I don't normally share my pool life with my coworkers.  I have about one million reasons why, and here lists just a few:  LINK ONE, LINK TWO. 

So, check out this crazy exchange that JUST happened today.  The timing is very ironic to me:

I walk to the elevator and three coworkers are standing there waiting for the down elevator, also.

One starts a convo with me:  "I haven't seen you in a while.  You been on vacation?"

"Yes" is all I reply.  I don't mention I just was in Vegas.

"Oh that's good.  Guess you don't want to tell us where, huh?"

"Nah" I say with uncomfortableness.

"Do you still play pool?"

"Yes" is again my one-word reply.  I don't share with them I was just in Vegas for pool.

"You used to play competitively.  Do you still?"

"Yes" is all I reply.

"Are you good?"

"Yes" is all I reply again, not even sharing I just placed 5th out of 250 women!

I could have shared that I was just in Vegas playing pool competitively, placed my highest finish in singles, and am ECSTATIC about it, but I just smiled shyly and replied, "yes" to most of his questions without adding anything extra.

I just don't talk about my personal pool life anymore with folks here.

Wish I could - I'm pretty freaking proud of myself!

CoWorker Surprise

I mentioned in blog entry just last week that I don't normally share my pool life with my coworkers.  I have about one million reasons why, and here lists just a few:  LINK ONE, LINK TWO. 

So, I go to dinner with a few ladies from work last night, something they do for the Christmas season, and I finally said yes to the invitation.

As I sat there, eating my meal and mostly listening, one of my coworkers starts to ask me about pool.  They are aware I play pool, but no one really knows any details or how often I play.  I am hardly friends with any coworkers on facebook so they don't even see those posts about pool tourneys or anything.

Here's how the convo went:

Me:  (eating)

CoWorker:  "Hey Melinda, you played any pool lately?"

Me:   "Yea, last weekend, in Arlington."

CoWorker:  "Hey, uh, have you ever qualified to go to those nationals tournaments, I think in Vegas?"

Me:   (I reply softly), "Yea, I won last year."

CoWorker:  "What?  You are going this year?"

Me:  "No, I WON it last year."

CoWorker:  "Won what?"

Me:   "The tournament.  In Vegas.  Back in May."

CoWorker:  "You did??"

And then many of my other coworkers turn to look at me.

Me:   "Yea, I did."

CoWorker:  "What does that mean?"

Me:   "I'm a National Champion."

CoWorker:  "Wow, really?!  That's great.  Have you won others?"

Me:  "Yea, I won the state one in April."

CoWorker:  "You mean a Texas one?"

Me:   "Yea..."

CoWorker:  "Wow, I had no idea, that's wonderful!"

And then I continue to eat my food, feeling uncomfortable talking about myself.

It shows just how much I don't share my pool life with my coworkers.  I really try to keep them  separate.

Co-Worker Love

I went to Silver Spring, Maryland for a work meeting back in September (I live and work back in Texas).

I visited a couple of my colleagues at their office before we headed out for lunch one day and walked up to their cubicles and saw this:

(click photo to enlarge)

I was like, "HEY"!

It was a print-out of my blog entry from May, that stated I was an ACS National Champion!

It was SO cute how proud they were - that they printed it out and hung it up for the coworkers to see.  And that made ME proud.  :)

I don't normally share my pool journey with people I work with, but these two (Fran and Pete), I do happen to share (and Pete reads my blogs because he likes pool, too).  

What a surprise!  Thank you, Fran and Pete! 

Work and Pool Don't Mix For Me

I alluded in my Support blog article how I had another, more impactful event that led me to not mention pool, competing, or even pool accomplishments at my job anymore.

The story goes like this:

About 7 to 8 years ago, a supervisory position came open at an affiliated office in Key West, Florida. I considered many promotions back then and so I thought about the potential of that job. However, I decided after a little thought that I would not bid on it because it lacked the pool network I longed for – good pool halls and a ladies tour to play in. Yes, the Florida Ladies Tour was IN Florida, but travel out and in to the island of Key West is not an easy jaunt or venture, and requires layovers that I am not fond of when going out of town for just a weekend tourney. I also wasn’t too interested in neither the location nor the cost of living.

When I lived in Jacksonville, Florida, the location was prime! Good pool rooms, cost of living was great, and I could easily drive to the center of the state (or to tourneys in GA or SC) or I could fly direct into Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, or Miami if need be. I also could fly back home to Texas on direct flights. It was the competition and camaraderie I looked forward to at the pool rooms and on the ladies tour, which I was afraid I would miss if I went to Key West. And of course, could I afford to live there? But the main reason was pool.

One of my bosses came to my office one day, sat down, and asked me if I was going to bid on that position in Key West, Florida.

I replied that I was not interested. He asked me why (or maybe I just told him why) and I expressed that there wasn’t enough pool there.

His response to me was, “Well, can’t you take a couple of years off?” I just kinda looked back at him weirdly, and then he explained, “You won’t be down there long – just a few years or so – and then you can apply for other promotions after you get your feet wet with all the good experiences being a supervisor there.”

I then rebutted nicely with some additional reasons (not related to pool) and also sincerely expressed that Key West was not a location I had been interested in before anyway.

I will never forget that conversation. His comments back to me are THE REASON I don’t mention pool at work anymore. No one gets it here. “Take a few years off” ? Really? Would I dare ask someone heavily involved in church to “take a few years off”? Would I have asked my boss “can’t you just take a few years off from your kids” ?

NO.

Passion is passion. One of big reasons I am happy at work is because my homelife is happy – and guess what? My homelife consists of pool.

That day is forever etched in my mind.

And btw, the guy that got that position was there for SEVEN years.

August 2010 PoolSynergy - Support

ForumGhost516 is this month's PoolSynergy host. His topic is Support: "This can mean what is your support system, who supports you, what you do for support in your life or in your game whether it be friends and family. etc. etc."

When I first heard the topic I thought to myself, "uh oh, here comes a negative blog post from me...."

Seriously, when I first read what the topic was, I was apprehensive to let you all know that I really don't feel all that supported. My Mom shared with me many, many years go that my Dad didn't understand why I played pool. He thought I was wasting my time, even though playing pool became my passion and it involved every aspect of my life (but my career). It really hurt me to hear that. I therefore stopped talking as much about pool to him, once my Mom shared that info. Sometimes, I wish I hadn't known that.

Then there are the "coworkers." I USED to tell my coworkers when I was going out of town for tournaments, but now I do not. I got tired of the Monday questions, "how did you do?" I would answer something like, "9th" and they would look at me funny and then say something stupid, "oh, maybe next time" or "why do you still play?" No one understood the true passion of why pool meant a lot me, why I played even if I didn't cash. I therefore STOPPED talking about pool at work; yes, altogether. There is another big reason, but that's for another blog entry, but let's just say when I go out of town now, no one at work knows. I don't share if I place well, or that I ran a tour, or that I even just played in my first pro event a couple of weeks ago. It's funny, because now I place much higher than before - but I stopped talking about my pool tournaments about 8 years ago at work. Now I play and finish better, but I still wonder if they see pool as "seedy" and "wasteful."

Those were my immediate reactions to this months' topic, "support."

Then....

Something amazing happened....

I saw that I truly am, very much so, after all, supported!

I got invited to my first Pro event and I played in it a couple of weeks ago. I announced on my FaceBook page that I was going and also gave updates throughout the trip of my progress. A friend also started a thread on the AZB Forums that I would be playing in my first pro event.

The outpouring of support was amazing! I could NOT believe how many people were happy for me, congratulated me, encouraged me, and supported me all along the way! Facebook and the AZB forums is an amazing place to hear what people really think about your adventures in life and the outpouring truly touched me heart.

Therefore, what I thought would be me sharing the 'negative support' I had received, has ended with me sharing that there is indeed A LOT of support out there after all.

Here are just a few snippets of the amazing words of support I received before, during and after I played in the US Open:

• Wow...how exciting!!! That's a huge accomplishment and I'm looking forward to hearing about it...Go Melinda Go!!!!
• You deserve it!! Good Luck M!
• That is sooo Awesome, you will do great. Best of Luck!!!!
• I am so PROUD and HAPPY for you!!!!!
• Congratulations Melinda! That is soooo cool!!
• So happy for you hon ... keep it going!
• Hey there...Thanks for the video updates! Play well today..give the other OB Ladies my regards..CONGRATS for just having a great opportunity!
• Wonderful experiences speak for themselves. Congrats!
• Sorry to hear about your second match. Love the videos I am excited for you because that is such a great honor! I wish I could play good enough to get there. Go and have fun!
• You deserved to have a great experience - I am proud of of you.