"You Gave That to Me"

I found myself in a little weekly 8ball tourney last Wed night.  Hadn't done that in a long time. Felt out of my element because I haven't played in so long.

As I start my first match, some guy on the next table says, "wow, she's really playing?"

My friend says jokingly, "yep, I brought in a road player."  LMAO.

As the night goes on, I find myself playing for 4th place.  I am playing a guy I again don't know.  I run out quite beautifully the first game in this short race to 2.

I play REAL good the next game with some good breakouts, too, but I miss a long 8 ball to win the match 2-0.  I was uncomfy with it and should have stood back up and then shot it maybe in the side anyway.

Score:  1-1

So the next game again I'm playing well still and lots of safes.  I finally see a run and as I'm shooting the ball before the 8 ball, I miscue.

The guy runs out his few balls left and beats me 1-2.  As he shakes my hand he tells me, "you gave that to me."

WTF?!

Why does anyone say such stupid ass things?!

I snap and reply briskly, "I didn't give you /nothing/."  (have you also noticed our grammar skills go out the window when we are upset?  lol)

And added as I walked away, "plus, I miscued."

I realize it seems innocent, but I have written about this before, to just not say anything at the end of a match.

I was already not happy at myself for losing, bit of was embarrassment running through my veins, and he's gotta say something that pushed the knife of shame in deeper?

Don't people realize we already know we lost because we missed and shouldn't have?  Why point it out?

Just walk away, Dude.  WALK AWAY.  lol

You really don't need to say anything; it just makes it worse.

I already know I should have won.

Humbling Weekly Tourney

I played in my first weekly tourney in prolly over 6-9 months last Friday.

Boy, was it ever so humbling.

And, it was just what I needed, tho!

No reason to *think* I'm playing well. 

We need to test ourselves every now and then to see if we are really playing as well as we think we are, or not.

This weekly tourney told me a few things about my myself and my game:

• I still get nervous
• I play different when I'm surrounded by people I don't feel comfortable around
• I was making rookie mistakes b/c I was uncomfortable
• I was sad I was reverting back to bad habits (even though I told myself on the way there to stay down and take my time)
• I did not take my time
• I still do not mentally handle well playing against slow players
• Short races against good players should be on my mind (it wasn't) to keep me focused
• I need to remember to have fun (I did not have fun nor cared less if I was there after a very short period time)

Although the night of play ended up pathetic, it was a GOOD thing I experienced all of these "bad" reminders to get my mind and pre-shot routine BACK in the game.

Out of State Weekly Tourney

I drove to the Mosoni Cup that was held in Vegas, my first time to EVER drive there, and I have been going to Vegas for 1-3 times a year for about 20 years, lol.  I'll be sharing pics soon of my travel there because I stopped at a lot of cool places I had never seen before.  :)

On one night, my b/f and I went to a local $5 tourney in Arizona.  I wanted to play in it to see how I would do, to test out how I would play in front of strangers.  Normally my heart beats right out of my chest and I think too much in these type of situations.

However, although all eyes were on the out-of-towners, I still played really freaking sporty!  Every guy I played, people would tell me, "he's plays good" and then I would win 2-0, lol.  I was really coming with great banks and shots!

I even impressed myself, lol.

The tourney was on open bar tables at a bowling alley, and the players were really nice!

I ended up playing my b/f in the hotseat.  I broke and ran the first set and was about to win the 2nd, but instead of playing conservative, I got too cocky and wanted to show off a little, and instead of taking a long shot on the 8 ball, I tried to be fancy and move around the table and missed.  He got out and broke and ran the last game to win.  Ugh!  One shot cost me a seat in the finals!

I lost the next match 1-2 and got $21 for third place and $5 for last lady (which they paid me about an hour before, lol).

It was cool to play so well in front of strangers.  Everyone told both of us how well I played.  It was cool.  :)