Don't Mess With Me Tonight
Today has not gone smoothly to say the least. First, I jammed my left index finger playing tennis. I went to hit a forehand when the ball skidded off the line, adjusting my swing. Well, when I swung the racquet, the frame made contact with my finger, leaving a nice bruise on top and making the finger swell. Then tonight, I accidentally downloaded a virus onto my computer. It came through Instant Messenger and sent the link to everyone on my buddy list. I have gotten rid of it, but that was just another thing to peeve me. Finally, back to playing tennis, before I hurt myself, a kid playing with his dad on the court next to us got me upset. One of our balls rolled by him and it's good etiquette to hit the ball back to where it came from, or at least roll it back behind the court. Well, this kid bent down, looked at it, looked at me (presumably identifying the ball), then just walked away. THE NERVE?!?!?!
This isn't the first time something has made me upset at the tennis court. Last week, a bunch of teenagers were goofing off on the court next to us and kept hitting the ball at each other, which brought some of their balls onto our court. One of the kids would run behind us, so while I would be hitting the ball, there would be a ball coming from the other court coming at me in the air or on the ground. Realize when you slip on an oncoming tennis ball, it's an automatic sprained ankle, and right now, I don't feel like nursing a sprained ankle. So the next time it happened, I chewed the kid out. "Next time you hit the ball over here, you make sure you warn me. I don't feel like spraining my ankle today!!!" After that they left haha.
It's a rare moment to see me get upset because usually I internalize things, then release them when I work out. When I go run or workout, I like to get rid of any anger or bad feelings I may have. My best workouts are when I'm charged up about something, either when someone may have said or done something I wasn't particularly fond of, or when someone doubts me and my ability. So whether it be running, biking, tennis, or in a pickup bball game, I apologize in advance if I'm not in a good mood or am testy, because I look to be testy so I'm not in a bad mood at any other time.
That last sentence is poorly written I know, but oh well.
I was fortunate to play varsity tennis all 4 years of high school, winning All-Conference 3 times, my highest being 2nd team. The first 3 years I played, I had a bad temper, I easily lost it. My sophomore year, in the first round of the league tournament, I threw my racquet onto another court, bending the frame in the process. Somehow, we still won that match (I played doubles). The next year, I lost it again. I didn't throw my racquet, but I screamed in frustration after every bad shot. It was so bad, I drew a misconduct violation, and I deserved it. I was doing my best John McEnroe impersonation.
After that incident, I changed my ways. I was as intense as ever senior year, I just showed it in different ways. I adopted the Pete Sampras expression-less face to go with my Andre Agassi-like gamesmanship. After I hit a good shot, I didn't celebrate, I just went along to the next point. I only celebrated if it was a big point in the match, then I'd yell, fistpump, whatever. If it was a bad shot, I wouldn't do anything either. During the match, I did like to stare down my opponent, especially after I hit a good shot or got a questionable call (you call your own lines). If it was a tough, long match, I would run to the other side when changing sides and not drink any water to show my opponent I was fresh as a daisy (especially if he was visibly tired). I played with great sportsmanship and expressed it, but deep down, I wanted to bury you.
To some extent, I still do the same thing. Visibly, I don't get too upset or too excited. It's not best, I believe, to do either in public. Act like you've been there. When I'm in private, then I deal with things, whether it be celebration or disappointment. I'm not nearly as competitive as I used to be, but there are times when I still bring that side out. In some things, I still want to be on top, and I'll fight like crazy to get there. If I don't get there, I'll know I did everything I could and worked as hard as I could to get there.
Ok, enough about my competitive side, after all, the Bengals, yes your Cincinnati Bengals are 4-0. It wasn't pretty today, but they won. And Da Bears. Back in 1st place after Detroit lost.
Tonight was the NFL's first regular season game in Mexico. The Cardinals beat the Niners 31-14. The game was played in Mexico City's Azteca Stadium in front of about 105,000. Azteca is one of the great soccer venues in the world where many great matches have been played, including the World Cup. It is usually where the US plays Mexico in World Cup qualifying because of the big home field advantage Mexico has there (Mexico City is over 7,000 feet high). It is also where the Mexicans like to chant "Osama, Osama" at the US players. That is about the worst thing you can chant at a sporting event. It would be like us chanting, "Hiroshima" when we play Japan in something. I don't know if I would want to be promoting the NFL in a stadium that is now known more for its anti-American sentiment than its sporting history.
That's all I've got tonight, maybe I'll have something for tomorrow. Maybe I'll injure my right index finger so I'll matching bruises.
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