Rogers Cup

Well, Rogers Cup is over, which means I'm home for at least a little bit. It was in interesting experience. Met some pretty interesting people, watched some great tennis up close and my first pair of real tennis shoes (more about that later)!
Just as a quick recap, this was my first year volunteering at Roger's cup. I was a shuttle bus volunteer, which meant I had to give guests certain information as we travelled from the parking lots to the tournament grounds.
First day was pretty nerve racking. First year volunteering and I show up looking for the tent where we were supposed to meet, only to have a forest of tents spring up before my eyes. I wandered about, glad to find I wasn't the only person lost and looking for their comittee heads. Confusion loves comapny! We got ourselves sorted out after a bit, and we all hopped on the bus. I somehow ended up being the last one on, and therefore, the token guinea pig. It had been a while since I had done any public speaking, plus with the script being in a regular point size, bouncing up and down in front of me as the bus travelled down the road, it was a bit of a mess, but everyone else seemed to like it. But, by the 3rd ride, I felt relatively comfortable.
At the end of the day, I decided to watch a little tennis. It was the last match inside the stadium, featuring Ayumi Morita from Japan. At the beginning, I was pretty torn who to cheer for. It was obvious that Morita was hurting but playing hard. But, the other player was Canadian. Then, the man standing next to me, asked me if I was Morita's sister. That helped me make up my mind to join the 3 man Morita cheering squad. I had to cheer for my "sister". It turns out she was suffering from the heat, and even though she forced a 3rd set, she couldn't finish it.　よく頑張った、ありがとう！

On Monday, I learned the meaning of karma. I was finished my shift, and I was just cooling off in the stadium, waiting for the exibition match to start. There was a tap on my shoulder from someone who was looking for the Olympus store (her camera was broken). I decided to walk her there. On my way back, I happened upon a sign that said "Autograph Session: Serena Williams". So, that's how helping someone got me a Serena Williams autograph. That night's exhibition match was pretty amazing. It was between Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles, Serena Williams and Alex Wozniak. The players had mics on, so hearing the banter was hilarious. I couldn't believe how fast Navratilova was. The best 2 moments were when Navratilova sat on her raquet when all the ball were going to Serena. And when Monica squealed and took cover when she saw Serena was about to smash a ball her way.

Saw some serious doubles matches for the first time. I'd always just seen exhibition ones live. I should state that my tennis education is pretty limited and some of it comes from manga. So, imagine my glee when I actually saw players doing Australian and "I" formations! Oh, I'm such a geek! But yikes, doubles can be scary, especially if your at the net. There was one rally in the finals where it one body shot shot after another.

Oh! And last day, while everyone was watching the finals, I snuck out and bought...my first pair of real tennis shoes!!! This might seem like nothing, but it reminds me of Kazu-sensei. He had mocked me mercilessly for wearing my all-terrain runners to play tennis. If only he could see my new shoes! And the best part is, they were on sale! Shoes and a sale, what more could a girl ask for :P

My "baseball" tan

For the past few years, I've never had to set out and work on my summer tan. Aside from the health concerns, it was always taken care of. From June to August, I would always be outside watching my baseball boys play at least one game each. If they won, I got to watch more games. This year, with no baseball, and only stop and go images of Koshien to keep me going, not only did I not get to watch my boys of summer, but I was also rather pale and sickly looking (a year of fluorescent lighting will do that). But, with one game of tennis last week, I am well toasted now, despite my sunscreen. I have to bring my own hat for when I head out to volunteer again Friday (we were supposed to get one apparently). I don't mind the skin too much, because I don't think I'm burnt, but my eyes are still so sore and sensitive to the light... I think I burnt my eyeballs!
Will write more later, but the computer screen is hurting my eyes.

Christmas in July!!

I meant to do this post in July, but I've been a bit busy.

I got the volunteers' uniform for this year's Roger's Cup (a tennis tournament), and was so happy! Everytime I tried it on, I would get this stupid grin on my face. Part of it was, I'm really looking forward to the tournament, and getting the uniform felt like Christmas in July.

But the best part was...I'm such a geek...but our uniforms look a lot like one of the uniforms found in "Prince of Tennis" (compare the pictures!). At first, I thought it was just my imagination, but then I actually went and looked it up.

There are differences, but just the colour scheme! Now, all I need is some sort of crazy special move that will make my tennis balls glow...or at least a decent stroke!

Cake!!!

I never thought that I would ever be grateful to Kathy Lee Gifford...but they weren't making such a big deal about her birthday on TV today, I would have forgotten my mom's birthday! Luckily, there was a cake recipe that I've been meaning to try out, and it was pretty easy...Japanese Cheese Cake. It's a lot lighter, fluffier than regular cheese cake, using only one brick of cream cheese, instead of 3. I think next time I might add some vanilla and tone down the lemon though. I was a bit surprised when the recipe called for corn starch instead of flour. It was pretty good, and I didn't feel bad serving it to mom because there was only about 1/2 cup of sugar for the whole cake. The best part was how the cake managed to stay fluffy. It was my first time having to "fold" while baking. I was so worried that I wouldn't be gently enough and my cake would end up flat and hard, but it stayed very cloud like! However, I did lack things to decorate with, so I just dusted some almond powder on with the help of a doily.

Look up

Wow, the skies around here have been pretty exciting. Over the weekend there was a huge lightning storm. I've never seen so much lightning before. The entire sky was endlessly being lit up. And it wasn't just the straight up and down lightnting bolts. (Although, I did get an amazing picture of one bolt...it's on my flickr page, link on right) There were bolts that you couldn't see, but that would light up the sky from within the clouds. One picture I took looked like I took at at noon, it was so bright. But my favourite had to be the bolts that would spread out horizontally and cover the entire sky.
But, there was a freak lightning strike today, which unfortunately struck 3 people at a soccer field. They're in hospital now...
More excitement, tonight was the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower. I only remembered after the peak viewing time, but still managed to see a catch part of the shower. Hopefully next year, I can figure out a way to catch some on film.