Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Federer Day


I thought that my brother was joking when he said that Federer lost yesterday because he's always teasing me about him but he wasn't. That's a shame. In the past I probably would've been more upset about this but I'm not sure why I don't care as much anymore. Maybe it's because I like alot more players than I used to or perhaps part of me is thinking "well, he's won enough already, let the other guys have a chance." Another part of me is thinking that that is so mean. I was actually happy when Baghdatis beat him- was that last week or the week before? I like both players. I sometimes get conflicted in this situation but this time I was rooting for him.

It seems kind of unreal that I actually saw Federer in person last August. There was a charity event in New York City. My brother told me about it. Even though he teases me about him he also has him on his Facebook - it used to be on fan pages but now they have it in my friend section. I debated whether or not to go to this event. It was sort of a last minute decision. My brother came with me.

We got into the city very early. I forget exactly where this was - somewhere downtown, maybe not far from a park. Was it Madison Hill park or something like that? I have such a craptastic memory. We saw them setting up the temporary tennis court from across the street. I wanted to go over there shortly afterwards but was too afraid and also too embarrased to do so. We were people and doggie watching. We saw a lady talking to a guy with an adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and were listening to them talk then were talking to her. I finally got up enough nerve to cross the street where we talked to a security guy for a bit then we walked around the block.

We got on the line when we returned. It wasn't overly long but we would've been about the 3rd and 4th persons in it had we not been sitting across the street for like 50 minutes. This would've guaranteed us spots on the bleachers. We wound up standing behind the camera people so we had a semi-blocked view. I was putting myself down mentally and telling my brother what an idiot I was.

We did meet some nice people there, although the one was talking alot and I really should not have responded to her when Federer was talking- I missed out on much of what he was saying. He did mention his twin baby girls, of course. John McEnroe was also there. I blew a chance to have a close up picture of him because I hit the on/off button on my camera by accident. The guy next to me and I were joking about this. No great loss- he's not much to look at or something like that. I got some really crappy shots of Federer. Only one or two okay ones when he was closer to us at the end.

Another girl asked me if I was going to the US Open and told me that she had tickets for the second week. I told her that we couldn't afford to go. I didn't mention that I was also to afraid to do so. I really wanted to be there in 2007 and 2008 but fear kept me from going as did my going into credit card debt for too many unecessary items. Part of me was thinking that after seeing Federer here that I really wanted to try to get over this fear. I did have some money saved but this was supposed to be for the eye doctor and new glasses. I was thinking well maybe I'd put that off for a while longer. I debated over what to do that afternoon.

We could've stayed to see more tennis stars, Monfils and Nadal, but we were tired and also hungry so we went to a cafe type place for lunch then back to Penn Station. When we watched the news that evening they didn't show that event on it but did show a tennis one that had taken place in Bryant Park. We didn't even know about that but might have if we went to the bakery near there like I originally planned on doing. Maybe we would have seen signs or noticed alot of people and asked what was going on there. Whatever - it just wasn't meant to be, I suppose.

That night I went to the Ticketmaster site to check the price of the grounds pass and it was less than I thought it would be. I asked Mark if he was interested in going and he said yes so I ordered us tickets for Day 1 and Day 2. I'd never ordered them on line before. I did the print out ones and got annoyed because the printer was giving us problems then was relieved when it finally worked.

I was both excited and nervous about finally getting to go to the US Open which was only less than 5 days away. I went to the site the night before and wrote down the schedule of play for the players that we were interested in. I was embarrased to be especially happy about going to the Haas match. I already had all the info about what trains to take - I had written that down 2 years earlier. I tried not to beat myself up about being too scared to go there then. I couldn't wait to be in Queens for this event. If we hadn't gone to see Federer would I have even contemplated going there? Possibly not. It's as if seeing him and also hearing that girl talking about going inspired me to become brave. That sounds kind of cheesy, doesn't it. More on this to come...

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