Figure Skating Show 1991

My mother, brother, and I went to this show at Madison Square Garden. I wish that I had been keeping a journal back then so I would have the details about it now. I did write on the back of one photo that Underhill and Martini did their routine to "Unchained Melody". I forgot to write the names of the skaters on some of them and don't recall who they are. I do know that I had a very good time at this event.

 

Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt-

                             
                                               Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini-

                                                 
                                                                   Others-

                                              
                                                                  Finale-

September 6, 2015- US Open-Part 2

  

 I was only at a set and a half of a Tommy Haas match. He was playing against Verdasco who beat him in 5 sets. If I hadn’t watched a few games of Jelena Jankovic’s match, I would have seen some more of it. The court was so crowded that I had to stand.

   Mike came over to it after the Jankovic match which she lost. I didn’t see him until afterwards though. He got Verdasco’s autograph. I sort of wish that I had to but at the time I was mad that he beat my Haas.

   I had wanted to see Haas’ doubles match but I stayed with him for Errani. I wish that I had gone with the voice in my head that said to leave after the second set so I could at least see some of that. I ran over to that court afterwards but it was over.

   Luckily, they were still at the court signing autographs so at least I got to see him. Mike had already gotten that for me several years ago. I got a couple of nice photos of Haas.

    I wouldn’t even be into tennis if it wasn’t for Haas. I was depressed about Mom being in the hospital psych ward so I put the TV on to watch “The Price is Right” only it wasn’t on because the tennis coverage was.

    I saw 2 cute guys, Haas and Ginepri, which got me to keep this on. Then I was kind of getting interested in the actual sport that I used to think was boring. That was in 2006.

   Would I have watched it if they hadn’t been cute? Maybe not, which is so bad. Yikes, I am pretty embarrassed about this.

   I wish that I hadn’t been so afraid to go to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens for this event in 2007 and 2008. I would have gotten to see more of my favorite guys matches. I only got to see one Safin match which he lost against Melzer in 2009. He retired at the end of that year.

   I shouldn’t have been afraid to ask my brother to get his autograph for me after his practice session then. I was the same way about James Blake another year. Mike has gotten me at least 8 autographs of tennis stars.

   My brother has many more autographs of them than me. He even got Sania Mirza’s three times. And he calls me obsessive for getting John Taylor’s twice. He was at the Mirza/Hingis match then joined me for the Gasquet one.

   We saw Victoria Azarenka at an autograph signing booth. My brother sort of regrets not standing in line for this. We watched Djokovic on the practice court for a couple of minutes. As we were leaving the center on our 4^th and final night there, we saw Federer at the ESPN booth doing an interview.

   The long, tiring days were well worth it. One year we went the first 6 days of it; I think that was 2010. The 6^th day was a last minute decision. I really wanted to see Fish and Melzer in their 3^rd round matches. I didn’t get to see all of Melzer’s though because the Fish one was very long.

   I didn’t like Melzer when he beat my Safin but the following year when Haas was out with an injury I was rooting for him a lot. I went to 3 of his singles matches and 2 of his doubles (with Petzschner) then.

   This was our last time ever at that event. We had gone there for 7 straight years. It is no longer in our budget. Mike said that he might try to save up and go to it again in a couple of years but I won’t be able to do that.

Tommy Haas

Hewitt

Feliciano Lopez

Tommy Robredo

Fernando Verdasco

 

 

September 6, 2015- US Open - Part 1

I was watching Mardy Fish playing tennis on a court near a beach; he was part of a charity event. Lots of kids were at it. I hadn’t even known that he was going to be there. Mom, Mike, and I were on a vacation. Our motel was near this court. When I looked out the window, I could see him. I just had to get closer so I walked over to that area. I was so happy to see him.

   I wish that I could remember more details about this dream. There might have been more tennis stars at this event. I think that we were in Florida. Or it could have just been the Jersey shore. Fish has only been in one other dream of mine and that was a long time ago. He was playing doubles at a tournament in a park.

   I actually got up enough nerve to get Mardy’s autograph at the US Open last week. At first, I asked Mike to do so for me as he has with other tennis stars in the past. Well, now we both have it. Mike seemed a little surprised that I had done this.

   I had tried getting his autograph in 2010 (or was it 2011?) but was unsuccessful. I am so embarrassed that I was yelling out “Mardy, please” at one moment during this attempt. He retired this year. I will miss seeing him play.

   My brother and I pretty much stuck together this year as we did last year. Other years we would go our separate ways and only get together for some matches.

   We were in Louis Armstrong Stadium for all of Wednesday. Fish vs. Lopez was first. I like them both but wanted Fish to win which he didn’t. The woman’s match, Mattek-Sands vs. Vanderweghe was next; the former won that.

   Nadal was on last. I can’t even remember his opponent whom he defeated. He is usually on Ash which isn’t included in the grounds pass so we have never seen him before. My brother said that he would have left if it went on any longer. I would have stayed by myself if he had; no way was I going to miss out on any of this.

   We saw two French guys, Simon and Gasquet. Simon lost to the American, Donald Young. We both got Young’s autograph, as well as that of Gasquet, who won his match. I like Gasquet’s style; he is fun to watch.

   I was upset when I saw a couple tiny water spots on the daily schedule magazine that he signed afterwards. Did I get something on it? Maybe it was Gasquet sweat. Did I make it worse when trying to dab it dry with a napkin?

   I didn’t get to see my Italian guys, Seppi and Fognini. We saw his two Italian girls, Vinci and Errani. They used to play doubles together; we saw them in a match once.

 

Mardy Fish

Fish- autograph

Richard Gasquet

 

 

Nadal

Ostapenko and Errani (right)

Donald Young

 

Simon

 

Just a Quick Post About the US Open - For Now

I have so much that I'd like to write about my 2011 US Open experience only I feel too darn sick to even be on the computer now so I will just make this a brief post. This is a picture taken at one of the booths at the tennis center. My brother and I entered a contest to win a Citizen watch and the chance to meet Kim Clijsters. The weather was wonderful all week, thank goodness. I should just be greatful that it was and that we even got to be there but I can't help but be upset about the fact that we lost power in just our 2 blocks in my small town for 4 days because of Hurricane Irene so we couldn't recharge our camera batteries until Wednesday night. I took alot of pictures on Monday and by the time of my main guy Melzer's match on Tuesday afternoon the battery was getting weaker so I wasn't able to take that many of him. Oh how I wish that I had been more conservative with the picture taking at other matches. More about this topic next time. I was so close to going myself for a 6th day on Saturday. The guy at the ticket booth said that there weren't any tickets available when I asked on Thursday night but to come back on 8:30 that morning. If I hadn't gotten this awful cold I definitely would've been there. I got sick after this event last year too which sucks but it was worth all the suffering that I'm going through now.

I did read some of my emails and comments on my posts and would like to thank Chelly, Pam, Darrin and all my other blog friends for their kind words and I certainly will respond to you all as soon as I'm feeling better. I'm looking forward to reading your posts too. I've missed everyone here. Hope that you all have been well these days.

Tennis- US Open 2011

Two weeks ago I ordered the US Open tickets which came in the mail this past Saturday. We hopefully will be going to this event for the first 3 days. I always worry that something bad might happen that will prevent us from going to concerts and other events. Luckily last year things worked out well, only a tiny bit of a rain delay on Day 5. I actually got myself a ticket for Thursday too but I don't want to tell my brother this because I'm afraid that he will just criticize me for doing so and be mad that I won't be here to take him to his first day of college classes. There are 2 buses that can get him there so he will just have to get there that way.

I had debated whether or not to go by myself on Friday. I really wanted to and was going to order that ticket right after getting our 3 days of tickets but an illogical voice inside of me was saying that it would be too scary to go there alone plus I had my brother's voice putting me down for even wanting to go without him. I finally was able to convince myself that it wouldn't be scary to go alone and why should I even care what my brother thinks so I went to the TicketMaster site at about 2:45 pm only to discover that they were already sold out for that day so I checked for Thursday and they still had some available so I got one for that day. I would have rather had Friday though.

I couldn't believe that those tickets were gone already especially because last year Mark and I didn't decide until the day after they first went on sale to get tickets for Saturday. I'm suspecting that those ticket scam artists had a part to play in this which is so annoying and unfair. I did click onto the link for ticket resales just out of curiosity. I knew that the prices would be more there but I did not imagine that the lowest one was going for 25.00 more than the TicketMaster price would've been. The message at the TM site said try again closer to the event and maybe more would be available - that's doubtful. I am so mad at myself for not just going with my smart voice and getting that ticket right away.

A tiny part of me is hopeful that more tickets will be available. It would be so nice if I can be there for all the days of men's 2nd round matches. With my luck the main guys that I really want to see will be playing them on Friday. I already have a list of primary and secondary players to see. Two more months until this event. It seems kind of far away even though it really isn't. I should be watching the tennis now but I need to squeeze some computer time in today because my brother will be around more than usual this week.

Figure Skating Shows

My mom and I really enjoyed watching figure skating during the Olympics in the 1980s and early 1990s. We got to go to 2 shows in the early to mid 90's. Brian Boitano was at both of them. We took some pictures but they did not turn out that great. Boitano and Witt are in the first 2. In the bottom 3 are Petrenko, Kerrigan and Boitano. You can clearly see on the program page who was at the first one but it's harder to see on the second - Torvil and Dean, Nancy Kerrigan , Oksana Baiul and Victor Petrenko are included in this one. We went with a couple of friends. Skating 2 was at MSG in New York City and the 1994 show was in New Jersey at the Meadowlands. I'm not sure why after 1994 I lost interest in the figure skating. I must've been watching it in the late 70s a bit too because I remember getting the Dorothy Hamill haircut a couple of times back then.