Brought home a hardware from the Sunshine State

On Thanksgiving morning, as I flew in Tampa, I rented a car to go to Wesley Chapell, about 25 miles north of Tampa. I was so frustrated with my cell since its signal dropped at every minute. I got lost, but I knew I was very close to my friends' house. My cell's signal finally was up so I quickly grabbed a chance to send my friend Tobin a text message asking for more directions. He replied with it. My cell's signal dropped again, and it got stuck for another hour. What a relief. Finally, I found Tobin and Danny's place. There were six guys who were waiting on me before we began our Thanksgiving dinner that was prepared by all of them (of course, except me, but I helped them clean up after the dinner). They were the co-hosts, Tobin and Danny, my lost friend Dick from Fort Lauderdale whom I previously had not seen for 15 years (yeah, 15 years!!!), Tobin's boyfriend Nicky from Gainsville, my long time childhood friend Zant from Houston, and my roommate Hal. (None of them were tennis players) Being in the Sunshine State over Thanksgiving along with these guys felt very nice. I ended up staying there until about 8:30pm, and I rushed to Citrus Classic 2006 Tournament's welcome party since my doubles partner and hotel roommate, Kevin, was expecting me there. K evin was so relieved when I showed since he left me several messages, which I did not receive until later that tonight due to my cell's technical difficulties. After I picked up my registration, Kevin and I went to the hotel, which was located on Harbour Island, just right next to downtown. This area was so beautiful. I loved that hotel bed. It was so comfortable.

On the following day, because it was a day after Thanksgiving, everywhere was so crowded. That's one of my pet peeves. Kevin and I fought to get through traffic to make it to the tournament site. If you have not checked my tournament results, please check the links (each for singles and doubles) on my previous posted blog. Kevin and I "revenged" the eventual singles champion by beating him and his partner in the doubles finals. That was my fourth doubles title since last April (three out of four titles partnered with Kevin).

The banquet was awesome. It was wonderful to see my former doubles partner, Joel B. from Tampa, Chris from Tampa, Coddy from Tampa, Chip from DC, Dan from Orlando, and other familiar faces from across the Sunshine State.....as well as meeting new faces like Doug from Destin, Neal from Tampa, Joe from NJ, and others. Our doubles finals was crowded by our cheerleaders. They were Doug, and all of the guys whom I spent Thanksgiving with came to watch our match. Kevin teased me by saying it was the "Determan contigent".

I returned home earlier this morning, and I was very exhausted (I slept only three hours last night), and I went to work. I have to bite the bullet throughout today.