Tough Luck at the Harrah’s Casino-

For the 3rd stop on the AVP tour, we were placed in the middle of nowhere at a casino called Harrah's in Rincon, near San Diego. I guess they tried to go inland to find a beach and found the desert casino instead and thought that would be a great place for BEACH volleyball! J Hmm....

Excited not to board a plane or rent a car, I heading down to San Diego to find this casino. According to my map, it said it would take about 2.5 hours to get there. I was cruising along hoping to make it to have a while to practice and get used to the site, but then LA got in my way. One thing I will NEVER get used to here is the horrible traffic. Around a city called Corona all I saw was red brake lights......arg!!! The worst feeling is to be sitting on a freeway and seeing a parking lot in front of you. Cars were made to go forward, not be stopped!!!! I must have moved about 5 miles in almost 1 hour!! So 4.5 hours later, I made it to the playing site with about 20 minutes to practice before it was too dark!! In that 4.5 hours, I could have flown to Texas and rented a car and had dinner by then! When I leave CA, I might have to join TA, "traffic anonymous" to recover from all the road rage I have gone through! Ha ha!!

After practice Jenelle and I had a great dinner at Olive Garden with fellow competitors and one old teammate, Beth Van Fleet and Sarayln Smith. They also had their sponsor, Diane with them. We all grabbed a table and had a great dinner together!

One thing I have learned very quickly is how much I dislike single elimination! Once again this tournament would be single elimination and we were scheduled to play the #13 team of Paula Roca and Heather Lowe. Our game didn't start until 11:30 am so Jenelle and I had a good breakfast and headed to the site to get a good warm-up. Well maybe we should have warmed up more!!

The first game was pretty rough and unfortunately the second wasn't much better and before we knew it the game was over and we were done, with at 17th place finish. I could feel the chemistry really fly out the window and I know I didn't play as well as I could have. So this was a tough loss to take again. I was hoping that losing that bad meant that I might be lucky on the blackjack table. I went into the casino with Jenelle and I placed my whopping $10 bet on the table! At first I WON!! Then...the dealer took it all back from me. I think I would have won more if I were standing at the dealers spot! J The people at the casino were looking at us, not because we were tall volleyball players but every time I won, I screamed and gave Jenelle a huge high-five! We were nuts!

I wish that would have solved my woes, but one thing that did was having my amazing, and supportive friend Carol Forseth there to cheer me on. I've known her family since my sophomore year in college in Fort Collins. She spent the entire morning with me and afterwards I was able to go to her home where they have really adopted me in their family and they made me dinner. Afterwards, we all had yogurt and watched many episodes of "the Office." I am pretty sure that was God's way of giving me a huge hug. He brought this family in my life when I needed a great night and spending it with people I really care about.

It's so hard to define the day by a win or a loss, but being able to spend it with a loving family who are dear friends really was the win of that day for me. It didn't stop there either, the next day I was able to have lunch with all my cousins in San Diego. They are the greatest relatives and have been so supportive of me throughout my career. I am grateful for family like them. My mom's uncle, "Jonsey," is a pearl harbor survivor and just a doll to be around. He has 3 incredible kids, all whom I adore!

NEW PARTNER

Having a great time with my family and friends was memorable, but I still had the bitter memory of this last tournament and needed to know where to go from there. Taking a couple of days to really figure out what I should do, the decision was made for me when Jenelle and I chatted and she was going to play with a new player. I had tried to find a new one the weekend before so we knew things weren't going too well for both of us. I told her that we need to do whatever makes us more successful. So that left me with finding a new partner in about 34 hours!

I made a bunch of calls and talked to my coach who has been there to help me through this difficult start to the season. It's so difficult to work so hard for something just to keep beating your head against a wall. Luckily I was able to find a new girl who just started playing and was able to get her to come and practice with me on Thursday before the deadline for registering for the next tournament.  Things went pretty well and I am just hoping for a new and fresh start.