Tennis: a civilized sporting event.

We had the chance to go to the Australian Open and watch a match in the Rod Laver Arena.

I'm not really a sporting event fan.  I have some jersey's, and am a 'fan' of a few teams, but I'm certainly not hardcore about it.

My favorite sport to watch live has been hockey. It's fast moving and fairly easy to follow.  I've also seen football games, baseball games, MMA, soccer, basketball and as of today tennis.

Watching Tennis was significantly different than any of my other live sports experiences.  First, the stadium.  As we walked up, I was shocked by how HUGE it was.  I wondered if we would be able to even see a tiny little tennis ball in such a large area.  The stadium was also super clean.  I was surprised at how 'intimate' the stadium felt.  It was decent sized, I won't endeavor to guess how many seats, I posted some photos instead.  It just had the feeling of every seat being a good seat.  We were lucky and didn't have the sun in our faces for the match.

Then there was the crowd.  I can't  stand to have football on the television because I can't stand that drowning crowd noise that's constantly in the background.  Tennis is different.  During play the entire audience is quiet, a bit like golf.  Then they erupt into a few minutes of celebration.  When there is a funny picture on the screen, or the athletes told a joke in an interview, they laugh in unison.  It was bizarre, but also cool.  They were also incredibly friendly (which is generally true of Australians).  They would turn around during the game breaks and make small talk, and not just sports banter.  On their way out of the stadium, every single person I saw picked up their trash and threw it out.  I was impressed.

While the sports itself is slightly confusing (game, set, match; love, 15, 30, 40; etc) it's easy to follow what's going on.  Hit ball over net.  Repeat.  Don't miss.  Don't hit the net.  I think when we get home I'll actually try playing tennis with Gavin finally.

Rolex Keeps the time.

Ball Kids.  Seemingly a very complicated job.

Wonderful Week!

What a whirlwind of a week it has been! Last weekend, Gavin and I went home for our first 'official' wedding event. It was amazing and I was honored and overwhelmed to have such a clear reminder of all of the love and friends we have in our lives. I was also thrilled to meet baby Emily for the first time! Emily took her very first trip to come to our shower! I'll be posting more and pictures on facebook sometime this week. Thank you so much to everyone!

It's a good thing I didn't attach much importance to my Bracket, because there is no good news in that arena!

The summary for all non sports fans is that all the red= bad. Oh well... no win for the turtles this year!

I have a gift for my California friends, a change of season!

This is nearly the same picture taken at Christmas and over the weekend. One of the few draw backs of living in California (smog, housing costs, taxes, and State budgets aside) is missing out on seasonal change. I seem to be especially affected by this when I think about how much fun I had trying to shoot snow in Chicago and our beautiful spring here. Lucky for me, modern travel makes it possible to continue to do both without the hassle of living someplace where shoveling snow and wearing scarfs for non fashion reasons is a reality.

In other photo news, I've also got a pretty good lead on a cure for my 'auto' dependence with my camera. More on that after I have more time to investigate!

Sporting Events.

In general, I am not all that into sporting events. Lately, I've been trying to understand sports in general. One method, is to get a jersey for the team I'm cheering for. Not only does this give me something to wear, but can also greatly improve the odds that I cheer at the right time.

I have also participated in several pools. I'm the fish. They get me to play to increase the amount of money that actual fans will win. I generally prefer to choose my teams based on which mascot would will in an Arena fight, although I make exceptions for particularly cute mascots, such as the little turtles I chose to win March Madness.



So far, I've already lost two of my teams, but I didn't have any of them moving on, so we'll see how it goes!