Saturday, April 11, 2009

Nationals!

So, Nationals blew my mind.  I watched more racquetball than I have seen in my entire life in four days.  Some people might think that this would make a person really sick of racquetball.  But pretty much all I've wanted to do since I got back from nationals is play racquetball.  Which is a problem considering I have finals a week from today. There's not exactly a ton of spare time to fantasize about racquetball.  But who cares about grades anyway?  Don't worry, mom and dad, that was a joke.  I do care about my grades...unfortunately.  Life would really be a kick in the pants otherwise. :) 

 Anyway, I did pretty well individually and our team did awesome-ly (that's my attempt at being grammatically correct while still using the word that I feel best fits there) as well.  I placed third in singles and first in doubles in my division.  Our overall team got third place and our women's team took second!  We were all pretty excited.  Apparently ( I wouldn't really know since this was my first year) the competition, at least for the girls, like doubled in intensity from last year.  So I guess we should be doubly proud of second place.  

So, all in all, I had an absolute blast.  I love racquetball, I love our team, I love warm weather, I love my family and I love winning. :)  I got to experience all of those things at nationals.  It was really great.  So here's some pictures in review.  Enjoy!

PS- Brian did come.  I promise. Sorry I didn't get any pictures to document his being there.  Maybe he got some??

Sightseeing with mom and dad in Sedona.  We had a nice old lady take this picture of us.  I'm glad it turned out because it was so windy the poor thing almost blew over while trying to take the picture!
These signs were pretty ridiculous.  I just had to disobey them.  Just a little bit.  In case you can't read it, it says no in about 20 different languages and then says, "Don't climb on the rocks!" or something to that effect.

I thought this picture was pretty cool.  Especially considering I took it out of the window of a 
moving car.  New Zealand style. :)

The girls. Top row: me, Hilary, Katherine.  Bottom row: Liza, Charlotte, Jessica.

Coach Val!  I love this woman.

This is just everybody watching, or trying to watch, an intense match.  Men's doubles I believe. 
 
This is me and my doubles partner, Hilary.  Getting a normal picture of this girl is about the hardest thing on the planet.  So believe it or not, this is the best one we got.

Me with my medals.  A bronze and a gold. They say "national champion" on them which, not gonna lie, makes me feel pretty important.

The team.  I could've put a serious team picture up here but they all looked funny.  Surprisingly enough, this was the best option.




2 comments:

Stefanie Elyse said...

AWESOME JOB ALI! I'm so glad nationals was such a fun time :)

mb said...

Way to disobey. STICK IT TO THE MAN! That's what I always say anyway.... ok that's not true.

ConGRATulations on first, going to nationals, and second, getting medals. That is big time awesome. You should make them a permanent necklace.