there was my twenty first birthday, which i celebrated over a period of three days, but started getting sick on the actual date. and not because of alcohol. which i couldn’t even have very much of.

there was waking up tuesday morning at 7 with a fever and calling brent to tell him i wouldn’t be going to daytona for nationals that day with everyone else. there was shopping and going to the health center to get blood tests that were interrupted by a fire drill.

there was driving to daytona on my own early on tuesday morning and feeling left out because i wasn’t around the night before. and finding out it was too cold into daytona. there was a waiter who sat us in the back room of olive garden and closed the doors so everyone under 21 could be 21 just for a night and have whatever the hell they wanted. there were the constant trips to the bathroom to blow my nose until i decided to steal a roll of toilet paper from the bathroom which i produced from my jacket pocket when i got back to the table only to have juan delgado start to laugh and annouce to the whole table what i had done. there was sleeping on the air mattress. which i complained about. and got the bed for the next three nights when kristin so graciously agreed to switch with me. i owe her. and jessica. because now jessica has a cold.

there was walking on to the court at 10:30 on wednesday morning to air that was supercharged with anticipation. there was a feeling of perfection every time kristin and i won a point. there was a desire to win. after playing three schools there was exhaustion and dinner with my parents at sonnys where jon nate marissa and brent so bravely sat at the table with my parents. jorel got us all corn things for appetizers. there was the discovery that jon likes cottage cheese.

there was so much tennis that all the matches blended together and we watched and played and screamed and called for line judges. there were friends that we made at rutgers and parties that we planned for the last night. there was disappointment when we found out that we were four games away from being in the top eight and a super tie breaker that we lost to be in the top twelve. there was a bug that interrupted my doubles match and a substitution where i saved the day. there was a substitution where i could have helped but didn’t. there was kristin’s big win against the true “grunter”. there were bees that chased us around the courts. there were real conversations in between games and runs to subway for lunch and invitations to parties with other schools. there were people who got drunk that were not me because of antibiotics. there were beds removed from rooms to accomodate more people and videos made of the escapades.

there was an awards ceremony where our b team won a basket of pears. there was the announcement that ucf won the sportsmanship award and after going crazy and running up to the front only to find out that they didn’t want the a team there too. there was a raffle and ucf cleaned them out. jeff won a seat cushion and i won a cosmetic case. woohoo.

and then all of the sudden spring break and the tennis was over. we found ourselves at bob evans eating breakfast and talking about next year. and it makes me wonder why every year you can’t stay friends with all the same people and how funny it is that people make appearances in your life.

it was nationals 2004. and it was a kickass time.