Lessons Learned: Thanksgiving Edition

1. I can survive days without the internet. I was mostly missing Blogger, Facebook, and Hotmail, but I was fine without them and was kind of surprised at how I don't really get that many important communications.
2. Never order steak well-done at a hotel Thanksgiving dinner. Or turkey. The well-done steak will be bloody and the turkey will be mostly giblets. And it's probably best to avoid all the sides as well.
3. When playing in a tennis tournament, I should take exactly enough Gatorade to get me through to the finals. I just grabbed a bunch when I was leaving and didn't really calculate how much I would actually need. So I just always had it, until I lost 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 in the semifinals. I was on my last bottle in the last set and blew a 5-3 lead. (Of course, last tournament, I took tons and lost in my first match. And I felt pretty stupid.)
4. My nerves are there or they aren't. I don't know what does it. I lost the first set in 2 of my matches and was still able to win them. In my last match, I lost the first set, won the second and was on the verge of winning the third but came up short.
5. No matter how fit I think I am, I can still cramp up. Badly. Ouch.
7. When eating a Japanese steakhouse, realize that when you're seated in random groups, there is room for anything to happen. B and I were seated with a father/girlfriend/father's son group and a mom/dad/2 sons group. It was a surreal occasion. Everyone wanted to talk, but I don't go to dinner to talk with random strangers. The people were interesting, but it got overwhelming at points. Especially when the mom would freak out at the father's son and the chef over any drug reference made in jest at the table. "This is not the time and place for that type of humor!" I hope she watches the commercials on TV and talks to her kids about drugs before it's too late.
8. Never stay in a hotel where you have to walk a mile from the elevators to your room.
9. No matter which one it is or when I start watching, "The Lord of the Rings," trilogy is always good (even with commercials). And I like the fact that "Return of the King" has 400 endings. They had to wrap up 10 hours of movie.
10. I'm getting more and more obsessed with Jenny Lewis and Rilo Kiley.
11. It's easier for me to recover from a lost match when I'm ready to get back home.
12. When I arrive home, the cats will first seem cold and distant. But after a while they will show me that they actually did miss me. Or at least let me think they did.
13. I think work is making me physically ill. I haven't been feeling well for weeks and I have some extra days off of work and now I'm fine. I don't know if it's the water or the air or the smell or what, but if I go in tomorrow and start feeling sick again, I'm not going to be happy.
14. It's interesting to take stock of the people I think about when I'm away. And the people I don't.
15. As much as I like to aim for people at net in doubles, when I actually hit them, I feel bad. Sorry, RJ.
16. Avoiding the 10 Freeway and instead taking the 57 or 605N to the 210W to the 134 can be a good move.
17. Sometimes saying yes when I want to say no is a better choice.
18. Always hit through the forehand. Whether it's going in or not.
19. Poolside sometimes means a view of the pool through trees and the roof of the cafe stretching out underneath your room.
20. My right thigh has a mind of its own. After years of Yoga trying to loosen it up, it finally just gave out of nowhere. I can almost do the splits.