Where there's a Will... there's Johnny Blazed

Here is a video documentary to my friend John Valenti (aka Johnny Blazed.)

Go Johnny!

Love comes first...

Much thought can occur on the road. This was the thought that lit up my night of driving back to Charlotte.

Starting from scratch...
I have had the hardest time trying to figure out where all my motivation and fire went for playing tennis. It has not come natural for me lately to do the things that I used to love to do... like go to bed at a decent hour, work out in the morning, for example.

So I was listening to hours and hours of music on the road and my brain just seemed to be a pile of mush the whole time, with no music really sparking me to think about anything worthwhile. That was when I decided to put some real music in, U2 - Achtung Baby album. Instantaneously my heart and mind came to life again as if I had never heard the album before in my life, although I've heard it hundreds of times, literally. My mind was enthused by the catchy, intelligent lyric and musical brilliance and my heart was warmed by the heartfelt vocals of Bono. It was as if I noticed instantly that that was real music and everything else was crap to me. I was already thinking of selling it all on Half.com, but that's another story. But really, when someone sings from the heart you know it immediately, especially because not too many singers do these days, but that's another story too.

Now rewind even more, back to what I've been thinking about for a long time, but especially these past couple of weeks... a woman. Not just any woman, but the right woman, the one that I can love and really spend a lifetime with. I've dated much, but loved rarely.
Now get this, the few times in my life when I did, that was when my motivation to play tennis, train, and all the stuff listed above plus much more, was there in full swing. Not to say that the times I loved were spoken of or that the relationship was going smoothly, but just that love was in the mix (or should I say 'balance') and it was given high priority. Now I know there are several different kinds of love, but the one with a woman seems to be the most all-encompasing, as far as earthly love goes. (I'll talk about other types of love in another blog later on.) This is the love I have been lacking, and this is the love that I need to put on a higher priority level than it has been... well... ever, if I wanna live my life here on this Earth to its fullest potential.

Now I know that finding true love takes time and takes much patience among a billion other things, but it's worth it...

I heard on the radio yesterday that more people are getting divorced than married each year and it has been like this for the past 10 years or so and only getting worse. This, along with seeing it happen all around you with friends and family can make even thinking about the love I am talking about above pretty discouraging, to say the least, let alone talking about it. That feeling breeds fear of love and is only making divorce that much more common, and true love that much less common. Well I'm here to tell you I'm not afraid of true love. In fact I pursue it on a daily basis. I love watching it in movies and frankly I love love!

"Faith, Hope, and Love remain - these three - and the greatest of these is Love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

Signing off from Matthews, NC...

~ Nate

Mother's Day

Well, here I am in Franklin Coleman's home, a Couchsurfer I am staying with in Tampa, Florida. I am writing this blog from his computer, so I can't put pics on... again. Soon though, soon.

I have had another adventurous week on the road. I traveled from Orange Park to Tampa on Wednesday. I got in and met Franklin around 8:30 that evening. He is an art/music teacher at Tampa Prep School (grades 6-12) and he loves his classical music, let me tell you. He is an older man, 66 years old, and he knows all about Tampa. He took me out that evening to the Big City Tavern with one of his students, Logan (who is a senior) for dinner. It was an awesome old place in the Ybor District of Tampa (kind of like a smaller version of the French Quarter in New Orleans in some senses) that had a really high tin ceiling and exposed brick along with huge windows. It reminded me a lot of my Dad's artist colony, Milo Arts. Franklin made sure neither Logan nor I went hungry there, as he insisted that if I were to pick an appetizer, not just to pick one but two. Fine with me, so I picked two. We hung out, had lots of good conversation and got to know each other, then called it a night as we headed back to Hyde Park, an awesome older district of Tampa which was modeled after a district with the same name in Chicago. It is only a block from Bayshore Boulevard, which runs right along the Bay, hence the name.

Fast forward to the tournament. I've had a hard time thinking of how I would write about how I did. I think the best way to say it is I just didn't play good. I have had a hard time getting my footing (literally) on clay as I am a serve-and-volleyer and I am very much looking forward to the hard court tournaments coming up in California next month. In the meantime I have one more tournament here in Florida, in Fort Lauderdale on the 18th. In the meantime I am going to keep training here in Tampa and try to get in the doubles draw again (John and I didn't get in up in Orange Park.)

Many people want to know what these tournaments are like. This is how it goes:
The sign in is always either on the Thursday or Friday preceding the tournament from 4 to 6pm. If it is a qualifier of 128 than it will be on Thursday to allow for the extra round, as opposed to a qualifier of 64. These Florida tournaments are all 128, so the sign is Thursday. Only 8 of those who play the qualifying tournament will qualify for the main draw of 32. The main draw starts on Tuesday and goes to Saturday, when the finals are played. Players come from all over the world, usually stay in groups in hotels to save money. Others have housing already set up if they have a contact in the vicinity of the tournament... then again others sleep in there vehicles. I have done it differently then everybody this tournament, as I have found housing on Couchsurfing.com.

The day following the sign-in is a crazy day, as more matches are played on that day then any other day. Most players will just linger around the tournament site until their match is on. Of course, since they don't know exactly what time a player will go on, they will say 'not before blank o'clock'. Sometimes you can wait over two hours after that time before you actually go on. Some tournaments put food out for the players and really take care of the players, like Orange Park, for example. They had it all, food, housing, swimming, fitness, everything. Tampa is the exact opposite. All they give you here is a nice location. Everything else costs money.
Other details: Only one round is played per day. The most matches you can play in a day is two; one singles and one doubles.

Bagpiping: I played in the Ybor district the past two nights. The first night I played right on the sidewalk for tips. I asked a cop there if it would be legal and she said "no problem", so I played...
First I was told that I was playing on private property and I needed to move six feet forward. So I did. It wasn't 15 minutes before a pack of Code Enforcement officers came up to me and told me to "pack it up... now!" So I did, but I stood there for a moment to figure out where I would play next. That was when they started threatening me that if I was caught again playing on the street my next stop would be whatever the name of the jail was around there. How friendly... At that moment they didn't bother me one bit, so I headed down the street with my pipe case and found a James Joyce Irish Pub. I played there, made some good tips in a very short period of time (I think I made more than the musician there... I don't think he liked that, but I did) and was offered another gig there Saturday night at 11. So I had two late nights. Now I'm outta here and on to my next gig, the Kaleisia Tea Lounge for another gig and then on from there to my next Couchsurfing spot in north Tampa.

Today is Mother's Day, so I hope you all are doing something awesome for your Moms right now... I have a secret plan.

Happy Mothers Day

~ Nate

This is my story...

Well shoot, I had a rough first match on Friday. It all started with my YMCA workout Thursday in Orange Park, or perhaps the sleep on the floor of a friend's room the night before. Anyway, I somehow got a pinched nerve in my back from one or the other and had rough sleep the night before my match. I had the trainer massage it out twice, but it only got temporarily worse. He said it wouldn't be until Saturday that it would start to feel better. So my match was rough, as my serve was a pain, literally. I wouldn't default, as that is my one claim to fame - I have never defaulted a match in my life, not even when I was cramping all over in my legs... never. So, I got beat in a pretty bad match, but I didn't default at least. I had a good day of training yesterday and I got to teach a couples clinic with a fellow tour player named Roby to end the night for a few bucks. I took it relatively easy today, as I usually designate Sundays as my days off. Tomorrow I'll be hitting it hard again. In the evening the club is putting on a pro-am for any of the players who wanna play with some locals, another chance to make a few bucks, and I'll be doing that as well. Tuesday I'll be playing in the doubles main draw with John Valenti (aka Johnny Blazed) I think.

So Orange Park is one of the only tournaments on the US Futures Circuit that offers housing to its players. The housing is provided by a slew of volunteer host families who are also members of the club where the tournament is located. I have been very fortunate to get to stay with the Knights, a family of four (w/ two boys) in a very nice home only about a mile and a half from the tournament site. I can honestly say I feel spoiled here... and I love it. They let me have the entire upstairs area, which consists of a large bedroom with a TV with cable, a fridge, a big bed, and a full bathroom. They even took me out to eat today at Carabbas... ahhh life is good! I played my pipes for a good while this evening for them and they really enjoyed that... thank God for those pipes!

Speaking of pipes, I also played them for a small all-black Baptist Church that I found this morning when I went out searching for a church. The people there were as sweet and welcoming as I have ever seen or felt. Once I told an elder, Mr. McNeil, in the morning Sunday School service that I play the pipes he did not hesitate to ask me to go and get them to play for the church service. It was literally like something out of a movie...
If you ever get a chance to go to a traditional all-black (I only say this because it is much different from a 'white run' church, all-the-while in a wonderful way) you should definitely go. Some of the most warm-hearted, enthusiastic, and vocal Christians I ever met were right there in this very small, old white one-room church house. I was tempted to keep driving by when I saw it at first as it almost looked abandoned with only one car in the lot, but then I remembered I had told myself that I would stop at the first church I saw and that was the one. Boy am I thankful I went. Oh, did I mention how they were vocal? They sang old hymns throughout the service, everyone in the church, and it was a sweet sound... boy I wish I could have recorded some of it. Mom, I think your favorite hymn is Blessed Assurance - we sung that one too. It was a great voice lesson!

This is my story... this is my song.

Signing off...

~ Nate

The Video

It's Gone... They're Gone... and I'm Gone!

It's Gone

One could say it is the end of an era for this Mann. 5 1/2 years of long hair, ever since my Freshman year of college, and it all has been lopped off at the local Supercuts.
It was an era which begun with the rebellious start to living on my own. A freshman in college, ladies were telling me all the time to cut my hair as it was relatively long when I came in. I was tired of hearing the complaints, so I went in the bathroom with my roommate's hair buzzer and came out with a buzzed head. The ladies didn't like that either. That was when I decided, 'Fine, they're never gonna be happy anyway... I'll show them.' And I never cut it again through my four years of college. Not until my Senior year did I have some more complaining ladies lop off 12 inches of hair (which went to Locks of Love, right Andrea?) but it was still long enough to pull back into a ponytail.
Let me digress and talk about these days of my life with long hair. Never did a day go by where I didn't feel free. When the wind was blowing and my hair smacked me in the face... I loved that. That was my reminder that I had to look good for nobody, only enjoy being alive and free. During these days I matured quite a bit. I began to play the bagpipes during this era. The pipes have yet to be played by a short haired Nate Mann. That will all change soon.
So it was an end of quite an era... all the friends I met during this time... all the adventures I embarked on... It was a rebellious era, but a very sweet one at that.


They're Gone

The two ladies in the picture with me are the very culprits behind the haircut. Lauren is on the left and Lindsey on the right. I met them both when they were Freshmen at Queens and here they are graduating... walking the line on Saturday. I regretfully will be unable to attend as I will be in Florida for tournaments. These are two very classy ladies. I will miss you L Sistas!

I'm Gone!

I'm off to Florida tomorrow in my '87 BMW Convertible to play in two satellite tournaments and the USTA National Claycourt Tournament. I have housing in all three locations, so the van will sit in Charlotte for the month. I will be back in Charlotte around May 25th. I will then be switching vehicles and and driving the van out to California to compete in the National Hardcourt Tournament and two more satellites. I will then be flying back July 2nd, leaving the van in California for the Summer and playing the Midwest satellites, visiting my family in Ohio, and playing a couple Wedding gigs in July. I will fly back to California on September 2nd and play in the group of satellites in southern Cal before driving Anna Supernova back to Charlotte.

To all who hated my hair: You're welcome
To all who liked my hair: I'm sorry, but eras come and go
To all who still don't like my hair: I don't really like your hair either
To all who couldn't care less: I don't care about you either

For every end of an era there's a new one and for those who don't care, well I don't care about you.

That's my story.

Signing off...

~ Nate