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
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
posted by Nate | 12:49 PM
3 Comments:
-plan executed successfully-
Good job.
Nate, you were a terrific houseguest, and all my friends enjoyed your wonderful stories at dinner. Come again soon!
Nate,
Great to see those pipes are coming in handy! Really enjoy the You Tube links. Pipes sound good... the first tune has a familar ring to it! ;-)
Drive safely,
Hugh
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