#67 - back to it

phew... after about a week and a half of feeling like a flattened dead toad baking on the asphalt i'm finally back to feeling alright. sickness sucks, no wonder people try to stay away from it.

anyway, it's time to get back to living now, i think my 24 hour membership might've expired while i was sick... i sent in my renewal payment, but i used to prepay everything and this time i want them to take out my monthly from my checking, so i hope it went through, i didn't get anything back yet. oh well, i guess i'll find out when i go in on monday and they reject me at the front desk.

oh, and volleyball. sigh. how can they be so crappy already? i mean, obviously you look to kamana`o first (or the absence of kamana`o), and even though the sets ARE misplaced and predictable, it really should be good enough to get some decent hits out of the already experienced players. at first i was like, okay, opening match jitters, gotta work out all the kinks and whatever, but after tonight's 0-3 lost or oregon state? i mean, oregon state? sure they're a different team from last year, but i watched each of their games the past two nights and they ain't the greatest... oh well, at least it'll make for an exciting season (one way or the other).

on a brighter note, US OPEN STARTS TOMORROW!!!! woo hoo! my picks, you ask? federer and i'm going out on a limb... taking a risk... and going for ana ivanovic! why? well, just take a look... she's hot! haha, nah, but okay really she's not a total dark horse, she's #4/5 in the world and she's been in the semis of the french open and won a bunch of titles (including a big one in LA just a few weeks ago). of course, i also gotta go with my girl maria sharapova, defending champion... but her game has been a little suspect (especially the serve) recently. still she's got a good draw on the bottom half of the women so i'll pit her up against ivanovic for the finals (even though ivanovic has gotta get through jelena jankovic and then possibly serena/justine in the semis). i'd call venus williams my dark horse for the big upsets this major around. serena of course is always in there, but i think her injuries are still hampering her a little too much to be able to get past henin.
on the men's side... well, who would you take? my man roger federer or the field? haha, i'm going with roger. how can you not? i'll tell you why not... novak djokovic! this guy's my new favorite (aside from roger), winning two huge hard court titles this year (beating, along the way, roddick, nadal 2x, and roger in the final of the big one a few weeks ago) and i think he'll push roger in the final, maybe take off a set, but roger will come up big in the end to win his fourth consecutive US Open title. i'd really like to push for roddick, because i like the guy and really want him to do well (especially at the US Open), but he's gotta get through both roger (in the quarters) and then djokovic (supposing he gets to the finals) and i don't think he can get both done in the same tourney, still, he's got the skills so if he catches one of them on a bad day (especially since he'll be facing federer early on in the tournament and heck, he's the last guy besides roger to win the US Open anyway!). my dark horse i'm gonna pick lleyton hewitt, he's been showing some sweet game lately, but he's gotta play djokovic early and i'm liking djokovic for the finals so....
well, opening matches start tomorrow... 10 hours of tennis every day, woo hoo! by the way, if you know any girls who look like miss ivanovic up there... 1) find out if she's single, 2) tell her what a great guy i am, and 3) introduce me. especially if she can pound forehands (ala steffi graf) like ana, i'm all in. ha.