Lake Placid, tennis, then Lake Placid

6/6/09
Lake Placid was awesome, my hair was not – but who cares! The whole mini vacation was great, but I don’t have time right now to do it justice in description. Catch you later, where the real fun will begin, I promise.
12:13 am, good night!

6/7/09
Hey there. I just finished watching Federer win the French Open for the first time. He had been trying to win it for some time now, but Nadal was always there to stop him. This time though, the man who beat Nadal earlier, faced him on that finals court. “De ja vu or Soderling who?” said one commentator, appropriately. That’s right. Robin Soderling of Sweden somehow beat Nadal in the first week of the French Open. Then again, Nadal had an off-day that day. But how do you explain Soderling’s continued success in the Open? Perhaps it was the up surged energy and self-belief he gained at the electrifying shock of beating Nadal, which then drove him forward into the second week and ultimately into the final. Yes, perhaps. Still, Federer proved to be no match for Soderling at the championship match. As Soderling puts it, Federer gave him, “a lesson on how to play tennis,” today. And it wasn’t Federer’s seemingly incapable (at least against Federer) opponent alone that helped Federer win the trophy. Federer showed inherent prowess on the clay court that shouted he was destined to win it some time along the line. That and destiny allowed him to finally kiss the trophy.

I know I said I’d talk about Lake Placid today, or tonight rather, but I thought I’d have more time than I do right now and I still want to do it justice. I probably will have to write an outline of all the things we did – that’s how fun it was. Or maybe I can write it today. “Call today . . . call now.” (Sears commercial)

We started our Wednesday morning pretty early. I believe we left the house at around 7:30 am or earlier, actually. It felt surreal because of the whole atmosphere of the morning. First of all, I hadn’t woken up that early since school ended back in mid May. Secondly, it was kind of chilly and Ate Sherry was awake to see us leave. She was fun too, just her being there. Her presence made everything friendlier. I don’t know. I wrote her a note, asking her to feed Gibralter. It went a little something like this:
Dear Ate Sherry,
Good morning! Can you do me a favor? Can you or someone feed Gibralter a pinch of fishie food on Thursday, Friday and Saturday? I already fed him/her today, Wednesday. Thanks, I highly appreciate it!
Love, Bern
I’LL MISS YOU!!
She read it and laughed as she ate leftover dumplings for breakfast. I wanted some, but I was too sleepy to ask. Speaking of sleepy, when I instinctively retreated into my usual back seat of the mini van, I dozed right off - I was down and out. Like I said, I didn’t usually wake up that early for the past couple of weeks before that day. So from about 8 to 10:45 in the morning I was lying recumbent in the back seat dreaming the miles away. I woke up to the sound of bugles being crunched in Steph’s mouth as she was working on Ate Sherry’s friendship bracelet. I was still sleepy though. The sun was beautiful as we crossed a bride – I don’t remember which one – over tranquil water. I forced my eyes to stay open so I wouldn’t miss it, but as soon as we hit solid land and the sun was flashing in and out of passing trees, I closed my eyes and let Steph’s crunch lead me into another dream.

I honestly can’t remember right now, on the top of my head, what happened on the first day there, besides an eerie barren town that’s hard to forget. So I will have to garner some information tomorrow and relay that info imaginatively to you, tomorrow night.

With that said, good night! 1:02 am