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Right time, Right place...I make an awesome paparazzi! |
I started writing this post two....no wait… three weeks back. Part excitement after watching the football game and part determination to keep my obscure blog going. This blogging thing was part of my New Year resolutions. I wrote that little rhymee (just made that word up) poem (thought I was gonna be the next Keating!) and then planned to write at least one post every month. Ha! :( But then it’s a New Year’s resolution. What do you expect?? :) Anyway for whatever its worth I am going to complete this post coz its really about one of my most exciting days (actually night!) since the summer of 99. And I wanna tell some stranger. Anybody.
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Rewind: Three weeks ago.
As I sit back on my couch after watching an incredible football (I mean soccer..but I’ll always call it football..coz it foot-ball!!) game, I cant help but look back at my last two weekends and say to myself “wow”!
For me sport offers the purest form of HIGH!! And boy am I addicted or what :) I have never done drugs but I cant think of too many highs that can even come close to watching Man United beat City 4 -3 at the 96th minute in a packed Irish pub, a Roddick vs Federer classic at Wimbledon, the first Indian hatrick in Test cricket along with 100000 crazy fans at Eden Gardens (this is my Summer of 99 reference above…in case you were wondering….I doubt it:)), a last second touchdown on TV even though I barely follow what Americans call football or even Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan or Efran Magician Reyas on grainy Youtube videos!!! I am an addict and thank god there is no rehab.
But last weekend was surreal!! After lying low over the long weekend…I wanted to close out my incredible summer here in NYC with a flourish. And what better than to watch some quality sports live! I had already bought a pair of tickets to the US Open Women’s Semis a couple of months back. Then my apartment mate found tickets to the Men’s Semis on Craigslist for $200 and I thought it was well worth the money. Tennis was always big at home growing up. Its probably the only sport my Dad watches on TV and every Grand Slam semis and final was a little bit of an event so there was no way I was going to miss this opportunity.
Lots happened (read rain!!) Friday and all day Saturday but I’ll just cut to the chase. Saturday Night. Serena vs. Kim Clijsters. US Open Women’s Semifinals (finals for all practical purposes....come on ...I am not being disrespectful to the other semi finalist…this really was the big one!). Anyway, me and my friend sneaked in a few rows but were still on the promenade (I still don’t get why they call it that). Then I see this guy, sitting right behind me 5 minutes earlier, loitering courtside looking for seats. Must be all the rain. They are just letting people sit courtside without making a big fuss. Run.
Next scene. (This is better. This way I don’t have to think up insightful sentences to write and get to where I want to get to. I am desperate. Three week old stinky p@#$% of #$%t) The best fricking courtside seat eva! Eva! Right behind one of the linesmen. Kim Clijsters. 5 feet away. I was rooting for her against the crowd. Obviously, she’s cute. And has a reputation of being one of the nicest persons on tour. (What was Lytton Hewitt thinking???? You Fool).
Close match. Hard fought. Surprisingly crowd wasn’t as partisan as I thought it would be. Lots of Kim supporters among the Americans! Must be the ‘Mom on a comeback trail’ thing. Whatever. She was leading. One set up. And Serena serving to stay in the set. Exact score. One sec. Google. 6 – 4, 6 – 5 and 15 – 30 down I think. Pressure Pressure :) Big point. Gut feel. I start recording. Had been doing it intermittently throughout the match. First serve. Second Serve.
“Foot Fault!!!” screamed the lineswoman sitting in front of me. I stop recording (stupid stupid!). I hear a boo. Serena looks the other direction, gathers a ball, turns around and launches into a tirade against the lineswoman that John McEnroe would have been proud of!!! I start recording again. 5 or 6 seconds into this crazy ass moment. The nastiest bit was already said (I swear I didn’t hear it!!) but there was no sign of stopping. Keep rolling baby!! She gets even closer to the lineswoman and now I can hear what was being said. “You better be fricking right coz I don’t do that!! You better be fricking right coz I don’t do that!! You don’t know me” . I am thinking to myself this is gonna be big on Youtube. Actually saying it aloud!
Judge calls the lineswoman over. Serena still walking around pissed. More drama. Two USTA officials walk out. Call Serena over. Discussion. More like argument. I can hear her say “What? I didn’t say that? I didn’t say I’ll kill you?” And then she just walks out. Oh she did shake Kim’s hand. The match point was defaulted but it, at that time, looked like she just walked away. Fuck. This is crazy. This was, like Sports Illustrated later described, one of the most bizarre conclusions to a match in U.S. Open history. And I was there. No wait. That didn’t come out right. I was RIGHT there. The crowd booed for about a minute. The media guys were next to us in a flash. I let this blond chick answer them. Me and my friend sneaked out.
“Let’s call ESPN. We maybe able to make some money off this”
“I don’t know. Maybe we should just put it on Youtube tonight. It’ll get a million hits”
We called ESPN. They won’t pay for videos. I sit on the video for two days. Not sure if I should just put it online or wait. Post pics on Facebook though. One of them taken off some news website showing me actually recording the incident. I get an email from my cousin’s husband. Lawyer dude. Send me the video. We talk on the phone and looks like he might be able to help. A day later TMZ bought the video. (no we ain’t discussing that :)) But what did I tell you. Its going on Youtube. With the TMZ logo!!
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Its over. Damn. Good. That makes up for at least two or three months of lost posts. Even if no one reads it. Its over.
