I play in a billiards league. It’s a fun league, but competitive enough to make it interesting. My team played really well this year. In fact, this year was my personal best. With three weeks remaining in the regular season, we had already clinched first place. Now, we are in the playoffs. Last week… fairly easy win. This week (tonight actually)…not so easy. After four rounds of play, we tied. In the playoffs, a tie is not allowed. We had to play an extra round. We tied the extra round. So… we had to pick a player to play the best two out of three against a pick from the other team. Being captain of the team, I picked myself. I was feeling good. But I lost. Yup. Lost. Oh well.

What’s worth mentioning though is that I don’t really feel like I choked. Sure, I made a couple of mistakes, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed or nervous. The adrenaline was pumping, but my hands were steady and my determination strong. The other guy just made less mistakes and pulled out more super shots when he needed to.

I’d also like to pay tribute to my team. Kudos and hoorays to Steve, Reggie, Rennie, and Jason. You guys gelled well as a team, one taking up the slack for another when he was having a bad night. Now, smarten up so we can take first place in the loser’s bracket!