Living the Dream

This is in response to the Bambina inspired blog entries you have.
This is a Carlotai inspired entry.

Turning pro. Definitely not me for a while. But a good friend of mine. Yes, let me broadcast to the world (to those who don't read his blogs anyway). Carlos Fabregas turned pro today.

And all I could tell him was that I am SO excited for him. I was overwhelmed. Because, he is living everyone else's dream.

Including mine.

I know, I probably should have been inspired by the JRo legacy, a Filipina in the LPGA. Or the Dorothy Delasin legend. But no. Those were of different times. The circumstances are different, way, WAY different. Having someone turn pro NOW makes a lot of difference. It makes a HUGE difference for us who aspire to do the same. It makes you think that hey, it's not impossible in our time. He can do it. So can I.

He's living the dream. He's living every golfer's dream. He's living MY dream.

I wish you all the luck in the world. Be strong. Keep faith. You'll do great, Carlos. :)

Gorufu o shimasu

Today was a golf day. Haven't had one of those in a while. YES.

I was at the range from 10:03 AM to 2:23 PM (clocked in and out those times), hitting balls nonstop. I'm not kidding. NONSTOP.

I got a few things down though. I'm totally fixing my swing now.

Swing thoughtS. :)

Club face position. Feel as if it's shut on the backswing. As if my left hand is under my right.
Set up. Relax right shoulder. Should be lower than left.
Swing path. On the arc, not outside.
Grip. Stronger right hand grip. (Wow. All I've been asked to do for the longest time is to weaken it.)
Set weight shifting with left knee. Yep.
Let arm fall after setting. Extend right arm. Retain angle.
Drill. Top of the swing, shift all weight to left foot. Let hands drop (extend right arm three times) then swing through.
SYNC-ing.

That's pretty much it. Got A LOT of work to do this winter. :)

Wacko

Long weekend yo. And I didn't have any plans. Good job. Haha.

Our football team won though. Beat UCon. 27-3. UCon. (Coach Bong, if you're reading this, UCon is University of Connecticut. HAHA.) OOOOOOOOOOH. OOOOOOOOHH. OOOOOOOOOOOOH. *claps 4 times* UC!

And yeah, the coolest cheer ever.

"Everybody knows, UCon blows!"

Good job. :))

There was this person (who probably drank too much) who puked all over three rows of the Nippert Stadium (our football stadium). Disgusting. Right behind us, too. *puke*

Well, I went with Merb, her boyfriend Jason and a couple of their friends to the movies. Finally got to Newport. FINALLY. Haha. But on the way, Jason actually exercised his lack of common sense (and evidently a bit of his drunkenness) through his questions.

Jason: How old are you, Bambee?
Bambee: I think you know how old I am. (I thought he did, too, because I mean, it was such a big deal for people and I thought Merb would've mentioned it or what)
Merb: She's only 17.
Jason: Huh?! How did that happen? Do you have longer birthdays in the Philippines? Do you have 400 days in a year there?

=)) (Oh man. That was probably the most stupid question anyone as ever asked me.)

Back in the apartment he put a bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade in front of me, insisting that I drink it. I didn't.

Jason: Oh man. I shouldn't have offered you that Mike's Hard. You're underage underage!!!

Yeah, I know. :

And by the way, he kept defending his 400 days in a year question all through the night. He said it was a legitimate question. Uhmmm...NOOOOOO!!! :))

On the way back from the movies, Jason asked some questions again.

Jason: How did you get your citizenship?
Bambee: I'm not an American citizen. It'll take a while before I get one, if I ever do.
Jason: Oh, so you're an ILLEGAL ALIEN!!!
Merb: She's not illegal. She's got a visa. Oh my God, Jason, stop talking!

=))

Sunday was a SLEEP ALL DAY day. Haha. YESSSS. Wake up at 12:00. Have breakfast. Pretty much watch movies the whole afternoon then go to bed. ;)

BUM day in other words. Haha.

Workout

I'm going to start this blog by describing how I've been feeling for the past few days. Homesick. And well, working out doesn't really help. I kind of compare how we work out here to how we do it back home (though I didn't really do much of that). There are still times when I wish that I was working out with my old teammates, just cracking jokes every now and then to make our early (5:00 am) workouts more lively and our afternoon (5:00 pm) workouts less tiring. I just miss them SO much. I miss our little "gym" in Montecito. I miss Coach Jojo. I miss everyone. :'(

So, workouts. We don't do much heavy lifting. And I say this compared to the other sports. I mean, in my opinion, some of the things we lift are quite heavy, but seeing how the soccer boys work out and how the baseball boys work out just makes the weights we lift look (I should say feel, but not really) TINY.

We first do warm-ups that consist of lunges, high knees, butt kicks, knee pulls front and back, shuffles and sprints down the track. Then we do bench squats or no bench squats with the 45 pound bar, with 5, 10 and 15 pound weights on it. Then we do the bar on the platform. And let me just describe this. It is a 45 pound bar (no weights. PLEASE! Haha.) that we do 6 sets of 6 of each of the following: shrugs (just pull shoulders up, which isn't so bad), high pulls (pull 45 pound bar up to chin with elbows at the height of your head), push cleans (pull bar up and turn wrist, causing the bar to sit on your wrist facing up, at the height of your shoulders), SDLs (or something like that, which aren't so bad either) and lift the bar thing (I forgot what it was called, but it isn't so bad). The high pulls and the push cleans are DAMNED hard. But the push cleans just suck. I swear, I feel like my wrist breaks every time I do it. : Then we do laterals with weights and front ones (I don't know what it's called). Sometimes we have abs work, sometimes we do the machines. Plus 10-15 minute CARDIO on ellipticals or bikes.

It's not so bad, except the first time I did the bar on the platform I developed a muscle knot on my left shoulder, and I couldn't turn. :))

Well, we do it with the boys, and this is another thing that makes me miss Montecito more. Our boys are shrimps (with the exception of Blake, and maybe Nick and Jared). They actually carry the same weight we do. It's kind of funny, and annoying. Haha.

Alberto (the lone Spaniard on the team, lone international on the mens' team) actually steals the 10 pound weight from us (girls) so some of us do 12.5 or something. It's hilarious. Just this morning, he walked by us after doing the laterals with the squats, and he says "Alberto's shoulder is fucked up." With 10 pounds. Aw, come on. :))

I swear, I think Kane actually fell over with the laterals + squats. Can't get any shrimpier than him. :))

Well, the baseball boys were working out next to us, with another trainer, and they were carrying 95 pounds on EACH arms and walking 30 yards down the turf. Back and forth. OH MY GOD. I felt SO bad for them. They were carrying 3/4 of MY body weight with one hand. It was just INSANE. And they get to rest for like every ten yards, so they drop the weights, and I think one of them dropped it on his foot. It's sad. Poor them. :(

And we have one of these sessions again tomorrow morning. Grrr. Gotta sleep. Peace. <3

Halloween

There's this one guy we passed on the way to the Sigma Kai party that said "Halloween is just an excuse for girls to dress like sluts."

Emily (on the golf team last year), who was with us, gave a resounding "YES!" to complement her referee costume that showed 3/4 of her massive boobs and a skirt that was right around 4 inches long. 4 inches. I'm not kidding.

I wasn't on that bandwagon, though. I was a rugby player (it was last minute! Like we dressed up 45 minutes before we left, and I didn't have a costume. At all.) and I was the most conservative of ALL costumes in the whole world. :))

Guys (from back home) would freak if they saw what the girls wore for Halloween. Oh my God. They barely concealed any of their skin, and it wasn't exactly hot and humid outside. Mya (on the golf team last year as well) wore a baseball outfit not far from Emily's referee costume (although in chest size Emily rules by far). Other girls were wearing bras and panties. Others wore bras and lady boxers, claiming they were Victoria Secret models. Other people wore coats over nothing else except a bra that pushed their boobs with such intensity you would think they were fake.

Guys loved the Halloween theme too. Some dressed up as cows (Andy! Haha.), others as a bananas, and well, the most shocking could be dressing up as a penis. Yeah, someone did. One of Ryan's (Hillery's boyfriend) friends. It was SO funny though. I know someone who dressed up as a "To Women, From God". God's gift to women. That was so funny.

Anyway, compared to Halloween back home, they are ALL OUT here. Like totally. I think I stopped dressing up for Halloween when I was 10. Haha.

Halloween is fun. I swear, I am so thinking about my costume for next year. :)