What do these three things have in common? Most of them were “happening” at the Western Southern Women’s Tennis tournament on Monday night.
So was the rain.
Lots of it.
The skies opened with thunder, lightening and flooding rain hours before the tennis was set to start so Old School and I thought for certain the tennis would be cancelled for the evening. But, an hour later, it was barely drizziling so we jumped into the car, headed into rush hour traffic and made our way to Kings Island.
It was still raining when we got to Kings Island, so what’s a girl to do? Shop and eat. Had to make the most of it, right? United Dairy Farmers was selling swirly cones. Ah.
Not long after the maintenance crew got to work.
The “crew” was a bunch of teenagers with towels who volunteer for the event. I know I’m getting older because all I could think of was what all that crawling on all fours was doing to their knees…
Then the adults came out with dryers that looked a lot like snow blowers. They all got a huge round of applause when they finished.
Unfortunately, the rain caused the opening ceremonies to be cancelled and that meant we weren’t going to see Cincinnati’s own Nick Lachey sing with his choir “Team Cincinnati,” Blessed Union of Souls and a champion jump rope troupe. But Nick didn’t dissapoint. He sang the national anthem — acapella.
Two things to note here — Nick looked great, even from a distance. More importantly, he sang beautifully. Who knew?
Any singer will tell you that our national anthem is the most difficult song to sing anytime, anywhere. And to do it acapella is a challenge to say the least. Nick rocked it. I have a new-found respect for him.
By the way, the people watching was top notch. I almost squeeled with delight when I saw this woman (the blonde in the halter top in the middle of the photo):
She is one haircut away from having a “Kate Gosselin.” Am I wrong?? When Leslie and I were in Chicago a few weeks ago we saw TWO women who had Kate haircuts — all business in the back and nothing but a party in the front!
Back to the tennis. Kim Clijsters of Belgium made her triumphant return to competitive tennis last night after taking a few years off to marry and have a baby. She’s unseeded in this event but looked like she would be back at the top challenging Venus and Serena in no time. Old School guessed that’s why Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena, was there to watch the match.
I didn’t want to bother him while he was having a conversation, so I just stalked him from behind until he turned his head and I could get this photo. It was the polite thing to do.
Next week, the men’s professional tennis tour arrives…
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