Little Punks

We had our qualifier today, which means that today was the first time in three weeks that I wore my old man shirt. I've had the past two Sundays off from work, but I didn't miss a beat with today's quali. After topping some tents in the pouring rain (which made tent tops the ideal assignment, because I stayed relatively dry) I was half of our registration crew. Yup, two people to check in 100 players.

Shotgun got off on time, and when I say on time, I mean three minutes late. It was still rainy and overcast, but luckily that was the worst of it. We kept playing and the rain held off, mostly.

But I want to mention a couple of things that really irk me about these juniors:

1) The Tiger drop. You know how Tiger Woods would be pissy after a bad shot and drop his club behind him? Well, juniors think it's cool to do that too. For us, it's a violation of our code of conduct. Sometimes warnings, sometimes penalties. I mostly give them a warning the first time and tell them to hold onto their club, but we see this happen a lot.

2) Kids that think they are above this game. Come on now, you are still in high school, you shouldn't expect yourself to make every single shot in golf. You hit one bad, but it isn't the end of the world. Pull yourself together.

3) Boys that expect to reach the green on par 5s in two shots. I was on No. 14 today, which was a timing station, and I was wondering why some of these gap positions were so big. It was because guys would hit their tee shots and then wait for the green to clear. They were still 240+ yards out, with a dog leg, with overhanging trees, with a dozen bunkers between them, and slightly uphill. You won't reach this green in two shots. So what happens? I watch all for of them hit. Bunker. Trees. Short. Bunker. Nobody made it in two. Speed it up you jerks.

4) Boys that pee on the golf course. This really bugs me. I could go on and on about how many times I see guys pee on the course, but nobody wants to read that. (If you do really want to read that, let me know and I will write a separate post.)

However, there are things that I really like to see or hear. And the best ones happened today.

We see a lot of the same players this summer, and during scoring today one of the guys asked me, "So Tim, are you growing your hair out?" I said yes, yes I am. Thank you for noticing!

Another guy asked me, "Tim, you are really letting your sideburns go, huh? I really dig the chops." I told him thank you, and yes I am letting my sideburns go. That is until somebody on staff tells me not to.

And a third player said, "Tim! You're here! You announced me in the final round at Pinehurst and I shot a 73! You were good luck!" I said, thank you, I really am good luck.

Get out of my dreams

And into my car.

We had an easy drive today, from (oh shit, where were we?) Haymarket, Va., to Clemmons, N.C. Left at 8, got here after 2. One of the shorter drives this summer.

I spent most of my time in the truck playing Chrono Trigger, because that game is awesome. I was upset that I forgot certain things in the game, and I accidentally ate the old man's lunch. That means I was found guilty in court for kidnapping the princess (because it shows I have poor morals, apparently).

I also tried to doze off a few times, but I would catch myself and wake back up, doing the whole routine of head slowly drops down, then head quickly pops up.

Well, in one of these little snoozes, I immediately went into some dream about playing volleyball. In this dream, I was up at the net and I was about to put down an over-pass. That meaning, the opposing team was sending the ball over unintentionally and I was going to just jump up and pop it straight down.

Well, I guess I was so into this dream that as I was dreaming of playing the ball down, in real life I raised my left arm as if to actually hit it. That was when I woke myself up and stopped my arm about halfway up.

Yeah, I was really about to raise my arm and throw it down.

Luckily, the other folks in the car were asleep too, and nobody noticed it. But I don't understand how I was so tired after sleeping from 10 p.m. - 7 a.m. And I am sleepy now. It's not even 9 o'clock.

Sunscreen

We work in the sun. A lot. I work less in the sun than our ops teammates because our main duties are behind the computer or in front of the world's most unreliable copying machines. But that's no excuse for not wearing sunscreen.

I wear sunscreen mostly everyday. Some days I feel like it's too cloudy or rainy to need sunscreen, but I usually lather up before I go out to follow groups or find my perch to shoot 800+ player photos during the first round. (Yeah, I really do take that many pictures, and of the 800+ we will only use about 5 to post to the website)

I keep sunscreen in my backpack, but one of our sponsors is a sunscreen company, and we put big tubes on the starters tables, and that is where I usually sunscreen up. I encourage the players to wear sunscreen, too. It's practical and reliable. Don't burn, reapply at the turn.

But I am getting quite tan, it seems. More tan than I was last summer, despite me always being outside last summer. The main change is I wore jeans everyday last summer and now I am wearing nut-hugging short-shorts. Seriously, these shorts are tiny.

I also sit in a golf cart a lot, and the left side of my body is more tan than my right. How much more tan? Well, it's funny, really. My left leg is very tan from the knee down to the socks. Then I have ghost-white feet. And the hairs on my knee are blonde from the sun.

Best part? There is a very distinct tan line on my thigh where you can see how short my shorts really are. It's funny.

On days like today (Wednesdays) I know my neck is protected. Not because of the sunscreen, but because I pop my jollar. (Jollar=jean collar. It's a pink shirt and the underside of the collar is denim-blue. It's ridiculous, but designed to be popped, so I pop my jollar. Always have, always will).

Sunscreen also has another meaning. The first tournament we worked, sometimes we would call for one of the staff members and he would reply, "Hold on, I'm reapply sunscreen." That's another way of saying "Reading a magazine," or as I like to put it, "Doing some paperwork."

It means pooping.

Facial Hair

I've told this to a ton of people this summer:

The hardest part of the summer is having to shave everyday.

I said that in May. I said that in June. I said that in July. I'm saying that in August. I even told that to our regional director in our one-on-one review session two weeks ago. I even showed him a picture of my with long hair and a beard. He loved it.

What I do have are my sideburns. I love my sideburns. The worst two weeks of my life were the two weeks I didn't have sideburns. Not one staff member has said anything about my sideburns this summer, so I've kept them (and they've even been creeping just a little bit longer every day).

Back at IRW, when we were told we could ask anything, I asked if my sideburns were appropriate. The answer I was given was definite, so when I started the internship, I tested the waters with the sideburns again.

Again, nobody said anything. So they stayed.

In fact, there is a full-time staff member who also has sideburns. We've worked with him twice so far this summer, and the story goes that he used to have a goatee and some other facial hair. Then he was hired on at Harbour Town and had to shave. His mother was so happy about that.

Long story short: I love my sideburns. Onto the next topic.

What I love about my days off is not having to shave. It's so liberating. The second most liberating feeling after untucking my shirt at the end of the day. The scruff on my face brings me back into reality, or so it seems, and I feel more like myself. Even at the end of the day I get some specs of facial hair popping up (either that or I did a poor job shaving at the beginning of the day).

I look forward to not needing to shave for an extended period of time. I admit, I was looking through some pictures of my with a beard from last year and I can't believe how impressively massive it was. I try to show those pictures off to my teammates and they can hardly believe that that is me. All they know is the clean-shaven Tim with short hair.

Shifting topics quick again, I haven't cut my hair since the first week of May (as a birthday/mother's day/graduation gift for my mommy) and it is now getting the point where it is getting wavy in the back. I love when it gets wavy in the back and curls out from under my hat. I also look forward to the days where I can wear a headband over the hair and just let the hair hang loose.

But that's another month or so away.

The sideburns will have to suffice until then.

My day off in NoVa

Today is my day off.

I slept in a little bit, and would have regardless because today's qualifier was in the afternoon. So when I went downstairs to the lobby for some breakfast, the rest of the team was there, which was nice because I got to see them.

Before the left, I got the keys to the truck, some petty cash for food, some petty cash for laundry and the laundry detergent. Thus, I began the day with doing the last week's worth of smelly clothes and watched The Blind Side. It was an good movie, very touching and emotional. I liked it.

That ended, and I warmed up some of my leftover chicken tenders and fries from last night's dinner at TGI Fridays. I folded some clothes, ironed others, took a shower, and decided to get out of the hotel.

I decided to just start cruising down this main road in Manassas, Va., which is apparently only 30 miles west of Washington, DC (now you and I both know where I am for the week). My first stop was at Dick's, and just wandered about there for a bit. I stopped into the golf section, looked at some clubs, wanted to hit a driver for a bit, but some other guys were trying out clubs. But some random kid challenged me to a putting competition, and I just went with it. For about 20 minutes or so, this random kid and I played a game of Horse on the practice putting green until his dad told him it was time to leave. After that, I got lonely and left Dick's.

I drove around the parking lot for a bit and saw that there was a Chic-Fil-A across the street. I got really excited until I realized today is Sunday. Chic-Fil-A is closed on Sundays. Those bastards.

But there was a Walgreens next to that, and I need more eye drops. So I bought eye drops.

Thought about where else I would want to wander around, and searched with my phone for a Gamestop. There was one in the same lot as the Dick's. So I drove back across the street. I looked at the DS games, looked some more, and thought what the hell, so I bought Chrono Trigger.

After that, I wanted to go to Best Buy and just wander around. So I went over to Best Buy. I looked at movies, TVs, games, and then started playing Mario Sports Mix for Wii. I tried a few of the games until I started playing volleyball for about 45 minutes.

It was fun as hell. Hard, but very fun. Danny, you and I would love this game.

I started driving back to the hotel with the intention of eating at Cracker Barrel, but I saw a Chipotle and changed my mind. I may head back over to Cracker Barrel later when I am hungry again.

And that has been my day off so far. It's been really fun to just go out and see the world. It felt real. I will be in communication with friends and family later tonight too!

*NoVa is my cool way of saying Northern Virginia.