bieber comes to breakfast

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after getting my frist birdie, seeing (not a regular, but) a double rainbow and playing 3 rounds of golf in the span of 48 hours, it was time to go home.  on the morning of the flight, we enjoyed an al fresco breakfast at a table next to a very - how-would-you-describe-it – boisterous family with an especially opinionated mother.  as luck would have it, i overheard the following conversation:

9 year-old girl:  mOoOoOoOm, but margie said that she didn’t like my haircut!

mom:  who CAY-uhs about what margie thinks? 

9 year-old girl:  but she is my friend…

mom:  sometimes your friends will say mean things and you just need to ignore them.  i think that mah-gie looks stupid with her dumb pigtails and seven bah-rettes, but you don’t hear me saying anything.  you need to be more confident!!

{pause} {wait for it} {pause}

mom:  that’s exactly what justin bieber did – he surrounded himself with people who encouraged him.  those were the same people who helped him become strong-uh and made him succeed!

jb proving that he likes "peace"

i always love it when pop culture gets referenced in self-esteem conversations as an example of how one should live life.  i chuckled through my coffee, my omlette, the plane ride, all the way home to san francisco, where we headed back to the presidio driving range, where i chuckled some more.

rain{bow} on my parade

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golf trip:  day 1, afternoon

course played:  pheonician resort,  oasis

holes played:  oasis, 1 through 7

balls lost:  some

balls found:  a few

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last august, elliot and i visited san francisco in order to find a place to live.  during this trip, we were invited to the apartment of one of my dearest friends from college – ya boy wild nash.  in true sf fashion, he and his roommates were each employed by tech companies – nash worked for google, while each of his other roommates worked at twitter, apple, xenga, and an internet start-up.  thanks to them, we learned/found out about cloud computing and were introduced to the latest internet sensations…  like this one, which i particularly liked:

*right now you might be asking yourself “why is she talking about this?  this doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with golf!” 

au contraire.  let me assure you that it does.

--

after stuffing our faces and taking a little snooze, the rain finally passed.  determined to get the most out of our golf package, we put on warmer clothes and headed back out to play the third 9 of the day – oasis course.

3 holes in, defeated, and on my way to yet another wet bunker, i had my very own whoa-what-does-it-mean moment when i turned around and saw this:

and this:

and this:

it’s too bad i never found the pot of gold.

chirp!

--

golf trip:  day 1, morning

course played:  pheonician resort, desert & canyon

holes played:  desert 9, canyon 9

balls lost:  too many

balls found:  not enough

--

this past weekend, i took my golf game out of san francisco and into the phoenician resort in scottsdale, az.  thinking that going to the desert would be a surefire way to ensure no rain delays, we packed up our bags and headed south.

the forecast was ominous leading up to the departure – 70% chance of thunderstorms on saturday  and 50% on sunday.  good thing we had booked the “unlimited golf package!”  determined to make it work, we shrugged off the more-than-likely chance of drizzle and headed out to the course for our first round of the weekend. 



canyon course, some foreboding rain clouds

 my first drive off of the tee went far to the right, bounced on the car path, straight into someone’s pool.  my second shot was no better.   i topped the ball and it rolled about 15 feet.  third time’s a charm, though, i finally made good contact and gave the little white guy some distance and some air, a good 160 yards on to the middle of the fairway…  on a different hole.  but hey, at least i made contact.

as the sun lingered high above the heavy clouds, trying to hold off the impending storm, my game started to get better. there was a lot less shanking and whiffing, and a little more air and distance. 




about to get some air



 on the 17^th hole, just as bigger drops started falling from the sky, i made my very first birdie.

< - C H I R P ! - > 

* as a sidenote, apparently i am not the only one who takes artistic liberties when marking balls...  i found this ugly little gem:



christmas tree > creepy smiley face



jackpot

--

course:  presidio

holes:  1 through 13

balls lost:  1

balls found:  6 (yes, 6)

--



an enviable collection of found balls



some people judge their game by the score they shoot, the holes they play, or the courses they visit.  but not me.  i judge myself based entirely on non-game related criteria.  i measure my performance based on the number of balls i find.

this past saturday, i won the masters.

* i was thinking about applying for a job here:  http://www.lostgolfballs.com/

swordfish & michelle

to conclude what was a wonderful[ly-rainy] weekend, kilo (new-amazing-friend) and franimal (new-amazing-friend) invited elliot and me over to piedmont for a home-cooked sunday night dinner at kilo parents' house. 

swordfish was on the menu, but golf was on the mind.

gulp-wine-gulp. gulp-gulp-gulp.

a few glasses of wine later, someone at the table makes a reference to michelle wie.  this gets my attention and apparently kyle's dad's attention as well because he IMMEDIATELY looks at me and says "you look kind of like michelle.  you know, the hair and everything."

elliot and i make eye contact.

kilo and i make eye contact.

franimal and i make eye contact.

gulp-gulp-gulp.

- the whole table bursts out laughing -

this situation was only made funnier by the fact that before our first round of golf with kilo and franimal a few months ago, elliot sent around an invite to the group with a stellar photo of michelle in it - post-drive, nice twist, amazing follow-through.  the photo clearly wasn't me, as evidenced by the whole "post-drive, nice twist and amazing follow-through" parts, but for a good two or three days, fran didn't think twice about those things and firmly believed that it was me in the photo.  must be because michelle and i have such similar hair...

m.wie and her hair "post-drive, nice twist, amazing follow-through"

me and my hair from my company directory