You win some... you lose some....

Ok - so round robin tournaments like Club Nationals are tough when they seed the top teams against the bottom teams at the very beginning. We came into the tournament seeded 9th out of 10 teams (which was a small victory in itself cause we thought we would be seeded 10th!) That means today we play #2 seeded Wisconsin and #1 seeded Minnesota. So we had our work cut out for us on day #1!

The Wisconsin team was such a group of nice girls to play against. They were really sweet and encouraging throughout the game - especially when we had a few rough ends at the beginning. Since this was our first time back out on the ice together as a team since Playdowns in early January - we had some rust to kick off. Sure we missed some shots, but not all of them. Every one of us had some nice shots too. We started to get back into the flow towards the end of the game and I know every single game we will continue to get better. Since we don't get lots of time on the ice - especially real curling ice, we cherish every moment that we are out there and are always working on our skills. We face another really tough opponent in Minnesota this evening, but they are super nice and great group of ladies - so it should be a fun game. We'll just work on improving ourselves from the last game and get better one step at a time!

The big event was after the game when all of us ended up being interviewed by a local news station. They wanted to interview some curlers who found the sport of curling in an interesting way... and I guess Hollywood Curling fit the bill! It was the local NBC affiliate and it was fun to have our brief moment in the sun. We aren't 100% sure where to look for the story, but hopefully we'll be able to find a link to it to share. They also had me wear a microphone during the Opening Ceremonies - which was kind of funny. I tried to get in as many shout outs to the Hollywood Curling Club as I could. :) We got a lot of cheers during the opening ceremonies, which was fun. We even got a special shout out from the News Anchor who was the emcee for the event. She said "When I saw that there was a team from Hollywood, I expected to see Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock out here curling." Then she made a comment about how awesome our shoes are and that they are going to make the news! :)

We'll try to post some video and pictures from the Opening Ceremonies later. It was a nice event - we got our special Club Nationals pins, which are super cool - Madison Curling Club has been putting on a classy event so far. We are enjoying it!

After opening ceremonies - we went to the Hubbard Avenue Diner, which was a recommendation from our curling pals Casey and Jessica. They said we had to go there for the pie! That place was delicious and a great way to wind down after the morning game and opening ceremonies. After lunch we couldn't resist hitting up the National Mustard Museum, which was right next to the diner. They had over 500 flavors of mustard... that is right - that much mustard exists in this world. Jen G and I sampled a bunch of flavors. Good stuff!

Now we are chilling out before we head back to the club shortly for our 7:00 pm game!

We'll keep you all posted on how it goes! And you can always watch on:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/team-bond-girls-curling-club-nationals

Later!
Skip Marissa