Caroline Pao

My long journey to the WPBA event in Lincoln City, Oregon started with no sleep… sound familiar? I need to start learning from my past experiences that it is no good to take early morning flights without any sleep… just end up turning into a grumpy little Asian woman!!! Stubborness sucks big time!!! Left for JFK at 4:45 AM to catch a 6:00 AM flight to San Francisco. Checked in online to avoid lines…

but the security line was………………………………..
you gotta be effing kidding me!!!!

After waiting on the security line for 30 mins, it only gets better… the flight to San Fran is booked solid and I find out I get to sit in the middle seat of two strangers for 6.5 hours! YIPPEEEE!!!!…. NOT!!!!

Since I never travel without “MY FAVORITE PILLOW” I tried to sleep on the plane. I tried to bend, stretch, lean and even opened the tray table to sleep on but couldn’t do it… I felt sorry for the lady on right because I caught myself slowly leaning on her shoulder… How embarrassing !!! At least, I didn’t drool !!! LOL.

Iwas glad to get off the plane… of course, it was pouring rain in San Fran so my next flight to Portland Oregon is delayed! Could I have expected anything less? So I made most of my time by checking emails and making business calls. When our plane was finally ready for boarding, I was ready to get some “Z z z z z z s !!!” The landing of the plane woke me and I felt like a zombie! Now I have a 3 hour shuttle ride to Lincoln City to look forward to! YIPPEEEE!!!!…. are you kidding me!!!

My saving grace…. “STARBUCKS” Thank you!!!!

The shuttle ride was pleasant. Chatted with Stu Montana, Liz Cole, Brittany Bryant, Naomi Williams, Lisa D’Atri, Candy Rego and Jennifer Chen. But I also got to finish up some more work which is awesome! The next thing I knew we have arrived at the final destination! YIPPEEEE!!!!….For real this time!!!

It is beautiful here. All the hotel rooms have great views of the ocean. It is so relaxing… after getting some grub, I headed towards the tournament room at the casino. It was empty so I grabbed some balls and played on the practice tables. The tables play great but they play hard… the pockets barely fit 2 balls… I love it but hate it at the same time.

Tonight I’m going to try to get some rest and relaxation! We have the player’s meeting at 11:30 AM tomorrow so I guess I won’t be able to sleep in… but at least, we don’t start playing until Thursday. I hope that this tournament will be a better one for me!

“If you think you are beaten, you are

If you think you dare not, you don’t

If you like to win, but you think you can’t

it’s almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost

For out in the world you’ll find

success begins with a fellow’s will.

It’s all in the state of mind.

Life’s battles don’t always go

to the stronger or faster man;

But sooner or later the man who wins

is the man who thinks he can.”

How come there never seems to be enough time for everything? We had a successful event at the APA Nationals for Mezz USA and Billiard Life. It was a lot of fun spending time with old friends and meeting new ones.

Once back to the big apple, I ended up sleeping for 14 hours straight. I guess I was a bit tired. The past few weeks has been pretty crazy… between managing Mezz USA, Billiard Life, practicing for the next WPBA event and looking for a new home to move to… I feel a bit worn out. I try not to stress but its hard to do.

Anyhow, I am so happy that Mezz USA has progressed in popularity. We had people coming up to our booth during the APA specifically looking for our cues and shafts. We also have been doing well with retail as well as dealer sales. What more can I ask for in this bad economy?

I have also been trying to put more time into practicing. I have been studying some great players and redefined my pre-shot routine and mechanics. Those are 2 very important things, I believe that makes you play more consistent. Anyway, I thought that I have been playing well since I’ve been placing fairly well in a couple tournaments as well as winning the Amsterdam BCA Team League. And I thought that I would be pretty prepared coming into the WPBA event at Colorado. I had a tough first draw with Kim Shaw but I was going to try my best. I thought I played great, breaking and running 2 racks and playing nice safeties. But I did miss 3 balls and 2 safes…. while Kim did not miss a single open pocket shot. She played almost flawless. If Accustats were rating her she would be .975 at least! But I still played my heart out and lost 9-5. I wasn’t upset just a little disappointed with missing out on a few opportunities. I still had another chance which I hope to take advantage of…. well that was not the case. Today, I played Cathy Metzinger with no confidence. My focus and rhythm was all out of whack! I could not execute what I wanted to do. My decision making was very unsure… What the heck happened? I was a totally different person from yesterday! Why do you think this happens? What causes all of this? Well I think I finally found the answer. ME… I am my own worse enemy. I was the one who put added pressure on myself wanting to win so bad. I was the one who had negative thoughts while down on the shot. I was the one who took shots that I was not 100% sure off. I was the one at the table shooting with no one else to blame! After knowing this, why am I still so stubborn and refuse to learn from my past mistakes. Why is it so hard to quiet my mind and just play like I do when I practice or play against the guys? Why? Why? Why? Of course… I wasn’t thinking all this while I was playing my match but my mind was unfocused and not at the present… that is why I could not get out of racks that were no brainers… that is why I lost and my tournament came to an end.

I know I don’t suck and I understand that I’m not a World Champion but I also know that attitude plays a huge part in your performance. I have a lot of work ahead of me… practicing harder, changing my attitude and way of thinking and believing in myself to perform at a level that I am capable of. Hopefully, I will be a much better competitive at the next event!

I hope that this gives you some insight on some things. I also hope this might help you if you are going through something similar. Either that or I could just be crazy! Anyway, til the next tourney or something exciting… Peace out!

OMG… a bunch of us went to have crawfish and it was the most amazing thing I had in a very long time. The flavor and seasoning was AWESOMMEEE!!! Plus there were no plates and utensils… HANDS ONLY!!! Even more AWESOMMMEEE!!! We had such a great time that our food even tasted better… You can see how much fun we had through my pics… with Jay “Buddha” Chiu, Linda “PoolMonkey” Cheung, Justin “Squish theTAR Guy” Collette, Robert “Billiard Life Guy” Salazar, Gil “Castillo Leather Guy” Castillo, Andy “I got a tripod in my trunk Guy” Chen and Justin “Pigpen” Acker. Oh are we going to pay tomorrow!!!

Boy has it been a busy month. I went to the WPBA U.S. Open in Oklahoma City… which I didn’t perform very well… I have been going through some mental issues. Not sure why I don’t feel as confident when I compete. I may not get to practice as much but I still feel as though I should be playing better than I do at tourneys. I am grateful that I had a chance to talk with Jennifer Barretta because I was so disappointed with my performance. I could not get out with ball in hand with 3 balls on the table. It was just too frustrating. Why does that happen? I have been searching for the answer by reading books and picking the brains of champions. But have yet to find the answer! If you have the solution, please please please let me know what it is!!! I do not think I have ever been that depressed. Even Xiao Ting and Supadra was scared to talk to me because I was so quiet and unhappy. I hope to find the light one day!!!

Despite my disappointment, I had a fun doing the “Ask the Pro” and a brief interview for ESPN. It is always fun to do TV stuff!!! I also had a great time spending time with my girls (Gayoung, Xiao Ting, Myhanh, Supadra and Jennifer Barretta) not to mention our super fun crazy night at the Karaoke club…. I can’t believe that Joanne Ashton, Jennifer Barretta and I actually sang a song… Since I get embarrassed really easily I never do stuff like that but what the hell… you only live once… special thanks to the Malibu Sea Breeze… it was actually fun!

After flying back to NYC, I had a couple of days to prep for the Dragon Promotion’s Mezz Classics sponsored by Mezz USA (Mika and I) along with Mezz Japan which took place in Orlando, Florida. I was definitely looking forward to this trip since it’s going to be my mini-vacation plus I get to spend a few days with my good friend, Jeannie Seaver. I haven’t seen her in ages. It was a reunion for us… we talked about everything. The best part was we went fishing!! Loved it. First, fishing under a highway bridge… caught a few little ones and a gazillion cat fish that we threw back… the second time, deep sea fishing… AWESOME. I caught 2 red snapper (5 and 10 lbs) and 2 sea bass. I also had to throw back several other fishies because they were too small to keep.

The Mezz Classics turned out pretty nice. Too bad the amateur events did not fill up. Overall, I thought that the players and spectators had a good time. Thanks to Dragon Promotions and hotticket.com for their live streaming many others that were not there were able to see some great matches. I had a blast commentating Mika’s and Shane’s semi-final match… eventhough I thought I wasn’t very good…

I left for NYC right after the event and started prepping for the 2009 APA Team Nationals at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. This is the last big tradeshow for Billiard Life and Mezz USA for the year! It will be nice to not think about another tradeshow until next year. But for now, I have a long week of 12 hour working days ahead of me! It’s all good. It’s always nice to see familiar faces, meet new people.. at the same time maybe sell everything out! Life… isn’t it great!!!???!!!??!!