Hamlet Open 2001
Aug/23/2001
by Kirsten
Hi everyone!! We are now back at Laura's apartment in Brooklyn after a very exciting two days.
Yesterday was spent mostly at the various airports with cReepy picking me up at La Guardia, getting Laura at the train station and Karen at Islip. We spent the night at cReepy's place in Port Washington with Karen and cReepy sleeping in her room and Laura and I in the living room and talking until 3 a.m. (again!!)
Anyway, today worked out better than any of us expected. At first we were going to spend the day at a water park, but decided to take the chance of meeting Pat at the Hamlet. Unfortunately Goran and Jan-Mike were already eliminated so we weren't sure who we were going to see. We got there just after noon and found Arnaud Clement, Julien Boutter, Wayne Arthurs and some other guy playing doubles. Man is Arnaud short!!! *LOL* His bio says 5'8, but if he's 5'8 than I'm 6 feet tall. *lol* Then we scammed courtside seats for the Tommy Haas/Tommy Robredo match. How convenient to just cheer "Go Tommy"!!!! Earlier we had harrassed a poor tourney employee who seemed to know when and where Pat would show, so in the middle of Tommy #1 and #2 match, Laura found Jeff again and we heard that Pat would be "roaming the grounds sometime this afternoon, that he was already in the clubhouse and that he was putting on a Reebok clinic soon." So after loitering in front of the clubhouse, cReepy found her friend Tara who told us which court to head to...blah blah blah. So there we are when the God of Tennis appears.......Paul Kilderry. Seriously. Then Peter then Pat. The very mean tourney PR woman shoved us out the way and ushered Pat and Killer onto the court with the freaks that Pat was to tutor. While cReepy and Laura went to the other side of the court to get better pics, Karen and I spoke to Peter (who signed something for you Robyn!!) Poor Peter has a broken pinky finger!!! And his mean little brother Pat broke it!!! He said they were in the pool yesterday throwing balls back and forth when it happened. Peter said he threw all of the balls to Pat and the first one Pat threw back broke his finger!!!*LOL How funny is that???!!! So it was all bandaged up and looking quite pathetic I must say!!! He said that tomorrow would be spent practising at their hotel complex and that they would head to Flushing Meadows on Friday. Pat looked amazing as usual and his tennis was good too!! He was very relaxed, laughing quite a bit with everyone and he smiled his beautiful smile when I covered up the Reebok sign with my banner "Happily Ever Rafter." Killer was helping him out with the clinic - he is so adorable!!!
So after about an hour they did their group photo thing and we tried to get over to the other side of the court to see Pat. Of course, the second we move away from the fence I look over and Pat is looking over to us like "Where did you guys go??" While he was signing a few autographs we stood and talked to Peter and Killer. Of course the girls are surrounding Peter and Killer and I just stood there looking at each other.....I said "So......." (Because I'm an idiot!!!) He laughed and said "So.......what???!! He's about my height and his dimples are the cutest things I've ever seen and he was just standing there hugging his racquet like a security blanket while this strange Canadian looked at him. I took his picture and said that I would give it to Heidi for her site and he said that would be great. He told me that he is playing doubles at the US Open and he thinks he's playing with Lleyton, though he's not completely positive yet. He also asked if I was disappointed that Pat had pulled out of the tourney, and I said that I had flown all the way down from my igloo in Canada to see him. This made Killer laugh and Peter looked at me and said "But it's hot up there right now!!!" with a totally straight face, which made Killer and I BOTH laugh. While Paul and I were talking, the girls had been asking Peter how he felt about Pat taking time off and he said that he could use some down time right now but that he would probably miss it in a few months. He said that he would see us on Friday at which point Laura yelled out in her hilarious Brooklyn accent "PAT'S COMING!!!!" He actually walked right up to cReepy, grabbed her hand and said "Good to see ya mate!" He only let go because the PR babe told him it was time to go. Before I knew what I was saying I blurted out "Pat can you sign my banner?" And he said "Yeah come on!!" and kept walking. So I'm thinking 'come where?' Then the PR babe grabbed me and told me to hurry up so he signed it while we walked towards the sky boxes. I told him I was going to send it to Robyn for the DC Cup ties if he wanted to write something to her personally (which Peter had already done). ((BY THE WAY ROBYN - GUESS WHAT??? You're getting the banners!!! *lol* It's amazing what things come out of your mouth when under pressure!!)) He thought that was great (yippee) and the PR chick told me she thought the banner was cute too. At this moment time stood still (I swear!!!) and he handed my banner back to me and flashed his adorable grin (Laura's yelling at me right now because I'm drooling on her keyboard!!) I think I said thank you but I also could have said "Can I have your baby?" Who knows??!! And then he was gone. Nothing else that happened afterwards was either important or registered. I'm still on Cloud 9. I'd like to think I was a little more coherent in his presence this being our second meeting and all. Anyway, I have to go dream what's left of my night away and maybe I'll make more sense in the morning. But I doubt it. Wish you were all here!!! Love ya!!!
Kirsten xoxoP.S. Forgot to mention that we got our picture taken with Arnaud Clement. He's Karen's new hottie (she's actually shorter than he is!!!) The other girls don't know that the entire time we were getting organized for our picture and getting autographs from him that he and I were speaking French to each other about how Americans are insane!!*LOL* Mind you, this is also the man who got lost on his way to the practise courts and Laura and cReepy found him alone and confused in front of the mens' washroom!!! *lol* Okay, I REALLY have to go sleep now - will post again tomorrow!!!