Diary

Toni
Jones

Past Entries

October 19, 2004

Following a week of good practices, the Emory women's volleyball team was prepared to head to Chicago for round two of the UAA conference tournament. We were also ready to escape the mildly cold weather that was beginning to descend upon Atlanta. Momentary insanity caused many of us to neglect the fact that it would be MUCH colder in the "Windy City."

Chi-town was great! Upon arrival at Midway Airport, we, the players and an underage coach (did you know you have to be 25 years old to rent a vehicle?) attempted to entertain ourselves as we waited for pickup. After singing a couple old Spice Girls hits, doing the Sugar Hill Gang's "Apache" dance, and some generally bad, but fake, dancing on my part, our Suburban finally rolled up to the curb. There was much rejoicing…we love to roll through cities in big SUVs!

Because we didn't have practice on Friday, Jenny, our coach, decided it would be great for us to take a trip down to Michigan Avenue and explore downtown Chicago. This is one of the huge perks of being an Emory Eagle on Jenny McDowell's team. She wants the team to be merry and have a good time.

Through the piercing cold, most of the team and the coaches paraded around the city for a couple hours. My group of city dwellers decided on dinner at a popular pizzeria. When you are in Chicago, eat as the Chicagoans eat…right? That might be wrong. None of us were ready for how filling Chicago pizza, with the sauce on top, proved to be.

And to make things even more comical/sad/interesting, I ordered a $15 pizza…FOR MYSELF! Please believe I did not know the pizza cost that much. It would not have been ordered otherwise. While some of my teammates thought it was hilarious, I was pretty annoyed that I didn't pay more attention to how much I'd soon be forced to pay for pizza. But hey, when in Rome…

The next morning, we all prepared for competition to take place before our multitude of fans. It seemed like everyone had friends and family at this tournament. After dominating in our two matches of the day, our most noteworthy fans of the weekend, the Bowen family, hosted dinner at their beautiful home.

Jenny Bowen, also know as J-Bo because there are two other Jennys in the program, had warned us of a great surprise, but I don't think anything could have prepared us for the surprise Mr. Bowen had in store.
When we pulled into the driveway of the Winnetka home that evening, we witnessed an appropriate Halloween display with a cute little twist. Witches and ghost were playing volleyball! It was quite possibly one of the cutest things, among the many, in the house.

I settled for that being the surprise but after a Mexican feast, we learned that the Halloween volleyball display was not the only treat the Bowens had waiting for us. J-Bo began distributing bags FILLED with Tootsie Roll candy products. HAPPY HALLOWEEN, huh? It was great. Many of us were overwhelmed while others were thrilled beyond words. Thanks again, Mr. Bowen!

We watched some sporting events, played a little pool in the basement, and mingled with the Litzmans, Nicolettis, Bowens, and some of the players' friends until it was time to leave. It was an excellent trip home for J-Bo…and definitely for the rest of the volleyball program.

That night, Coach put a cap on the amount of candy we were allowed to consume. I don't know if it was all the candy we ate or sheer excitement and preparation that gave us our win over a rival team the following day. Whatever it was, we were thrilled about our victory.

When the tournament concluded, our exhausted bodies loaded up for the trip back to Midway Airport where we ate, studied, and goofed off until it was time for our flight. As always, we were happy about our return to Atlanta, but we were especially happy this time around. Goodbye "Windy City"! It's good to be home Hot-lanta!

Toni Jones is a sophomore from Spanish Fort, Ala. She would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.