Ah, what a grand occasion it was . . . The ping and pong of the swift-flying balls . . . the oohs and ahhs of the awed crowd . . . the shouts of victory . . . the wails of defeat . . . .
AE: "AH HA! SEE? SEE? This is where I make MY GREAT AND GLORIOUS COMEBACK!"
Dominic (getting ready to serve): "Um, yeah, right . . . 19 to 3. Ready?"
All right, so he beat me the first time rather thoroughly.
That was not the end of the story, however! For you see, I was carefully trained by sundry ping-pong-playing brothers and one ping-pong-playing papa. Ping-pong is in my blood, so to speak, coule dans mes veines. It all came back to me by game two.
AE: "All right, young Master Dominic, for this round we have to have team names. Select a name, if you please."
Dominic: "Um . . . how about the Fresh-Water Pansies?"
AE: "Okay, you are the Fresh-Water Pansies, I am the Indefatigables!"
Dominic: "The whats? No, I meant you were the Fresh-Water Pansies!"
AE: "Too late! You picked it!"
So the Indefatigables proceeded to decimate the Fresh-Water Pansies!
No, actually I didn't decimate him exactly, it was a pretty close game. And quite frankly, were he not terribly ashamed by his foolish name selection and had the added embarrassment of his entire family watching and half the young people in his church to boot, he probably would have faired better. Alas, the poor boy caved under the pressure, and yours truly came through DOMINANT!
But she doesn't gloat. Oh, no. Gloating isn't mature.
Afterwards, Dominic and I dubbed ourselves the Indefatigable Indomitables and decided to combine our brilliant skills against his older brother and another chap. They proved worthy opponents.
They trounced us.
But we were graceful losers.
AE: "NO! Not FAIR! You're WICKED! That's not RIGHT! How COULD you! BOTHERATION!"
I have an excuse. I was playing in a little pink skirt. It, um, interfered with my fluid movements and, um, stuff. Yes, that's right!
Yet the older brother, even in victory, shook my hand like a good sport and even had the presence of mind to bow over it (as everyone with the perspicacity to recognize my royal aura ought), and Dominic taught me the proper way to shake hands, and I don't think I ever quite got it down right (why do I have to stick my elbow out that way again?), and I got to sing lots and lots of Broadway songs with their sister until what with screaming and singing and laughing, I'm presently finding myself rather hoarse . . . .
But it was a fine afternoon.
Oh, and by the way, I'm moved onto the Campbell campus now. I'll take a bunch of pictures of my HUGE room and all its very me decorations and post them soon . . . soon . . . . | 
