Yesterday I skipped church to play in the Highland Table Tennis Tournament. Highland is just a few miles from the Illinois border, in the greater Chicago area. They had about 30 tables set up in a fieldhouse.

My rating in the US Table Tennis Association is 984. I'm actually a 1250 or 1300 player, but you can only increase your rating by beating higher-rated players in sanctioned tournaments. This was my third tournament. My goal yesterday was to knock off at least one high-rated person and get my rating, at least, over 1000. And I failed.

Came close, though. I went down to the wire with a 1300+ player and a 1250 player. We play three out of five games (11-point games). Both matches ended up going five games, and we were tied at 10 in the final game. And in both, I lost. So close.

In the end, I lost all five of my matches against higher-rated players, and one my only match against a lower-rated player (a junior-aged Asian boy, my last match of the day, whom I beat up on without conscience). My rating will stay the same. Bummer. Hopefully that can change in May at the big South Bend tournament.