Life is Good

by | Mar 3, 2015 | Uncategorized

I should be heading to bed, but am still jazzed from a fun evening tennis drill.  I haven’t been a member of a tennis club for several years, and while I still manage to play a fair amount of tennis, I rarely have an opportunity for an instructional drill.  Today I got an email asking me to sub in a drill tonight with a group of strong, younger players and a pro.  Hell yea!  

Steve, our drill pro is 6’8″ and (of course) is a fabulous player – so we took turns with him as our partner and played out several point scenarios.  There were a couple times I thought my partner or I had hit a winner and I stopped playing, turning around away from the net confident that the point was over… BUT (while I wasn’t looking) Steve had raced to the ball and returned it, leaving my partner to cover the whole court herself, since I had already checked out of the point.  Eventually I got it in my brain that this wasn’t my normal group of over 45 and under 5’7″  tennis ladies, and got into a faster paced groove.

Last night was also a fun evening–it was book club night with a subset of our usual crew. It was a subset because we had an unusual number of last-minute cancellations. Despite the no-shows and the fact that only one of us managed to read whole book (no one liked it–maybe that’s why so many people cancelled), we had a great time.  We even came up with a name (actually 2 names)  We are torn between the The Literary Lushes or The Literary Luscious.

We talked a bit about the nature of worrying, and how it is generally not a productive use of time and can be counter-productive.  Pat (poet, avid reader and frequent commenter on this blog) shared a great technique for managing worry:  set aside 1-2 time slots a day to worry.  That way throughout the day, you can defer your worries, since you have a designated time for them.  When it is ‘worry time’, you set a timer, fret away for the designated timeframe; and when the buzzer goes off – you can get on with your day worry free (until the next time).

I have another friend who told me, years ago:  We have a lot to think about, but nothing to worry about.  It’s one of my favorite sayings.  A few years ago I had the pleasure of working with a number of Brits, and I picked up their phrase “No Worries”, which has been a useful addition to my vocabulary.

Tonight – I am worry-free,  happy, content, and (now) tired.  Sweet dreams all.

I miss my old shoes

by | Sep 21, 2014 | Uncategorized

Recently I spent a ridiculous amount of money on a new pair of good tennis shoes.  They are high-tech with gel insoles and are a nifty- grape color.  However, they are not nearly as good as the plain-jane all-white pair I had when I first started playing regularly some 13 years ago.

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A Day on the Court

by | Sep 13, 2014 | Uncategorized

My friend invited me to be her partner in a doubles tennis tournament, which was held today.   September in Wisconsin is usually beautiful, but it can also be quite cold. Today it was 44 degrees Fahrenheit when we started playing.  Despite our numerous layers (including earmuffs), we could not feel our fingers.  As you can imagine, this is somewhat problematic.  It was bearable when the sun was shining, which was pretty infrequent during the first two matches.

A few years ago, I played too much tennis on a blisteringly-hot summer day. During the final set of my personal marathon, I jumped up to hit an overhead.  I should qualify that when I say ‘jump’, that you could have fit a newspaper between my feet and the ground–NOT the Sunday paper, but a regular weekday paper from a slow news day.   However, for ME, it was a jump of enormous proportions.  During the microsecond that I was airborne, my right calf spasmed into a horrible cramp and was hard as a rock by the time I landed on the ground, writhing in pain.   The muscle was visibly twitching and simply would not relax.   I suspect it was due to dehydration, and  it took several days for the leg to feel normal again.  Since then I have occasional muscle twinges in the calf, but can usually walk it off without getting all dramatic about it. (more…)

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