Summer Happenings

So obviously I have neglected the blog. Let’s move on.

This summer is already half way over! I’d say I’m sad but after a month of 100+ temps and zero rain I am kind of looking forward to the Houston "winter."

So I have picked up a new little past time since my last update. I had been thinking about taking tennis lessons for a while and I finally got a couple of girls on board to take them with me. So for the last nearly two months I have been taking lessons o Weds night and practicing 1 other night each week. I don’t know if I would recommend picking up a sport like this in the heat of summer, but I figure it will just make it that much more nice in a couple of months.

As far as my skill level, well let me fill you in on where we were starting from. At our first lesson Amanda, Jimilee (JL) and I walked on to the court, our coach, Gary, said hello and inspected our racquets. To Amanda – “looks good”, to Kori – “umm, is this a junior racquet?”, to JL – “whoa, whoa, whoa lets just put that down right now. That is what we call an antique; you would hang something like this on the wall. Here now use my spare.” All of this said with his adorable little St. Lucian accent. Once we were through cracking up about our racquet issues he asked us about our skill level. Amanda – Level 0, Kori – Level 0, JL – Level 0. At this point he turned to the two men that had been in his beginner’s class for a couple of months and said “Congratulations guys, you have just been promoted to intermediate. Please move over to court #2.” Note: We had not even swung at a ball and it was that obvious that we would be needing some special attention!

I think we have all greatly improved since then. JL got a new racquet, I am picking up my new one tomorrow. (He said mine was ok to use for a little while.) We recently picked up a co-worker's wife so there are now 4 of us in the class. Before we had the solid fourth in our class, we noticed each week we seem to have a new straggler and then they never return...I can't imagine why not!?!? First there was a young Asian guy with his Dad there. He didn’t play, they just observed the lesson for about 10 minutes and then disappeared. Hmmm. The next week we had Badminton Theo. He was pretty young too, maybe about 18, and he had a badminton background and braces. Badminton Theo and I were paired up and I was very envious of his gracefulness going after the ball, pointing his back toe as he lunged and swinging…that is until I heard Coach Gary’s comments of “Ohhhh, there’s that badminton background.” The last straggler we had was a young woman from Bermuda, Tiffany, she and I were paired up as well. We were buds by the end of the lesson, to the point where I could call her Tiff. She was going back to Bermuda for a few months and then moving here to be with her bf/finace in early 2010. Hopefully we'll see her again...actually hopefully not, I don't think I'll keep paying if I'm still a beginner after 7-9 months!

Note that I was always the one paired up with the stragglers! Amanda and JL decided at Lesson 1 that anytime Coach Gary said "Let's partner up," they would run and grab each other like little girls claiming a hopscotch court, silently making the point that they thought I was a bad tosser (it's part of a drill we do, don't ask). BUT, I have a feeling those thoughts are a changin' as I have been approached a party of that pairing about changing some things up a bit. Mmmm-hmm! I would also like to note that despite my merry-go-round of partners I was the first to get 3 out 3 on our front, front, back drill and then again on the back, back, front! BOO-YA!!!

So that is tennis so far. Oh, I have not yet bought a skirt, I am saving that as a reward for getting promoted to intermediate. At this rate I'll probably be getting something from the Adidas' 2012 collection!

Other summer happenin', I joined a book club and had a birthday but I'll save that for another, very soon to come, entry! Thanks for your patience :)