For New Year's Eve last year, I resolved to try something new. I'm sure I also resolved to lose weight and stop yelling at my kids, too. Three-quarters of the year is over and I'm just getting started.
Admittedly, I'm not the most adventurous woman. My idea of adventure is vaccuming two days in a row or swaying off the recipe and doing something on my own. Yeah, it's crazy, but apparently, you can change things up when you cook. Who knew?
When my niece was here, she picked up some free tennis classes at the gym. I noted that someone wasn't working her hard enough when she's bee-bopping out of class full of energy, she tells me, "Hey, they have adult classes too." I laughed hysterically, and told her I wouldn't put someone through that pain. She dropped it and we both thought nothing of it. But it just stuck in the corner of my cobwebbed mind: free tennis lessons, this is your chance.
I kept it in the back of my mind because well, I'm a very slow learner. It took me about 8 years to figure out volleyball. Two of those years I was figuring it out were while I was on scholarship, go figure.
I dated a boy in college who played tennis. He was pretty good. He had no idea that while he was playing, I could never keep up with the score. Which, by the way, I think you all can agree with me that games and sets and matches are just ridiculous. Add on increments of 15 (what's that, anyways) and LOVE. It's just too much. Which is why they keep it on the screen when I watch Wimbledon and think, "I could so play that." I was paying people to not tell him that I couldn't keep score. I was also paying them to fill me in if he won or not. He always did. So, that was easy.
We thought it would be fun for him to teach me how to play. So, we took a bucket of balls out to the courts. One bucket empty of balls later, he decided it would be best for our relationship if we never played nor mentioned that session again. It was detrimental to our relationship. It was later determined that other women were detrimental to the relationship too, but I'm sure, mostly, it was how bad I was at tennis.
So, here I am, totally over THAT guy, with a New Year's Resolution, and a free class to take advantage of. Yesterday was my second class. I'm going once a week. I was pleasantly surprised that "Joe" the tennis instructor let me come back. I dragged Ricardo and Julz (online girlfriend) to this week's class. Ricardo is an all-star athlete and mostly, I'm so proud of him. Give him 5 minutes and he could be on the Olympic Gymnastics Team specializing in the vault. He's just amazing like that. So, I was proud of him last night when we were learning serves and overheads and he's nailing the tennis pro on the other side of the net. Good times. Julz has played before and rocked it out!
Me, I feel I'm competitive, but not enough to win. So, there it is, I'm a competitive loser. Still, I'm having fun, burning a few extra calories and learning something new. You play any sport with me and two things will happen: One, I'll shlep up most of it and get one good swing or shot in. And two, you'll have fun and laugh at some point. And if you're playing against me, you'll probably win. Mission accomplished.
It turns out, tennis is fun, and in my old age, it will only take me 4 or 5 years to figure it out. Being tall definitely has its advantages. Tennis master still has to be broken in so that he'll laugh at my jokes. But we're all still learning, now aren't we?
That's how I roll.
