Back in the Swing of Things

When I last left off, I had a busy weekend with my Pontiac G5. On Tuesday, I had to return it by 9am, but I wanted to get a few things done before that. As I mentioned in my last post, I had played tennis with my cousin in order to prepare for my big debut at the men's league in the Sudbury Indoor Tennis Centre. When i played with my cousin, it went okay....just okay. It took a LONG time to warm up my forehand! And when I practiced serving at the end, that was definitely not okay. I couldn't get a serve in. not good. So, I decided to wake up uber-early and get some serving practice in at the tennis courts down just up the street.

I get to the courts at about 7:50am. I woke up much early, but it took a lot of time for my motivation to kick in to get up. I finally decided to do so, got my stuff ready and went to the public courts. Since it was pretty early on a workday, no one was around. The courts, by the way, were of high quality. Better than the public courts that I've been to in both Vancouver and Toronto. No cracks, with weeds growing through them, and I think it was actual hardcourt, not just cement. Anyway, i serve for about 15 minutes. It goes alright - not serving very fast (not that I ever did), but at least I was getting them in this time.

So, I go to the Shell across the street to fill up the gas tank with 5 bucks worth - I had to fill the tank til 3/4 like how I first got it, and was just under that. Then, it was off to grocery shopping. I figures that I should do a big grocery run while I have a car. I didn't get there 'til about ten after eight. I speedily get all my stuff (like I was on Supermarket Sweepstakes!). I made sure to get my whole wheat tortilla wraps, assortment of vegetables, different meats, some yogurt, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember. I did slightly indulge and get some more diet lychee soft drink - yum! After all was said and done, I put away my groceries at home and went down to the rental place to drop off my car by 8:50am.

There were no problems at enterprise and I got outta there pretty quickly. They drove me back home aat about 5 or 10 past 9. Then I had to rush and get ready for work. Luckily I didn't have to be there until 9. I showered, got dressed, packed some instant noodles for lunch (didn't have time to make anything) and walked to work.

At the end of the work day, I got home and took a quick nap. Well...it was supposed to be aquick nap, like half an hour, but it ended up being about an hour and 45. I realized that I didn't have time to make rice and some pork chop thing, so I made pasta instead (pasta...that's what else i got in the morning - whole wheat pasta and calorie wise pasta sauce...tastes better than it sounds). I made it quickly and scarfed it down in literally 3 minutes. I didn't even warm the sauce. I just spooned it over the freshly cooked spaghetti, mixed it up and munched away.

I got to the bus stop in time to catch my bus (that's why I was pressed for time, cuz if you miss one bus, you have to wait pretty much another half hour or longer for the next time once it's after peak hours). I stopped off at the dollar store to get a couple bottles of water and then walked down the street to the tennis centre, which is actually very close to Theatre Cambrian.

Anyway, I get there, and couldn't find the entrance at first. I walked around and finally saw some signs directing me to the entrance and followed them. i walked in and told the young dude working there that I'm here for the league. I explained that I was new and didn't know how things worked around here. He showed me where the change room was, and informed that I can go down to the courts a few minutes before 8pm, which was the start time. He also informed to make sure that the first door is completely closed before opening the second door. He didn't explain why, but I suspect that the bubble dome might collapse or something :)

After I get change, a couple of the players introduce themselves and I do the same. Once on the court, one of the guys tells me not to worry after I explained my apprehensiveness. He asked my how long I've been playing. I respond that I've been playing since I was a kid, but only recreationally - I never took lessons or anything. He assures me that they're all recreational, but there are some people that are of a higher caliber, but not too often.

So, I start to rally/warm up with a couple of young guys and an older gentlemen. My back hand is okay, but my forehand is horrendous! I know it takes a while for that shot of mine to warm up, but I was not happy about it. Every couple of minutes, you'd hear a "sorry" coming from my mouth. I could tell that the others were better then me, especially the younger guys (man! they serve fast!), but I think I was able to hold my own. In the first game, I made some bad errors, but made a couple good plays at net. I didn't hold my serve at all and my partner was double faulting a lot. We end up losing, but I though that this is going okay so far.

We rotate every half an hour for the two hours. At 8:30pm, we go to the next game. I'm playing doubles again and get paired up with the old guy that I just played against. Right away, he seemed very frustrated with me. Yeah, I missed a few forehand ground strokes, but I made a couple good plays at net. And it's not like he's a superstar either. He was making errors too. I think he got really frustrated with me when I forgot to cover the line when he was serving and I was at net. That was understandable, but that just made me more and more nervous. So, there were a few balls that I could've hit, and didn't because i was a bit cautious and full of self-doubt. And he didn't really acknowledge me when I made a good shot. The opponents did, commenting on my effort as I ran down a bunch of balls when It seemed like they were unreachable. So, we got hammered by them too. Well, c'est la vie.

At this point, I was already thinking that I'm not gonna come back next week. The old man made me feel a little unwanted :( And to add insult to injury, my 9pm slot was scheduled as a singles match against the young dude that works at the club. HE WORKS THERE!!! Of course he's gonna be amazing!!! So, I apologize that he's probably gonna get bored playing with me cuz I'm no where near his level. We start playing, and he's just kicking my ass! I can hit maybe one shot back to him, and then hits a winner or I make a forced error. But, after he won , I don't know, 6 or 7 games in a row. I start to hang in the points a little bit more. Making him run more, catching him off guard by returning shots that he thinks is probably gonna be a winner. But don't get me wrong, it takes A LOT of effort for to just get one point. But at least now I'm getting to 30 instead of losing games at love. He started to make a few more unforced errors (I like to think because I keep on surprising him by getting balls back) and every now and then I'd turn defence into offence and make a good shot to win the point. And I actually won a game!!! I held serve, after saving a couple of break points too. And the next game I almost broke him too.

By the end, I was sweating buckets! I mean, I was sweating a bit before that, but I was drenched. But, i felt good. I got a bit more confidence, which carried onto my next doubles game. We almost end up breaking our opponent's serve. I made a good return to which my partner actually acknowledged. He was actually really cool, letting me know when he thinks I made a good shot and I did the same. Unfortunately my partner lost his serve, and our opponents held serve again, but I held me serve - YAY!!! I made so pretty crafty plays at net. A few of times I was able to run down some lobs and balls that no one thought I'd be able to get, and we'd get back into the point. Unfortunately, I messed up the easy put-away shot at the end, but we laughed about it, all acknowledging my super counter-punching abilities. We still lost, but i felt good. I mean, I missed quite a few forehands (ok...almost all), but there were some positives to take away from this. I did have one really good forehand return winner up the line, and I was serving consistently (not hard, but hard enough that the returner made some errors and we got some free points). So, it was 10pm and I was literally dripping sweat, but I was satisfied with how things went overall. It wasn't ideal (I know I can play at their level, it'll just take time to get back into the swing of things since I haven't played really in over a year). And the best news is that I decided to come back for next week.

So, I made my way home. I had to walk to the bus station, but there was hardly anyone on the main street there. I didn't feel that it was unsafe at all, so that was good. I caught my bus, went home, made my lunch for today (a wrap with humus - yum! - and some baby carrots, almonds and a granny smith apple).

I crashed right away because I had rounds this morning at 8:30am and I am TIRED!!! I also have rehearsal tonight, but I gonna try to go to the Goodlife (for the first time!) and catch a class right after work. So more on how all that goes to come.

P.S. This was written this afternoon before my rehearsal, etc. I'm writing the "P.S." right now, and will post again tomorrow about what happened tonight. Confused? So am I! It's sleep time.