The Rules of Tennis

One of my favorite things about coming home to Georgia is hanging out with my nieces. They are 13 and 18, which means they are now at ages where I can actually relate and we can have a really good time together. They are both full of personality and crack me up on the regular.

A couple of nights ago, my little sister (22), my two nieces, and I went to the tennis courts up the street for some nighttime tennis. None of us are superstars but we all have a genetic athletic prowess which allows us to be at least somewhat competent in most sports (except bowling; I did not get that gene), so I thought we could at least get some good hits in.

Or. . .not.

Turns out we all super suck at tennis. Thus, to make things a little easier on ourselves, we developed these 4 basic rules for tennis that anyone can follow:

Rule Number 1: It helps if you keep your eyes open.

Rule Number 2: Make contact with the ball.

Rule Number 3: Hit the ball over the net.

Rule Number 4: All rules except these are superfluous.

Happy Tennis-ing!

Gratitude List

This article about a "gratitude practice" popped up on my Twitter feed today, and although I only skimmed it, I do like the idea. I try to stay aware of the little things, especially when the big things have me down, but I thought writing it down might go a step further toward lightening my mood.

So here's my list of what I'm grateful for today (in no particular order):

- Conversations with friends, old ones and new ones

- That I met him at all (I guess)

- Tulips galore and my neighbors who planted them (tulips are my favorite flower, so simple and beautiful)

- I saw Susan Gibson and Jana Pochop last night, a rare treat of real music in my tiny town. They were awesome. Brought me back to my roots, also made me even more excited to be in Texas (they live in Austin!).

- Guacamole

- The cutest dog in the world lives at my house

- I vacuumed some stuff!!!!! (Now only 4845721721 other chores that need doing that didn't get done that should've been done 3 weeks ago. Pfft. What.ever.)

- RAFA WON HIS 7TH STRAIGHT TITLE IN MONTE CARLO! (Did I mention I had a dream we made out last week? Hands down, best. dream. ever.) I'm grateful for Rafa, always.

So many dirty thoughts, so little time.

This was fun. Am actually smiling and happier (Rafa will do that). Post your gratitude list on your own blog or in the comments (all 2 of you :).

no.words.

Yeah, I totally dropped the ball on the Olympics. Whoops. Let's not dwell on that, shall we? (Hope to do semi-recap post this weekend, so fret not. Like any of you are out there fretting besides spam commenters, but whatevs.)

Let's enjoy Shakira's new video for "Gypsy" starring my boyfriend, Rafa, looking hotter-than-anyone-ever-in-the-entire-universe-oh-my-god-i-need-a-cold-shower.

This blog pretty well sums it up.

Shakira, you are my hero. (PS Glad you got the memo that my favorite outfit of all time on any man is t-shirt in jeans and/or no shirt and jeans. Again...HERO.)

Sports Addict

I've been pretty bummed this week. For starters, the Minnesota Vikings lost in sort of a heartbreaker on Sunday night. I mean, they kind of deserved to lose since they played hot potato instead of football, but still. I wanted it for Favre. I wanted it for rookie and ex-Gator Percy Harvin. It just wasn't meant to be.

But I was willing to put that behind me because Rafael Nadal was pretty much cruising in the first week of the Australian Open. There were some tense moments, but overall, his play was very close to his pre-stupid-fucking-knee-injury form. Then came Monday night. I went to sleep around 10-10:30pm and woke up at 3:45am to watch his match live from Australia. He was playing Andy Murray in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, and if it hadn't been a Grand Slam event or had been a less impressive player, I probably would've just slept, like I had every other late-night match. But I was "living in the moment" and decided to do it.

Well, this is what happened. I watched the first set which was intense and really fucking close and Rafa lost. By that time I was feeling slightly nauseous due to sleep situation and also the match. So I dozed a little, woke up midway through second set to watch Rafa lose it again. And even though I know never to give up on Rafa, because he is nothing if not a fighter, it seemed like Andy was playing better overall and it was a done deal. Plus, I was SO.TIR-ED. I closed my computer around 5am and went to dreamland.

Well, more like nightmare land. I dreamed that he had to "retire." This is what they call it when a player must forfeit the remainder of a match because of injury. I woke up relieved that it had been a dream. Then I got to work, checked the score, and lo and behold the stupid-fucking-knee injury was back. He HAD retired, just 3 games into the third set. My stomach sank. Will he ever recover? Will he ever be that same player that won the epic Wimbledon final in 2008?

So I've been bummed. I know it's silly, but I can't help it. I've been waiting for him to make the "comeback," to show everyone that he's still got game, and now he's *this* close, and the knee just won't cooperate. And he's so darn disappointed.

I has a sad, too, Rafa. Let's hug it out. (via Nadal News photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

So now football season is almost over, the Gators lost the SEC Championship, the Vikings lost the NFC Championship, and my boyfriend can't even finish his quarterfinal match at the Australian Open and will be out for who knows how long. WTF am I supposed to do for sports now? (Because clearly, going without sports is worse than going without food & water.) Tennis is on at random times. Haven't loved basketball since high school-ish. Hockey? Soccer? No clue.

That's when I remembered Winter Olympics! Vancouver 2010 begins in 14 days. Holla! Am hoping to do a daily "recap" or "commentary" or "WTF" or "Did you see ?!" like I did for the 2008 games. . .we'll see how it goes. To get you all as amped as I am for said Olympics, I give you the fabulous Johnny Weir, performing to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." Love. It.

So cute.

This week has been pretty hellish by all accounts. Seems like everyone I've talked to or heard about has had one of the worst weeks ever. (Well, except for Tempe, who hopefully is having a kick-ass birthday week.)

Apart from puppies, these 50 seconds have provided me with perhaps my only genuine, purely blissful smile all week. Ya'll probably won't have the same result, but nonetheless, I had to share.



*And no, I didn't miss the obvious "balls" joke, I'm just rising above. That's right, just like Dr. Bailey. Rising. Above.

I heart hoodies.

Yeah, I'm up late again. Watched Evil Dead and Evil Dead II at movie night, drank sangria, and ate brownies. Zombies + caffeine = will never sleep.

In effort to chase the mental images of the movies away, I'm posting this Nike interview. I've always had a thing for hoodies, and this just might be a teeny slice of my heaven.

Heaven.

New York City and the US Open were perfect. I had such a good time there are no words to describe the elation I felt for 4 days straight. So many stories, so many blog posts. But for now, I don't have much time. I'm winding down after cleaning my house for hours, and I need to sleep asap.

Just wanted to share my favorite photo of the Rafa from my first day. And Megs, guess what? I took this one myself. That makes it extra awesome. : )

YES YES YES YES YES!!

Schedule for Friday's matches has been released. Rafa plays the night match, as does Venus Williams. Will see Serena Williams and Andy Murry during the day.

Life.

is.

Fucking.

Good.

Leaving for airport as soon as my friend arrives. Likely no posts until Tuesday, which will undoubtedly be gushing about US Open. Consider yourselves warned.

The U.S. Open

Today was completely shitty at work, but enough about that. Let's talk about the US Open, shall we? Thursday night I catch a plane to NYC to see two of my favorite people in the whole world: Am and Rafa.

When the draw first came out, I was sad because it looked like Rafa's playing days would fall on Thurs/Sat/Monday. I have tickets for Fri - Day & Night, Sat - Night, and Sun - Night. Thus, based on Rafa's projected schedule, I had only a small chance of already having tickets and would have to move to Plan B to see his match if luck wasn't on my side.

Well, as luck would have it, Rafa doesn't play his first round match until tomorrow. If it follows that he plays every other day, he should play Wed/Fri/Sun. And if the tournament schedulers know what the fuck they're doing (i.e. sexy on the main court a la Wimbledon), he'll be playing the main court, Arthur Ashe Stadium on days he plays. My odds aren't 100% yet, but fingers and toes crossed, I will get to see him at least once...potentially twice. Excitement cannot be expressed with a million !!!!!!

Everything else is gravy. And by "everything else" I mean seeing this shirtless goodness in person:








Vid posted by Nadal News

I Can't Help Myself.. . .

. . . I love you and nobody else.

Rafa lost last week in the semi-finals at Cincinatti. This photo is from the quarters and I love it. How can one man be that beautiful? Can't wait to see him in person at US Open in about 10 days!!!!

Pic via Forty Deuce.

God Loves Me

Who needs a real boyfriend when her fake boyfriend looks like this?

Oh how I've missed tennis with Rafa in the mix. Welcome back, boo, and kick ass next week in Montreal.

Pic via Forty Deuce.

UPDATE: Well, shit. Apparently there won't be much ass-kicking for Rafa, except on the receiving end, in the near future. Report from his Montreal practice essentially says he's back, but he sucks at the moment. Apparently two months off will do that to a tennis player. But let's concentrate on the positives. Like his stomach. 

Return of Rafa

Rafa and I have both been out for awhile.  He with a knee injury, me with no motivation to blog.  Now that he has announced his birthday present to me - returning to competition in Montreal on August 8th -  it is only apropos that my return to blogging feature my fantasy boyfriend.

I have deemed this picture the hottest clothes-on photo of Rafa of all time. Seriously.

The jacket. The white t-shirt. The jeans. The motorcycle. It's all so badass-y. And you all know how much I love the bad boys. You can read more about Rafa's motorcycle fetish over at Nadal News, from whence this picture was borrowed. (You should really click on the picutre to get the giant view of Rafa and his bike because this tiny picture doesn't do it justice.)

Happy Birthday to Me!

No, you guys aren't in bizarro world, I'm just pre-planning. Also, one's 30th birthday is a milestone event, so I've just-this-very-moment decided to celebrate it until the year 2010. 

Going to *hopefully* see Rafa in person at the beginning of September! This morning I purchased tickets to four "sessions" of tennis at the US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium.  Keeping fingers crossed Rafa plays during one of those sessions and on that court or else someone is going to get a beatdown.

Now that I think about it, throw the Conor concert in late July into the birthday festivities as well.

Birthdays rock. Everyone celebrate yours today!

Bummer.

I hate to do this to you guys, but I'm not sure I can sleep without venting a little. In the grand scheme of things, my life is fantastic and I have nothing to complain about. I know this.  In my little corner of the world, however, the following things are giving me grief this Sunday evening:

* Rafa loses in 4th round at French Open to giant douchebag named Soderling (actually wrote a much longer post about my coping with this but going to give it a day to marinade and edit then decide whether to publish)

* Bum knee/thigh/ankle? Let's just say bum leg

* Lack of exercise due to bum leg

* Feel fat due to lack of exercise and also, possibly, PMS

* Hopelessness re: how to remedy bum leg. Are there any good doctors here? Can I even afford a doctor, even with insurance, as may not all be covered?

* Hopelessness re: living in awful place where have to worry about presence of good doctors

* Hopelessness re: timeline for leaving awful place

* Boys

* Return to work tomorrow (Although really, given grand scheme of things, should be thankful I even have a job. . .even if they are going to decrease my pay by 7% and can I still afford rent + student loans + exorbitant electric bill + food?)

Gee. I thought this might make me feel better to get this off my shoulders, but in fact, now I just want to cry. Then again, maybe that's what I need to do to feel better?  I hate being a girl. HATE. IT.

New Favorite Singer

Fucking priceless.



Did you see those hips shake? Did you see the COWBOY move? DID YOU, Megan?

Just when I think I have all the love I can possibly have for him, I find more awesome.

5 for Rafa

This is one of the coolest ideas ever. The team behind Rafael Nadal has created a campaign for fans to encourage their favorite tenista onto a record-breaking fifth straight French Open win. The gimmick? Write a 5 word sentence or 5 letter word on your hand, film it, post it.

I was trying to do an acrostic with VAMOS with each word containing 5 letters. I got Valor, Ardor, Mirth, and then got stuck and went to sleep only to wake up and realize Valor was the only good one. At any rate, I think I've abandoned this idea and now am trying to come up with something better. After all, this chick in Manchester, England already posted something similar, and let's be honest, hers is pretty damn good.



Suggestions? I don't think "Will You Marry Me, Please?" is a keeper for this particular project, although I'm not sure that will stop me from submitting it. ; )

I'm thinking of 5 words that start with V, preferably five letters each. Why V? Because V = Roman numeral for 5 and also VAMOS! I've got Valor, Vigor, and Vamos (which will be the last one). Anybody got two more?

UPDATE: Ok, here's what I came up with. I've uploaded it to Rafa's YouTube page, but not sure when it will be "published." Likely it has to undergo some sort of review before it appears on the page. I know it's cheesy, but it's a little clever, no?

Singlehandedly Saving the Economy

So...umm...I bought some stuff. Actually, I bought a lot of stuff.

Yesterday I was feeling nostalgic for weekends in Charlottesville when J and I would spend an hour or so at Barnes & Noble happily perusing the shelves (him) and nicely laid out selections on tables (me). I'd always come home with 2-4 books, determined to read them voraciously, and a guilty chocolate chip cookie or 2 (seriously, best choc chip cookies I've ever had, and that's saying something). Anyway, inevitably we'd get home and decide we needed to watch a movie or tv show and the books would sit until a nice summer or spring day when I would insist on lounging by the pool (of the apartment complex at which we did not live).

This nostalgia began because I'd been sitting on my new porch swing reading Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and wondered if Helen Fielding had written anything since that awful Olivia Joules crap. Google landed me on this semi-interesting article about chick lit which then led me to searching this Sarah Dunn person which then led to me feverishly clicking on "add to cart" on Amazon.

Some of my items ended up in the "Save for Later" bin, but I did come away with these four titles (2 at full price - but free shipping, and two at ridiculously low prices like $3 and $4):

The Girl She Used to Be - David Cristafano

Prozac Nation - Elizabeth Wurtzel

The Big Love: A Novel - Sarah Dunn

Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played - Jon Wortheim (About the match which ignited my undying love for Rafa. Shut up, Megan.)

After these purchases I made my way to the kitchen (for the purpose of doing dishes) where I realized that a large number of my drinking glasses have vanished. Sure, Masala and I have broken a few, but I didn't realize the damage was this drastic. Now, if all glasses are dirty and in the dishwasher, there are none to drink out of! This situation, of course, had to be rectified.

I had to bring in the big guns: Mom. She loves this stuff, so I called her and gave her a project. A few hours later several emails subject line "glasses" were delivered to my inbox and thus began the hunt for drinking glasses. Somehow, I ended up purchasing a few of these recycled glass storage jars which I fell in love with. I mean, I've been needing some containers like this for awhile now for all the stuff I've started buying from the bulk bins at the organic grocer: lentils, couscous, quinoa - not to mention regular ole flour and sugar necessities.

All of this is well and good, but the !!MOST EXCITING PART!! about all this research was finding this gem of an online retailer: Greenfeet. They sell recycled and organic home products and purchase carbon offsets for all of their shipping. Very, very cool. So naturally, I had to buy something from them. Ta-dah! My new drinking glasses:

Also, Mom sent me the Southern Living catalog, as she does not quite understand my aesthetic, but was trying to be helpful. Surprise, surprise to me - some of the stuff in there is fab. And not cheap. But I do want the Tribeca Tumblers on pages 6/7...maybe another time.

As if this wasn't enough, I thought Masala should get in on the action, too. Sure, he'd gotten two new squeaky/ball toys when I bought his food, but those were just cheap little things. This hot weather has me so hot I'm already sweating behind my knees...inside...in freaking MAY. I can only imagine how he feels. During winter I came across some "cooling" beds and made a mental note for the summertime. Today felt like just the day to try to find one of them. Lucky Little M will soon be sleeping coolly in his very own Snuggly Sleeper (did not pay price on that webpage):

Yes, I wanted to get him an environmentally friendly bed, too, but those things are a) damn expensive and b) they don't have "cooling" ones yet - I felt like he would really feel the benefits, so I eco-splurged.

Who needs real life friends and/or local retail outlets when you have internet shopping? Best part is, next week or two I'm going to get all kinds of goodies delivered to my door as little surprises that I completely forgot about amidst whatever shitty day I'm having. Hurray! Is retail therapy on dual levels! Am genius. (Am also broke until June)

Nole For the Win?!

Oh, wait. Rafa FTW, Nole for the LOL!

Rafa wins his fourth at Rome, his third tournament in a row, making it a total of 15ish Masters Series titles, just two behind Agassi's all-time record. 30 match win streak on clay. RI-DIC-u-lous.

Novak Djokovic, aka Nole, is the only player who evens comes close to competing with Nadal on clay, and has been his finals opponent in two of the last three tournaments. Nole is known for his impressions, and this cheeky Italian woman in pants suit and - is that white tennis shoes?! - cajoled peer pressured Nole into doing a Rafa impression. Pretty funny. Probably funnier if you speak Italian and understand wtf is being said.




Psst. Don't tell Megan I posted this because she might try an intervention. I saw that episode of Party of Five, and I'm really not into it.

The Reign in Spain

2 hot Spanish "tenistas," 1 Youtube video - stick around or skip to minute 8/8.5 for some serious cuteness.

Courtesy of Babz at El Toro de Rafa

It must totally suck to be David Ferrer. He's pretty hot, has the European jock thing going for him, is excellent on clay. But then there's Rafa. Not only does he trump Ferrer in all those categories, but he's also taller. Bummer. (Let's not even discuss the trophy size disparity, which is beyond comical.)

So yeah, Rafa just won his fifth straight Barcelona Open today. Last week he won his fifth straight in Monte Carlo. Next week he'll go for number four in Rome, then after that number five at the French Open. It doesn't get much more awesome than that.

Don't believe me? His win percentage since 2005 is 97.2% on clay. 97.2%. Are any of you so phenomenal at your job that you kick ass 97% of the time you work? No. No you're not. He is a god.

Because I'm Probably Drunk Right Now

I flove this video of Rafa from the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. Seriously. So. Fucking. Cute. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to all of you. Can. Not. Control. It.



Because I was too drunk to give proper credit when I originally posted, this comes from nadalnews.