TENNIS! Again.

Because I just can't be humiliated enough, I eagerly signed up for the next 5 weeks of tennis lessons at Rochester Tennis Connection. On a new night, at a new time, on a new court, and with new classmates, this time will be as much of an adventure as the first.

Our new tennis instructor did not even tell us his name, so I have no idea what to call him. Tennis Instructor Mark is also at this session, but I guess on Fridays he takes the advanced group. Either that or he saw that Ivy Purple Shoes and I were registered again and bribed the other man to take the beginner group. Ivy Purple Shoes was gone today, but there is a gal a couple of years younger than me named Christine, a fierce racquetball player, a very timid but nice woman, and Maggie, my colleague from work.

The good news is that I am not the worst one. While certainly not "good" by even the most liberal definition, I at least occasionally hit it in bounds and over the night. Score for me! We also played a game with the advanced group, and my partner totally carried the team. Still, I made a couple of points and we were the "Kings of the Court" for quite a while.

Maggie kept hitting it into the lights, so I suggested that we keep track of how many times she hits the light. Maybe if she can hit it ten times in one night, we should go out for ice cream. Once she gets this whole tennis thing down, though, she's going to be much, much better than me. I have to really savor this time when we have equal tennis abilities.

Now it is Friday night again at 9pm, and I am already so wiped out from my full day at work, running errands, and then playing tennis, that I came right home, did some dishes, and made a cup of tea. I don't even want to take a shower tonight. I have a pain au chocolat out to rise over night, and that will be my incentive to get up early enough to do some minor cleaning around the house and take a nice leisurely shower before my weekend of multiple birthday festivities begins!

Also, if you are looking for a funny read, might I recommend this post by Non-Sequidurr?

*Now vote on the poll! Do it! Otherwise, how will I know what your guys' favorite season is?*

Tennis, anyone?

In an attempt to be more social, meet people who don't work for the Rochester Public School System, and meet people in their 20's, I have signed up for another round of community education classes. As I may have mentioned in my last post, one of these classes is swing dancing on Thursday nights, and while I am meeting non-teachers, and I am being more social than if I were staying at home, I am not any closer to meeting potential friends who aren't teachers or people in their 20's. And last week I kind of got groped, so there's that. Still, the next few classes should be fun.

The other class I enrolled in in an attempt to be more social is an adult tennis class. I was rather nervous that everyone else in the class was going to know what they were doing, and I would stand out as the uncoordinated girl who had no business being there. My other fear was that it would be me and middle aged men, which would still make me the uncoordinated girl who had no business being there.

Luckily, (or unluckily?) the entire class is females. Still a little intimidated (especially by the one wearing a real tennis skirt!), I inched out onto the tennis courts and prepared for utter humiliation. When the tall, skinny instructor asked who was a beginner, I leaped at the opportunity to announce my incompetence. One other woman in a pink sweatshirt also waved her racket at the man. Then a woman with wavey hair looked at us and declared that even though she had taken some tennis lessons, she felt more comfortable with the beginners.

The three of us were put on the other court with the shorter, dark haired instructor. He has an accent (possibly English?) and a nice smile, so that makes the time a bit more enjoyable. He also is extremely patient, which is probably why he is teaching us beginners. His name is Mark, and I remember this because he told us his name, then he spelled it for us, which I thought was unusual. The wavey haired lady is also named Ivy. We have the same name, which is how I remember her name. The last lady didn't do anything interesting when telling us her name, plus we don't have the same name, AND no one addressed her by name during the lesson, so I couldn't hear it again. So, for now, we'll call her Pink Sweatshirt.

Pink Sweatshirt and Ivy (the tennis player) both work for Hormel, and they know each other from work. They must have signed up together, because they seemed to know a bunch of women in the more advanced group and, when leaving, told them they'd see them tomorrow. Pink Sweatshirt and Ivy (the tennis player) seem like perfectly nice women who may be close to my age and can be potential friends. We'll have to see how the next four lessons go.

Expecting complete humiliation, I was delightfully surprised by the tennis lessons. With our patient and cute-but-not-too-cute instructor, friendly women at about my level, and small class size, I didn't feel embarrassed by my complete lack of hand-eye coordination at all. Also, we're moving at about a pace I can keep up with, but when we do drills, we don't focus on one thing for too long so that I get bored, feel pressure, or get frustrated. Also, we move around enough that I am getting some exersize and working muscles I don't while dancing and playing with my students, but I didn't have to use my inhaler, pegging me as the geek I am.

All in all, I think this tennis thing is going to be fun.

In other news, the robot song I wrote about in this blog post and said I was going to teach my students has been a big hit! Unfortunately, I am already getting tired of it, and have started to roll my eyes as students beg to sing it again. I need a new song, and fast!

But while looking for new songs for my kiddos on youtube, I instead found this, and I think this is a fantastic video and really hope that some adults somewhere are using this "energizer" in their team meetings!



And OH MY GOSH! This also turned up! AHHHH! What on earth is this? Who made it? Why does it have so many views?



Are you as disturbed and confused as I am?

On that note, the new poll is ready in the top right hand area of my blog. Did you ever read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler when you were a kid? Did you ever read it again as an adult? Hopefully, the answer to both of those questions is "YES!" So, if you were going to run away, where would you choose to live? Take the poll!