Depression (again)

My maturity as a fan does not extend to being able to shake off grueling loss. When Nadal lost yesterday (really in the middle of the night, but I taped it and watched it in the morning before going to work), I was devastated. I gamely took a little more care getting ready for work--pampering myself by wearing pink (it's my favorite color, but really I shouldn't wear it everyday--people will talk). I took extra time to make a really delicious lunch. I allowed myself two little bags of m&m's and promised myself that it would be fine. I mean Nadal is not known for his hard court play--it's wonderful that he made it to the semi's. He's young--there's always next year and hey, the French is next. He always does well at the french, but wait, Tsonga is French. Maybe he won't come up in the draw. And anyway, I finally like Roger, so I really want Roger to win the Australian anyway. He'll slaughter Jok and teach this kid Tsonga a lesson.

And I was fine. Yesterday was a productive, good day. Lunch was excellent. I had soup for dinner--a rare treat and especially nice on a cold and rainy night.

I set my tape machine up to tape the Fedder win over Djokovic and went to sleep. I did set it for five hours. I didn't really expect that Djok would just roll over for Fedder--it might actually go five sets. Adrienne asked me if I saw the match this morning and I said "don't tell me I'm going to replay it now." That should have warned me. No one cares if Roger wins again. Why would she even know to ask me.

I started the tape and Djokovic was staying in the match. Roger was making some errors I don't usually see him make. Djok broke Roger in the first set and all of a sudden, he looked like he was really going to make a match of it. Then Roger kept losing the big points. What's going on here. Has the world fallen off its axis??? Roger lost the first set. He got broke again in the second, but broke back. He lost the tie breaker. Roger doesn't lose tie breakers. Roger saved a few match points, but Djokovic swept Roger in three sets.

Djokovic and Tsonga??? Who cares? I am so depressed. The agony of defeat. By osmosis even. Maria better kick some Ivanovic behind tonight. It's still raining and I think I'm out of soup.

Tennis All the Time

I can't remember ever seeing a match from the Australian Open before. I remember hearing the results of the finals, but never seeing a match. I love ESPN2--this is so great seeing the whole open. This is the first open of the year, so most of the players are injury free and fresh. The afternoon games start about when I get off of work, so I can see them in the evening and the evening matches are overnight, so I can tape them and watch them in the morning (with fast forward control when it gets boring and replay when it's not.)

The Williams sisters are out of both singles and doubles. Talk about a bad couple of days--up until the end they played so great. The Serbs are all having great success, but Maria is going to slaughter them. I'm holding out hope for Nadal, because he's my favorite, but Roger is playing really well.

Uncle Marcel, it's really really rare for someone to take Roger to five sets, but it's easy to understand why you thought it looked like an easy win for Roger--he makes it look so simple that most players just assume that he'll win (because 99 out of 100, he does). Tipseravic actually looked like he thought he might win against Roger and that was amazing. Then he took him to five sets--unreal. Blake folded in three. Now I expect Nadal to take Roger to five, but he's beat him at the French and he's the number 2 player in the world for two years. I never even heard of Tipseravic before--he's in the top 100, but I still couldn't tell you his ranking.

The stadium in Australia is something else that I've never seen. It was very nice not to have the extended rain delays, but it was kind of eerie to see an indoor match that wasn't an exibition. After seeing the two tournaments in person this year, I have to admit, I'd much rather watch them on tv. It was so hot in the stadiums. And I'd much rather watch them on espn2, then any other network. They have great commentators and except for all the ed commercials, they don't have too many commecial breaks. The only commentator I haven't seen yet is John McEnroe--I wonder where he is? I'm torn between really looking forward to the rest of the games this week and being really sad that it's almost over.

tipsarevic

That's the only way I'll remember his name. I stayed up til past 2 a.m. watching the Fedder match--a five setter--Tipsarevic was absolutely fearless. I found myself really hating him and rooting for Fedder with gusto. I've never liked Roger and so at the end of the day I was expecting to be shot. Like in "1984" when he finally wanted the state to win and cared about it, then they could kill him. How ironic--convincing the individual is everything and one person is nothing less than nothing.

Anyway...Venus Williams was supposed to play after that and then Hewitt vs. Bagdagis--so I could hardly wait to wake up to see more tennis. They are replaying the five hour Fedder match. I have to wait though a match I've already seen and I'm afraid to watch the news or go on line, because I don't want to know the outcome before I see the match, but I have no idea if they'll actually air the match at all. Pins and needles.

I'm still sick, so I can't do anything. I can't think of anything that I want to do except maybe take in a movie, but all this coughing would be very distracting. Too bad there's no good tennis on for another couple of hours.

The Storyteller

In my travels with Adam going to record stores, I purchased a Sting CD that I didn't think I'd heard. It was pretty old and a few of the songs sound a little familar, but not really. I've had it in playing the last few days in the car (surprise, surprise I'm tired of election coverage on the news). This morning I was struck by two of the songs and how Sting can weave a really rich and intricate story with so few words. I mean it's a given that I really like the music and his style. He has a great sense of rhyming and timing, but the story in his songs are really good. There's one about a woman who wants to leave her marriage and in two lines, you feel the betrayal and mundaneness that she is trying to escape. The husband comes into the song at the end and you feel how trapped he also feels in so few words "she never lets me sleep this late, I need coffee, her make up bag is on the floor, this room is just so messy, in his imagination she's a million miles away." Then there's the music and the interplay of harmony with overlapping themes. What a great song.

The second song was about a car thief--a poor man with a skill in a rich man's car. Then he imagines the rich man's life and there's a mistress and a wife, who's no fool. The mistress wanted to go dancing, and what I felt was a statement about how the rich treat the poor and the longing to be with the rich. "Please take me dancing tonight, like you promised on the phone" was the tag line interweaved through the story. Listening to this CD was like reading a great book of short stories.

Funny and Sad

Tonight Toastmasters was particularly funny. Tim, always good for a laugh, was the "jokemaster" (tells a joke to loosen up the crowd). He told two jokes that were not funny at all--his timing was all off. He was so uncharacteristically not funny, that it was hilarious. Pete was our "gramarian". Pete is a former Fifth Grade Teacher and he is full of very funny puns and jokes. The gramarian gives us two words that we should use in our short speeches for the evening. His words were from the most popular phrase of 2007--"Don't Tase Me Bro" We were supposed to use "Tase" and "Bro" in our speeches. Now we are toastmasters--always game for a challenge. This was a very funny challenge. (I personally failed, but some people were extremely creative). Kristina told everyone about her new New Years tradition now that all her parents friend's kids are over 21--they got their mother's drunk for new years. It sounded outrageous and we were all on the floor. (Her mom is our president in the club). Anahid was one of the speakers. She always has a funny story and she told us why everyone hates her department at the city, exagerating and keeping us all laughing. David was another speaker--his talk was so dry, but it was about a topic I had never thought about, so I stayed with it. Then Leon was his evaluator. He suggested that David add some jokes and funny stories and then he told a hilarious story that would have fit great. We never stopped laughing the entire two hours.

And I laughed with everyone, but instead of getting happier, I just got sadder and quieter. Grief hits at the oddest times. Mom would have really enjoyed this night.

Slow Motion

As Erika put in Mom's blog, it was a very nice memorial for Mom last Friday. I met a few of her cousin's children who shared great stories and a lot of her friends from Holiday Park. It was great meeting Jeannette and Aunt Pat as an adult and spending time with Aunt Rita, Aunt Monica and Uncle John. My sisters and I had a wonderful visit and I got to hold that cute baby Lynn for as long as my arms would hold out. I was the resident Lawyer, but since I practice in California, we got great advice from Mom's friends at Holiday Park. We had a wonderful snow fall, making Michigan extremely pretty for a few days and although I bundled up to the max--it really wasn't as cold as all that.

I have a very large pile of work to do on my desk now and a lot on my plate for ABWA and PTSA, but I'm kind of moving in slow motion. It's all waited this long--I think I'll just take my time.