Club living

With Z out with a sore arm, I was reduced to playing with someone else today. Someone I usually beat. I beat him again rather soundly, though in the second set he was doing pretty well. It was 2-2 when his daughter showed up with her rackets. I of course invited her on, showing that I was raised well, but I also was able to take away my opponent's momentum through this clever maneuver. Then some older fellow sauntered down and asked if we'd like a fourth for doubles. It was club living. Turns out she is in 8th grade and plays on the Culbreth team, which made it all the sweeter when we took a quick set from them before we were forced off by an older couple who had the court at 3. People aren't playing round with their court reservations these days. But the special joy of beating someone from our old nemesis Culbreth was not diminished by some decades of separation.

Then I came home and read my book and enjoyed my afternoon coffee before having a brief snooze on the sofa in the rec room, which is a particularly soporific piece of furniture.

(the next day)

Thinking about playing doubles yesterday, I must say it's remarkable how comfortable and confident I was. I play very little doubles -- this was my second time in a year, maybe my second time three years -- but I felt fine and played fine. This is a huge shift from a couple of years ago when I played in the "Raise a Racket" fundraiser at the Farm and about had a nervous breakdown, I was so self-conscious and fearful about my game. Mostly this is a function of just playing a whole lot more tennis and being in shape.

But it also opens a lot of doors, because I feel comfortable in changing tennis situations. And I also see the etiquette -- if there are three of you and a fourth shows up and asks, you play doubles. Then you meat somebody else and chat, etc. We never lived like that when I was younger, so I didn't know how that worked.