My last match before everything stopped was on March 12 and it was on the road. One-hour-away- on-the-road. And for my goals, it was somewhat important. I'd had a spotty start to the season to say the least, but my match the previous week was a great win for me. I'd started out the first set with a 3-0 lead, squandered it, came back to win the first set, then gone down 0-3 in the second set, came back to tie it and win that set, too. I felt like my head was finally becoming an asset. I came in at 2-4, and if I could just get a win, it'd show some progress, would show that I could build towards being consistent.
In this last match, I won a tight first set against an opponent I sensed was a lot like me -- aggressive, but error-prone. Her husband sat on the outside of the fence of our court and every time she played on that side, she told him how terrible she was. When I played on that side, he was quiet, but he was also coughing and not covering his mouth. They'd just detected coronavirus for the first time in this county days ago, and when I wasn't trying to figure out how to get some comfortable distance (literally and figuratively, which is the first time I've accurately used this term) between me and my opponent, I was wondering if people just ... didn't watch the news.
Anyway, after the first set, my opponent asked for a court change, and in fact, half the lights were out on the court. We moved, and I get out to a 1-0 lead, a 2-0 lead. 3-0. Then her aggressiveness started paying off and I miscalculated. See, the first set had taken probably an hour and I saw her misfire, but also hit great shots. She made way more errors than great shots. I figured, later in this second set, that she would fall back into missing her shots if I could just keep the points going, so I worked on defense and on shots where I had clear opportunities, I took the foot off the gas. Like I said, I miscalculated. She won the second set in a tiebreak. The match tiebreak was more of the same, except I'd finally shamed myself ("Hit the ball, you f#*^*&# p$*#*!") into going for my shots, but I was missing now. As for my opponent, she finished off the match with two forehands up the line that she had not even previously attempted. 11-9. After the match, she was very complimentary and I had to admit it was one of the better singles matches I'd played in a long time. We'd been at it for at least 2.5 hours and physically, I felt good. I felt terrible inside and if you play league tennis, you know those drives home can be exhilarating or they can be very long. Mine was very long and now our season was over, but another one was about to start -- both in my county and the neighboring county. There'd be plenty of time to work on my match record.
Remember when you thought there'd be plenty of time? It turns out that you were right. I was right. Except that it turns out that there's plenty of time for us to work on the things that matter, and it turns out that that list is pretty short when life hits pause. Leaving the house is a calculation. Do I really need to? What if I have it? What if someone at the grocery has it? Last weekend, a friend of mine sent out a desperate group text asking if anyone wanted to play tennis -- a text I had sent out myself two weeks earlier and she had been the taker. I looked at my phone, saw that text, and went through about fourteen phases of emotion:
It's a pandemic, (name here). Are you crazy?
You can social distance on a tennis court ...
What if everyone says yes? That's four of us. Too many maybe ...
I really do want to play some tennis. Did I ever pick up my racquet from the pro who was supposed to string it before all this started? No?
Can you play in a mask?
We're supposed to stay home!
After all that, I just put the phone back down without responding and went back to stress-eating chocolate chip cookie thins.
Here's where I've landed. I have to take care of myself, my family and my community. I can't change anything outside of that. All I can do is try to keep us safe and healthy and disinfect the hell out of every doorknob and light switch in this house. And part of that means tennis is also on pause for a while.
Fortunately for me, there are about one million tennis matches to watch on YouTube. One of them reminded me of something I had wanted to do for a while.
First of all, this is a great match. Chris Evert v. Martina Navratilova. Wimbledon. 1978. The rally that starts at 9:58 is just perfect, especially the look on Chrissie's face when it's over.
Another noteworthy point was this one, when Chrissie beans Martina at the net. Just look at this exchange.
I want to point out that Serena could hit Venus like that and wouldn't bat an eye -- and they're sisters.
No judgment here. I am just saying.
The first time I saw this match was probably about four years ago and I was taken by Martina's dress.
I'm thinking it's the collar that makes it pop, but I am not a fashionista so I don't know any technical terms for why I wanted that dress, but I did. I couldn't find it on eBay, Etsy, Amazon, nowhere. I decided then that I could make the dress myself! This might be out of left field to you, but I do have a sewing history. I learned how to sew so I could make my own wedding dress. It was my first completed project. And pretty much my last. I had dabbled in making some tennis clothes with mixed results. Including this top, which was a good idea perhaps, but which ended up looking more like a Denise Huxtable Gordon Gartrelle-knockoff creation:
Then I had kids and I stopped sewing.
Until.
I'd been working on a bookshelf/bench project for my kids' room, which required me to make a covering for the bench, which led me to Joann Fabrics, where they convinced me to download the app for 60 percent off my purchase, at which point I received daily e-mails and notifications about discounted fabric, which is about the time things went sideways and I was spending copious amounts of time at home.
Call it the perfect storm. Because due to my lack of tennis playing, I was falling asleep watching matches and woke up to the Navratilova/Evert classic, and I noticed the dress again. Hmm, I thought. I do have a discount from Joann and if I pay online, they'll bring it to my car. Hmm. Is this the time to say yes to Martina's dress?
I didn't realize how far I'd gotten with this dress idea several years ago until I finally unpacked my sewing patterns, books and fabric to get ready for this undertaking. (One thing I'd found was that I'd cut a pattern for a Strawberry Shortcake onesie for my daughter and never sewed it. She's, uh, no longer able to wear it.) Apparently, I'd realized that I would need a pattern and began looking into how to make my own. I found the instructions in a library book, copied the pages, stuck it in one of my sewing book and basically put it in a box and moved on. So I need pattern paper. And then I need to learn how make a pattern. And the governor just called a 30-day shutdown (about three weeks too late). So I guess I have time.
What else can I say? Watch this space? I'll share photos, videos and posts about my progress. It'll be fun?
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