-My favorite shopping experience was wandering around South Congress Ave, even though I didn't end up buying anything. Billy and I had a good time looking through all the boutiques at the various selections of crafts, jewelry, housewares, and the like. There were also a few open lots where they set up booths in the evening which had a distinct Portland Saturday Market feel, though there were significantly fewer vendors. We went inside Allens Boots, and I wish I'd taken a picture of the walls and walls of distinctive boots they have in there. When I found myself wondering why I thought I would like purchase a $300 pair of distressed green leather cowboy boots, I remembered the pair of pink cowboy boots I had as a child. They only came from Mervyn's, but they had fringe and a huge patch of glitter shaped like a lightning bolt on the side. I believe I wore them until they fell apart on my feet. When I was looking at the shelves inside the newly opened South Congress Books, my heart actually started pounding noticeably when I saw a vintage copy of Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider prominently displayed. I wanted to buy that, too, until I decided that this book should not belong to someone who already loves the book, has largely memorized the book, and has held KAP's own print copies and manuscripts of the book. This particular book needed to stay there, perched on its stand, until someone new has the chance to discover how great it is. Thinking I wanted to buy the boots made me feel like there might be a little bit of Austinite in me, and seeing KAP get some much-deserved love and exposure near her birthplace made me feel like there is a little bit of what makes me me inside other Austinites.
-Anyone who visits me here on the blog knows I am a big tennis fan. I don't know if anyone who hasn't lived with me in my house realizes just how much of a tennis fan I am. I can watch it literally all day. I watch it whether or not one of my favorite players is playing. I love watching the players construct the points, I love watching them succeed and fail in executing their shots, and I love watching to see if they have the mental toughness it takes to keep it together in the match's difficult and intense moments. The one thing I do not love about tennis, especially about attending it live, is that it's a sport for fancy people and thus, you have to behave yourself in certain ways as a spectator. This is not true for the Davis Cup. Attending a round of Davis Cup matches, which is called a "tie" for reasons that are unclear to me (though it seems to be borrowed from cricket), is the major exception to the etiquette rules. When you watch Davis Cup on TV, you can tell the crowds get really loud. The chair umpires have to quiet them down. Now that I've seen a home Davis Cup tie for myself, the closest comparison I can draw is to say that it is like attending a home playoff series in a major American sport, if one team was allowed to be the home team for the entire series. Your team needs to win 3 of 5 matches to advance and avoid elimination, so the tension is high, but so is the excitement. They give out thundersticks, GO USA signs that also double as noisemakers, and red white and blue pom-pons that also have a noisemaking clicker built inside. This means that attending these matches might be the only chance I get to demonstrate in a physical way how much I love and enjoy watching this sport. I wasn't just allowed to scream at the top of my lungs, clap until my hands hurt, and jump out of my chair in excitement-- I was joined in these behaviors by 17,000 other people.
It was the best, even though Team USA lost all three of the singles matches they played. First, Mardy Fish lost to Feliciano Lopez, 4-6 6-3 3-6 7-6(2) 6-8. Then, Andy Roddick lost to David Ferrer, 6-7(9) 5-7 3-6. If Mardy had beaten Ferrer on Sunday, it would have extended the tie to the equivalent of a playoff series Game 7 between Roddick and Lopez, but Fish lost that match 5-7 6-7(3) 7-5 6-7(5). The combination of these losing efforts and the unique atmosphere of Davis Cup helped me realize, though, just how many exciting moments there can be in a tennis match, even in a losing effort. Mardy had trouble taking advantage of the opportunities he had to win both matches, but he kept fighting. I don't know how he managed to mentally stay in the match on Sunday. It was unbelievable to watch. If I'm being unbiased, I also have to admit it was quite impressive to watch Ferrer finally put Mardy away despite his refusal to give in. Andy's scoreline looks like a pretty straightforward win for Ferrer, but the play was more even than the score reveals. Andy came out with his forehand and serve blazing, and he was not behind in the first set until set point. Though Andy has developed a more well-rounded game in recent years than he had when he won the 2003 US Open, I've started to feel like he has forgotten about the weapons that got him to the #1 ranking in the first place. So I loved seeing him play high risk tennis, even if the risk did not pay off in this particular match. (I only start to get a little depressed about the loss if I begin to think of how huge it would have been for him to win it, or to have the chance to win again to clinch the tie on Sunday. Those wins would have been, I think, a complete rebirth for Andy's career, because he loves Davis Cup and Austin is his adopted hometown... but they didn't happen.)
Watching tennis live with Billy is easily one of my very favorite things to do. Attending this tie with him could quite literally be the best time I have watching tennis in my entire life. It may be my only chance, ever, to watch my favorite sport while acting like the type of enthusiastic fan I like to be. I was glad that I was able to keep sight of that throughout the weekend, even though I was initially disappointed that Rafael Nadal decided not to represent Spain and even though the scores were not turning out the way I'd hoped. The other thing that never left my mind was that I had decided to attend this tie because we had been unable to attend the Australian Open. I know that if Dad could have seen how happy I was while sitting in the stands, he would have been thrilled that he figured so importantly into my decision to go. He would have understood that to go see Andy, Mardy, and the Bryan Brothers play tennis, live, with Billy, while being allowed to cheer loudly, was exactly what I needed for me to feel like me again... but I didn't know it until it happened.
-Speaking of the Bryan Brothers, they gave us our one singularly thrilling victory of the weekend. Bob and Mike Bryan are identical twins from Camarillo, California, and they are the best doubles team of all time. They've won more titles than any other team in history, and by winning Wimbledon a few weeks ago, they tied the current record of 12 doubles major championships. They're only 33, which is still fairly young for doubles players, so they'll likely win quite a few more titles before they're done. But they're a doubles team, so they're not nearly as famous as all of these accolades might suggest. A few years ago, the ATP tried to do away with doubles competition altogether, and the Bryans played a significant role in keeping the competition afloat. They are great ambassadors for the game, and they love Davis Cup because they grew up watching it and they get excited about representing their country. I imagine they also love doubles because this is the time they get more exposure than any other time. Davis Cup ties feature two singles matches on Friday, one doubles match on Saturday, and two singles matches on Sunday. Since they sell tickets for the whole series, not individual days or matches, Davis Cup is the only time the Bryans get to be the featured match in front of a huge sell-out crowd. They perform well under this pressure, and prior to the Austin match, they were 18-2 in Davis Cup play. Since they play the third match of the tie, they have the chance to keep the team's hopes alive by winning even if the US loses the first two singles matches, as they did this time around.
I had no doubt that the Bryans were going to beat Fernando Verdasco and Marcel Granollers in Saturday's doubles match, even when they lost the first set tiebreaker. From that point onward, they were fairly dominant. I love watching doubles tennis, and this was the first time I'd gotten to see a best of 5 doubles match live. Points are played more quickly in doubles, so the games and sets tend to go by quickly, and I really enjoyed getting to watch four whole sets of competitive doubles tennis. Because our singles players were playing from behind the entire time, watching the Bryans and feeling confident that they were steering toward victory was exciting in a different way. Knowing how much they love the game and seeing how amped they were to play the match in front of so many enthusiastic fans made it an even more enjoyable experience. In the post-match interview, they said this was the best atmosphere they had ever played in. It's possible that they say that after every home Davis Cup win, but it enhanced my sense that being there to see that match was a chance to be a part of something special.
-We had to eat several meals at concession stands inside the arena, but when we got to choose meals for ourselves we tried to sample the various types of food Austin has to offer. Like Portland, Austin is home to quite a few gourmet food trucks, but we couldn't bring ourselves to sample any of their food because it would have required us to eat outside, sweating, in the near 100 degree heat. We enjoyed Tex Mex food at Iron Cactus, had a good meal at Vespaio while deciding we are just not sophisticated enough to appreciate fine dining, and tried Texas barbeque at Stubb's. We went to Stubb's BBQ because I thought someone had recommended it to me, and maybe someone did, but when we were accompanied by quite a few other tennis fans, I wondered if I had heard of this restaurant because it might be the place where Andy Roddick hosted a reception the day after his wedding. (Google confirms this to be the case.) Over the first turkey I had been able to eat in months, Billy said "Thank you for coming to Austin with me." As if I was doing him some kind of favor by agreeing to this vacation destination... when in reality, we were there because he had graciously agreed to do everything I wanted to do. He let me choose each place I wanted go, and then he walked around the city with me for miles so we could accomplish everything I'd planned.
So that's about it, I think. Thanks for indulging my ruminations on our trip. If I had to sum it up more succinctly, I'd say:
I loved Austin. I loved seeing Davis Cup tennis live. I love my husband. I loved having the chance to spend one last vacation alone together while we wait anxiously for the two of us to become the three of us. I loved knowing that my dad would have been tickled, to borrow one of his words, that he played a large role in our decision to take a trip that turned out to be so therapeutic.
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