The Other Side of Tired

Here's the Cliffs Notes version of the blog post I want to write today:

Remember how I briefly mentioned the Australian Open final yesterday?  Did you watch it?  What can anyone say about it, except that it was literally unbelievable?  That it made me proud to be a tennis fan?  That it made me marvel, yet again, at what the human mind and human body are capable of accomplishing?  Here's what Andy Roddick said about it:

Last week, I mentioned that one of the mantras I repeat in my head is That's where you are going to know yourself.  On the other side of tired.  As I wrote a couple years ago, it comes from Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open.  He told his trainer, Gil Reyes, that chasing dreams is so tiring, and that was Gil's response.  Yesterday, we got a new tennis image of what that kind of self-knowing tiredness looks like:

image via

I was cheering for Djokovic to win.  I used to like him because he was the underdog compared to Nadal and Federer, and I'm amazed by how he has managed to completely usurp them in the past year+.  I was also cheering for him to win because he had to serve second in the fifth set, which is a huge disadvantage.  If Nadal had broken Djokovic, the match would have been over.  When Djokovic broke Nadal, he still had to win his service game to win the match, which meant Nadal had a chance to even the score.  You might recall that when Federer beat Roddick in the 2009 Wimbledon final, Federer got to serve first, which meant that when he broke Roddick for the first time in the entire match, it was game-set-match-championship to Federer.  No chance for Roddick to break back.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked, and Nora is going to wake up soon.  And if she doesn't, I should spend the next 30 minutes reading.  So what I really want to say is this: when Rafa and Nole were standing there during the trophy presentation, you couldn't tell who had won and who had lost.  All you could tell was that both players had given everything they had.  Even though they had just been executing unbelievable athleticism a few minutes ago, and someone was about to hand them each a huge check and a trophy or a dish, they were so exhausted that they could not even stand.  I watched that whole trophy presentation, waiting for Djokovic to raise the trophy above his head, as is customary.  He couldn't do it.  In other sports, they talk about "leaving it all out on the field."  I've never seen a better demonstration of that cliche.  Djokovic used to have a bad reputation on the tour for being unfit, for calling the trainer to give himself a break, and for retiring from matches when he should have played them out.  I think he found himself on the other side of tired.

So I'm going to try to imagine this image every time I start to feel tired or exhausted over the next few weeks.  We'll see how that works out.

Almost Back to School

Since Nora turned three months old, I have been working on savoring my last week at home with her while also getting ready for my return to work.  This means we've continued working on helping her learn to nap, and she has even been successful at self-soothing several times.  She is making good progress, but I wouldn't call it steady-- she'll sleep well for several days in a row before having a setback of a day or two.  I'm hoping that as we keep with it, and as she grows older, she'll get better and better at falling asleep and staying asleep.

We've also managed to watch a little bit of the Australian Open, though not nearly as much as I normally manage to see.  I was disappointed for Andy Roddick when an injury forced him to retire from his match against Lleyton Hewitt, and I'm also disappointed that for the first time in a long time, there are no American men around for week two of a Grand Slam tournament.

We have also been preparing to leave Nora under others' care.  Vickie babysat her last week so I could go in for a check-up with my doctor, and Patti, Chuck, and Brian watched her on Monday so Billy and I could have a few hours to ourselves.  We had a good time getting lunch together, and then we had no idea what to do with ourselves!  I finally decided to make the leap to a smartphone, though, so we ended up doing some phone shopping.  My phone has an app that puts cool "artsy" looking filters on photos, so here are a few pictures I've taken since I got it.

As you can see, Nora is getting very good at bringing her hands to her mouth! : )  She was relatively well behaved during her time away from us, both with Vickie and with her grandparents, so I am hoping my transition back to work will not be too difficult.  It is a big comfort to know she will be in such good hands while I am away-- Patti will be watching her for a few hours on Mondays and Fridays, and Billy will have her for a few hours on Wednesdays.  It makes me nervous to leave her because I worry about leaving other people to deal with her more difficult moods.  I know that in the long run, she will probably have an easier time with the transition than I will, it will be good for both of us to have some time apart, and I will enjoy getting back to my own work.  But if I think too much about how much is going to change in the next few weeks, I start to feel very overwhelmed, so I am trying to promise myself I will just try to take it one day at a time.

Though I wish I had a few more weeks at home, I am looking forward to getting back to campus.  I get to return under pretty ideal circumstances, so I think that will help me make the transition.  As I continue preparing for my comprehensive exams, I'll get to work as a teaching assistant for the professor who co-directed my Master's project and is directing my exam committee.  I am looking forward to the course, which is in my research area, and I've been working with this professor for a long time, so I am really excited to be back in the classroom.  He has two young children, he's been very encouraging about my decision to have a baby, and he can't wait to meet Nora, so I am very appreciative for that support, too.

There are a few mantras that have kept me going as I've worked my way through particularly difficult semesters and long runs in the past.  I hope these phrases will continue to serve me well in the next few weeks...

Nothing to it but to do it.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

The only way out is through.


That's where you are going to know yourself.  On the other side of tired.

Just Keep Playing.

Preparation

I haven't updated in a while because I feel like I haven't been doing much of anything that might interest anyone.  Mostly I have been hanging out with Billy and trying to enjoy the peace, quiet, and slower pace of these last few weeks before our time alone together with Oscar becomes "the old days."  In case you're curious what we've been up to, though, here goes.

The baby and I are doing well.  We had another OB visit this week, which confirmed that she continues to grow healthily.  The nurse thinks the baby is head down already, which corroborates my sense about her position based on the movements I feel constantly.  I really enjoy feeling her move, and it is fun to feel pressure on the inside and be able to tell it is probably her foot by feeling my belly with my hand.  She weighs about 5 pounds now and it certainly feels like I'm carrying a 5 pound child around inside my body.  I'm getting fairly uncomfortable, and the frequency of her movements makes it even harder to get comfortable.  I try to remind myself that she's probably pretty uncomfortable in there too, so we're in this together, except that at least I know what's going on.

We enjoyed a nice labor day weekend.  With it came the first Navy football game of the year versus Delaware, which the Mids won 40-17.  The day was beautiful but hot.  I was glad when the game began and took my mind off of my discomfort, and I was glad again when some cloud cover appeared during the second half to cool me down.  There are two more games I should be able to attend, and I think Vickie might even be able to join us for one of them, so I'm hoping the weather will be a bit cooler next time.  We have our south end zone seats again this year, where plenty of touchdowns were scored, so it was another exciting game.  The team has had a dominant quarterback for the past two seasons, but he graduated, so it was fun to see that his replacement is likely to do well.  Here he is rushing for a touchdown.

After a few weeks of not working, I guess I am settling into my "maternity leave."  I am glad most of my maternity leave will be spent with a baby because I am bored.  I don't miss working, but I miss being on campus and being in the mix of everything.  It was hard to see all my friends go back to school and realize this is the first time since I was 4 that I did not participate in the ritual.  Thankfully, I have been able to stay a little bit involved.  The one credit theory colloquium class I attend every semester is open to everyone, registered or not, and there are three sessions scheduled before the baby's due date, so I have long planned on continuing to attend those.  There are normally about 10 or 15 people in attendance, so when around 40 people showed up for the first session, I was quite shocked.  Then I began getting nervous because I am due to present a paper on Katherine Anne Porter at the next session on September 23.  Everyone will read the paper and a few complementary articles beforehand, and then I'll spend about an hour answering questions about the paper and the project.  It's a great opportunity to get feedback on your work, and I have been looking forward to it since I made the arrangements with my professor in the spring.  But even if only half as many people show up for my session, that means a lot of really smart people who spend most of their time reading really smart things will have read my paper, but I am trying to avoid developing too much anxiety about it.

I miss my dad.  I missed him when I got the email about this year's "Staff Development Day," which reminded me that my required attendance at this event last year ruined the trip home to Oregon I'd planned. As it turns out, that trip would have been the last time I got to spend time with him while he was "healthy."  I missed him when there were no text messages on my phone after the Navy football game.  I missed him when I thought about his friends gathering with our family in Lompoc with for the LHS alumni golf tournament.  I miss him when notable events like that one remind me just how many people are missing him and how much less laughter there must be in the world now that he is gone.  I missed him when the Oregon Ducks started the season in a highly anticipated, nationally televised game and I realized he had been alive for their last one.  I missed him when I realized that the first few days of a Grand Slam are still difficult for me to watch because they remind me of how excited I was about the Australian Open but how quickly the plans for that trip went from all of us going, to me and Billy going, to none of us going, to watching it in Dad's house on his TV while we packed up his stuff.  I miss hearing what he thinks about Federer's performance so far in the tournament, and if Fed ends up winning it, as I think he has a decent chance of doing, I will miss hearing Dad say you should never count out a champion with a killer instinct.  When people share their excitement about the baby with me, I know my dad would have shared it, but I miss experiencing in real life the ways I know in my head and heart that he would have acted.  I miss hearing how glad he would have been to have Nate back in Bend and how much he would have enjoyed meeting Ashley. I miss how proud he would have been of the work Vickie is doing and how much he would have been looking forward to her upcoming trip to Portland.  I miss him in moments when I expect to miss him and in moments when it catches me completely off guard.

Otherwise, I've been keeping busy by watching the US Open, trying to get some reading done, going to the gym, and continuing to get the baby's room ready.

It was fun to see Andy Roddick turn in several strong performances this tournament, especially since he has been plagued by injuries this summer.  He even beat #5 ranked David Ferrer, to whom we watched him lose while we were in Austin.  I thought he had a chance to make it competitive against Nadal yesterday, but he looked absolutely spent from the time the first ball dropped... and Nadal looked like Nadal.  After watching the way the matches have gone as a result of weather delays, I have a new appreciation for what a best of 5 set match does to the body.

As for reading, I've finally finished Katherine Anne Porter's 500 page novel, Ship of Fools, which means I've read all the fiction she published.  It also means I can join the ranks of everyone who thinks she was at her best when writing short fiction.  I've now moved onto Bonnie Kime Scott's The Gender of Modernism anthology.  The experience of reading this is equal parts "wow, this is fascinating!" and "dang it, I thought I was going to make that point in my dissertation, and someone else said it 20 years ago."

I still try to get to the gym about four days a week, and I've had to cut out a few of my lifting exercises as my body changes.  I spend about the same amount of time there, though, because I have to give myself more time between sets to prevent my heart rate from getting too high.  At some point I may need to stop the weights altogether and stick with walking, but I'm not there yet, and I'm getting so strong!  It used to be a little hard to lift a gallon of milk, but now I feel like I could throw one across the room, overhand.  My discomfort may be increasing, but overall I feel very fortunate that once I got help with the nausea, I've had a pretty healthy pregnancy. I think that is at least partly a result of being in good shape when I conceived and trying to stay active throughout.

And the baby's room is almost done.  Now that we have all of her things, we have a better idea of how much storage we're going to need, so we decided to use the money we've been gifted to get a new dresser and bookshelf for the room.  We are picking up the glider chair from Jay and Allen next weekend, and Mom is working on sewing us a window valance and a crib skirt with the fabric we picked out.  Once we get those pieces in place, the room will finally be ready, so we are looking forward to shooting a quick video of how it looks for those of you who won't be able to see it in person.  For now, though, here are a couple photos of the newest additions, carefully assembled by yours truly.  (I may be the only person in the world who enjoys assembling furniture.)

Oh, and we've survived all the bad weather relatively unscathed.  Since Sunday, Billy's weather station has registered 8.93 inches of rain, which is about twice what we normally get for the whole month of September.  Since all of this arrived after the ground was well saturated from Hurricane Irene, the low lying areas near us are having a really tough time with flooding.  Billy found the picture below, which shows that the restaurant where we held our wedding reception is under water.  We feel fortunate that the worst effect we've suffered is a few hours of lost power.

That's it from here, I think.  If you've made it this far without getting bored to death by my ramblings, you deserve a reward, so please check out how adorable and funny Krista's girls are.  If our little girl is born on time, her arrival is under 40 days away.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

(Preparation is a short story from a Robert Olen Butler collection I love, titled A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain.  If you like short fiction, I recommend all of his collection, and his novels are pretty good, too.  Some of the short story collections have really fascinating themes, like the one he wrote based on the inscriptions on vintage postcards he collects (Had a Good Time) and the one based the stories on real tabloid headlines (Tabloid Dreams).

Breaking Back

In tennis, it is such a big advantage to serve that you are expected to win every game in which you're serving.  When you win your own service game, it's called a "hold."  When you lose your service game, they call it being "broken."  I don't know the origins of these terms unless the "service break" refers to a break in the expected pattern of the server winning each game.  Since the players alternate service games, and a two game lead is needed to win a set, the set is usually won when a player breaks his opponent's serve at least once.  If no one breaks, the set goes to a special game called a tiebreaker, unless it is the final set of the match, when some tournaments require the play to continue until one player gets the two game advantage.

The best thing you can do when you've been broken is to win your opponent's next service game, which is called "breaking back."  This nullifies the advantage your opponent achieved by breaking you and puts the set back "on serve."  It also stops the momentum shift that is likely to occur when your opponent wins three straight games.  When you break back, you essentially even the score, though you may still be down by a game if your opponent served first.  You'll have to break again if you want to win the set before the tiebreak, but at least you are no longer playing from behind.

I am explaining all of this because I turn 29 today, and the best way I can think to describe the past year is that while 28, I was broken.  Sometimes in tennis you're broken when you play a loose game, or you let the other player get in your head, or you make too many unforced errors.  This was not the case for me.  Figuratively speaking, I came into 28 with a careful game plan, a good support team, proper training, and excellent conditioning.  I played the best tennis I could play while I was 28.  I pulled off shots that would have been clean winners at any other point in my life, but the balls kept coming back until I couldn't return them.  I maintained my mental focus.  I even hit a few serves that would have been aces in different games, but this time they were converted into returns that were shoved down my throat.  I was broken despite my best intentions and my best execution of those intentions.  And I was broken badly.

For the past few years I thought I would have some anxiety about turning 29.  I am not really worried about turning 30, because I'm looking forward to what my 30s have in store for me.  But I thought my 29th birthday might trigger the feeling that I was running out of time to accomplish all the things I'd expected to do in my 20s.  But this is not the case.  I am so ready to say good riddance to 28 that I welcome 29 with open arms.  I am glad this service game is over.  I do not like getting broken any more than I thought I would.  And 29 means a chance to break back.

Losing my dad was the most profoundly difficult of the several difficult experiences I endured while I was 28.  I hope that in the years to come, when I look back on 28, the pride I feel in how I played will grow stronger than the sting I've suffered from being broken so badly.  But despite any success I might have in recovering some positive sentiment for 28, it will always be the year in which I lost my dad.  It will always be the year in which I was broken.

This makes me extra thankful for my birthday this year. I can already see that 29 will be include important opportunities for me to break back.  One of the things I love about tennis and about life is that they both afford chances to stop, reset, and start over.  Everything else aside, if the baby and I make it through her birth happy and healthy, 29 will always be the age at which Billy and I had our first child.  If you read my Dad's blog, you know that he often relied on sporting metaphors to explain his experiences and his attitude about them.  In our family, this is why we love sports.  Sports give us a way of understanding our experiences and sharing them with others.  The tennis analogy feels perfect because breaking back is a hugely significant accomplishment, and at the same time, it is only the first step of many towards coming from behind to win the match.  Now that I've been broken, there is nothing else to do but just keep playing until I get the chance to break back.

(I can't claim to have drawn this parallel between life and "breaking back" myself; I first discovered it when I read James Blake's autobiography, which he titled Breaking Back.  In the book, Blake describes how fracturing his neck gave him the unexpected opportunity to spend plenty of time with his father as his father died of cancer, and how he subsequently had to overcome a debilitating case of shingles before returning to the ATP tour.)

Come to Win

We've had a busy week!  Last Saturday, we spent the day with Billy's family in Chestertown, Maryland at Billy's Uncle Gary's brother's house (did you get that?).  Jacelyn and Allen were house and dog sitting, and since the house is right on the Chester river, Gary's brother encouraged them to invite the family down for a mini-vacation.  He even arranged for a friend of his to deliver fresh crabs caught in the Chester river that morning!  I didn't have any, but everyone else said the crabs were delicious.  We all had a great time checking out the shops in Chestertown's small down downtown, hanging out at the pool, eating, and relaxing in the giant yard.  This was the first time Billy and I have seen Cash and Lily in a few months, and both of them are getting so big!  Cash turns three in October, and he took a break from the slide and diving board long enough to let me know that wants me to hurry up and have the baby that's in my belly.  Lily turns one next month, so she doesn't know it yet, but she is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her new partner in crime.  She is such an affectionate and happy baby that she makes it easy to look forward to having a little girl of our own soon!  It was so nice to feel like we "got away" for the day while still being able to sleep in our own bed that evening!

Regular readers of the blog will remember that for the past several years, I've spent the first week of August at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic at Rock Creek Park in DC.  It is my favorite week of the year, but even my non-pregnant body has a hard time spending seven straight days sitting on a bleacher in extreme heat, so I knew we'd need to scale back our attendance this year.  Rather than buying tickets for the whole week, we decided to go on Thursday for the third round and Friday for the quarterfinal matches.  This turned out to be a good year to attend fewer matches because Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish both had to withdraw due to injuries and there were quite a few rain delays.

My friend Anne-Marie has come with me for the past two years, and Billy and I were glad to have her and her husband Jon join us for Thursday evening's session.  It was fun to have another couple to chat with during the matches, and since Jon played tennis in college, it was interesting for me to hear a player's perspective on the matches.  We got to see Stepanek defeat Niemenen and Verdasco defeat Davydenko on the Grandstand court, which I love, because you get to see the action right up close.  We also caught most of Monfils' win over Tursunov, but that was a less competitive match.

with Billy and Anne-Marie at the tournament in 2009

On Friday, Billy and I got to see all four quarterfinal matches on the stadium court, and since I didn't think I could sit out in the blazing sun for twelve hours, we sprung for the undercover seats.  This kept me comfortable enough to last through the whole session, which was great, because the matches I wanted to see most were the first and last.  It also meant we were closer to the action than we normally are on the stadium court, so that also made the upgrade exciting, too.

I like Fernando Verdasco, so I was hoping he would beat Stepanek, but he didn't play his best.  Then we watched Donald Young of the USA reach his first ATP semi-final by defeating Marcos Baghdatis.  I am not a Donald Young fan because I've been disappointed in his attitude and behavior in years past, but he did play well and deserved to win the match.  The third match was between two big servers, John Isner and Viktor Troicki, and that is not my favorite style of play to watch.  I was pleasantly surprised, however, that there were more baseline rallies than I was expecting, and I was happy to see Isner advance.  The final match between Gael Monfils and Janko Tipsarevic is the one I was really looking forward to, and though Monfils won in straight sets, the match did not disappoint.  Tipsarevic is a determined grinder, and Monfils is an unbelievable athlete, so it was fun to watch them continue to return balls that would have been clean winners against other opponents.  In the end, Tipsarevic was just outmatched.

Next year we'll have the baby, and most of the top players are going to be playing in the Olympics during the Legg Mason tournament, so I don't know how likely we are to attend many of the matches in person.  But since taking in the matches with Billy is something I look forward to all year, I am so glad my body, stamina, and the weather cooperated with our plans for this year. 

Vickie has returned from her most recent travels and had a break in her busy work schedule, so last night Billy and I met her at her apartment before the three of us got dinner in Canton square.  It was fun to catch up with her, fill her in on what we've been up to, and talk to her about Wednesday's first childbirth class with the doula (more on that later!).  She also stopped by the house on her way home from church today to pick up her mail and visit Oscar, so she caught me in the middle of my weekend baby project.  The vinyl wall decal I ordered to bring the purple and green color scheme together arrived earlier in the week, so I spent the day applying that to the wall.  I am really happy with how it turned out, and I like that it gives the room some personality and makes it feel more like a baby's room without being permanent.  It's a little hard to tell, but the tree is dark green and the leaves are two different shades of purple.

We have a busy couple of weeks ahead, as well.  We continue our childbirth classes every Wednesday night, and next weekend is the Crab Feast Billy's family attends every year.  The following weekend Aunt Carrie is coming to visit us and Billy's family is throwing us a baby shower, so we are excited about both of those events!  I've decided that I'm going to stop working the following week, so I'll be busy at the office between now and then trying to get as much done as possible before I leave.  That should give me about six weeks at home to take care of final preparations (and hopefully get some reading accomplished!) before the baby's due date.  It's hard to believe she's going to be here so soon!

(Come to Win is Venus Williams's compilation of essays written by former athletes and others about the ways they believe participating in sports helped them in their professional lives.  I haven't read it yet, but I'd like to, because I certainly believe that my life has been shaped by the time I've spent playing and watching sports.)

The Land of Little Rain, Part 2

Our trip to Austin was too memorable to fit in one post, so here goes part two!  For some reason, my first Austin post didn't show up in my Google Reader.  If you missed it, you can read that here.  As I wrote before, to me Austin felt like a place where simple moments were unexpectedly memorable, so I've decided to recap the trip by writing about some of these types of moments.

-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.

The Land of Little Rain, Part 1

A few months ago, when the USTA announced that the USA vs. Spain Davis Cup quarterfinal round would be held in Austin, Texas over our anniversary weekend, I knew we had to go.  I've wanted to attend the Davis Cup for several years because it is the one time that tennis fans get to cheer wildly for their country's best players.  I've wanted to go to Austin ever since people began telling me I would love it there.  Billy and I try to take a vacation for our anniversary every year rather than exchanging gifts, but the two of us haven't had a vacation alone since 2008.  This year, a tennis-centric vacation felt appropriate, since Dad was unable to take us on the trip to the Australian Open we had all been looking forward to for a year.  I could hear him in my head insisting that we go. And we needed a vacation in the worst way.

Now that we've returned from our Austin trip, I have been trying to figure out how I can write about it to share the experience with everyone.  I thought about writing a synopsis of what we saw and did every day, but that seemed too boring, too linear, and too un-Austin-ish.  For me, Austin feels like a notable city because it is a place where unexpected moments feel a little bit magic.  Or, at least, it is a place that enabled me to recognize the magic in these unexpected moments.  So rather than trying to capture everything, I thought I'd try to write about those moments.

- On Thursday morning, we took a tour of the Capitol building, which was only a few blocks from our hotel room.  I enjoyed learning about the building and was interested in the mini Texas history lesson we got from our tour guide.  We looked up at the star inside the top of the dome, and I couldn't believe it was eight feet across.  But it wasn't until later that evening, when we were walking back to the hotel just past sundown, that I looked up at the Capitol and thought, Wow.  It was already illuminated, and you could just barely tell that it's a rose colored limestone rather than the white kind we're used to seeing in DC.  The sky was a beautiful, darkening blue, and the trees that line the entrance already looked black.  In that moment, it made sense to me why we build monuments and why we pay to keep them air conditioned and lit up at night.

- The tennis tournament got underway on Friday afternoon, and it began with an "opening ceremony" during which both teams were introduced.  Waiting for the matches to begin made me reflect on how I never would have splurged to take this trip if it hadn't been for the missed trip to Australia.  I'd like to say Billy and I will go to Australia some other time, because I know Dad would want us to, but I really can't see us doing it-- not when there are college tuition bills to pay down the road.  So I stood there during the opening fanfare, trying to keep it together while thinking about my dad, about how sorry I am for all of us that we didn't get to take that Australia trip, and about how glad he would be that we were taking this one.  Then they brought out Freddie Couples to do the coin toss.  So far as I know, Freddie Couples has no link to Austin or the Davis Cup.  But he does have a link to my childhood.  I grew up watching him with my dad on TV, and we both liked that he never wears golf gloves. I can remember seeing him in person when my dad used to take me to PGA tournaments.  So somehow, it both made perfect sense and made absolutely no sense to have him flip the coin.  All I could think when I saw him take his seat (right on the aisle, in my section) is how fun it would have been to ask him for a picture so I could text it to Dad with just the caption, "Look who I found!"

- Austin markets itself as the "live music capital of the world," so although I have what must be the least refined musical tastes of anyone I know, I wanted to see a live show while we were there.  A few weeks before we went, I was checking out different music venues when I discovered that Marc Broussard was playing at a blues club on the first night of our trip.  I bought his CD in 2004 because I liked his single big hit, "Home," and because I really liked the rest of the CD, I have bought each of his CDs since.  I've been trying to see him for a few years, but he always comes through DC and Baltimore on weeknights when I can't go.  I couldn't believe that of all nights, and all the places on tour, I'd be able to see him in Austin.  Billy and I were surprised to discover we enjoyed the Austin based opening band named Alpha Rev, but since the club had no chairs, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stand long enough to hear much of Marc Broussard's set.  When he came out, though, he was so good, and I enjoyed the show so much, that for a while I completely forgot about being uncomfortable.  I don't normally consider myself a concert-going type person, but I loved hearing him live.  He had a group of Austin-based horn players join him during quite a few of the songs, and that made the songs I sing along with in my car sound even better.  Billy and I also took advantage of the great opportunity for people watching, and we couldn't believe the wide variety of "types" of people who were all enjoying the same music.  It felt like we were really getting to experience an authentic Austin moment, especially when Broussard thanked the audience and said that Austin is always the best show on the tour.

- Austin's unofficial slogan is "Keep Austin Weird."  From what I understand, the Keep Austin Weird movement began as one that tried to highlight the city's unique features, to support local businesses, and to fight what locals saw as the growing commercialization of their city.  I've heard that the Keep Austin Weird movement has since been commercialized, but I still like the spirit of it.  (So did Portlanders, who were either inspired to copy it or directly ripped it off, depending on how you see it.)  Hands down, the weirdest thing I experienced in Austin was watching the Congress Avenue Bridge Bats.  Over 1.5 million bats make their summer home beneath this bridge that spans Town Lake, and every evening they leave at the same time to go somewhere else to feed.  First, we watched them from a park below the bridge.  Thinking they were done, we walked up on the bridge to head to the hotel, but there were still a lot of people up there, and the sightseeing boats that give people a view from the lake were still sitting in the water.  Plus, we could still hear the bats (and smell them!) beneath the bridge, so we waited too, and watched the second wave of the exodus from directly above.  And this was, for lack of a better word, exceptionally weird.  I stood there with Billy thinking, Well, chalk this up as a way I never anticipated spending my anniversary evening.  But if sometimes the most memorable things are those you never expected to enjoy, this was definitely one of those moments.  The bats are about the size of your thumb, and they are in a hurry, so my still photos don't really capture what seeing them is like.  I did take this short video, though, which does a better job-- especially if you figure out how to view it full screen.

-Speaking of keeping Austin weird, you see people wearing t-shirts with this slogan on them everywhere you go.  I'm not much of a souvenir buyer, so I didn't really consider purchasing one.  During some downtime at the tennis matches, though, I decided it would be fun to buy a "Keep Austin Weird" onesie for the baby if I could find one.  Then I decided that this onesie should be tie-dyed, though I don't know why, because I hadn't seen any tie-dyed t-shirts.  I told Billy about wanting the onesie, so the next time we were wandering around 6th Street, he suggested we stop into a small t-shirt shop.  After admiring their line of tees featuring cartoon dachshunds and hilariously bad "weiner" puns (i.e. "My weiner wants to come out and play"), we found the Keep Austin Weird section, and what do you know!  They had Baby D's souvenir.  : )  Thankfully, the weiner shirts were not available in infant sizes.

This post was getting quite long, so I've split it in two.  Check back soon to read about the other memorable moments we experienced on our trip.

(The Land of Little Rain is a short story collection written by Mary Austin, so although its subject matter is the desert lands in California rather than Texas, I couldn't resist the title.  And even if it's not about the same land of little rain as the one we visited, it is most certainly a text about place, and about the importance of place and landscape, so it still felt appropriate.)

It's the Little Things

I realized it's been a while since I last wrote, and I thought I'd give a brief update on daily life in the Liz/Billy/Vickie/Oscar house.  It's been a crazy busy couple of weeks for me in terms of schoolwork, but I've been trying to stop and savor the nice little moments along the way.

Yesterday, to commemorate three months since we lost Dad, I thought I was finally ready to listen to the CD of "Wedding Ideas" songs he made me before Billy and I got married.  I remembered a few of the songs he'd put on there, but most of them I'd forgotten.  I cried softly most of my way into work, but every couple of tracks he had inserted something goofy, including "The Chicken Dance," which made me laugh.  On my way home after a long day, "Miss You Like Crazy" came on at the end of the CD, and I started to cry so hard I had to pull over.  I realize it's a love song, not a father/daughter song, but I know why my Dad put it on there.  The way the tides have turned since his death hit me really hard, and then I realized it was Natalie Cole singing.  Since she sang the daughter half of "Unforgettable" (an earlier track on the CD, which Dad and I danced to at the wedding), it was all just too much for me.

Most of yesterday was better.  I told Billy that someone must have sent out a memo saying it was designated Pat-Liz-on-the-Back Day.  When I went in to the coffee room, one of our notoriously curmudgeonly professors made a point of telling me what a good job he thought I (and my group) had done presenting questions and leading discussion during our Theory Colloquium on Friday.  Since he is a nice guy but so hard to impress, and since Theory Colloquium is generally such a brain busting experience for me, I appreciated the sentiment.  Later, one of my current professors stopped by the business office to ask a question, after which she reminded me that I had to be ready to lead discussion for 10 minutes during class.  I said I would go first if no one else volunteered, which prompted a complimentary conversation about how I am always prepared.  She told me how much she appreciates that I do the reading each week and come to class ready to talk.  During the break in that class, I was chatting with a classmate from the Women's Studies program in the bathroom when she randomly said "I just wanted to tell you that I love listening to you in class.  Every time you talk I just think, 'yes!'"  I also found some great material for my research projects in the Katherine Anne Porter archives, so all in all it was a rare day of complete gratification.

A few other equally comforting and fun things have happened in the past few weeks, so I thought I'd share them, too, especially since they're the things I would have loved to talk to Dad about if he was still around.

A few weekends ago, before I met Danielle to catch up over breakfast, I stopped by the Annapolis Striders 10 mile race I wasn't running to pick up my award from last season.

I'm disappointed that I haven't felt up to competing in any of the races this year, but it was nice to get my first "trophy" since middle school and to be reminded that during a time when I had more control over my circumstances, I accomplished the goal I set for myself through sheer strength of will.  Breakfast with Danielle was refreshing, too, and left me feeling ready to head home to tackle another long day of homework.

Vickie invited me to look at an apartment complex in Baltimore with her.  I tried to keep my opinion to myself until she shared hers, but she liked it as much as I did, and she moves in at the end of the month.  The two bedroom apartment seems HUGE for a first apartment, the location is great, and she already has her first roommate lined up.  It has been fun to hear how much she likes her job at Hopkins, and I am looking forward to seeing how life unfolds for her.  If I was a 24 year old, young, professional female working in the city, I would love to live where she's living, so I can't wait to hear about all the fun she's going to have.  (And I don't think I'll mind visiting her at her pool, which is right on the harbor.)

We celebrated Billy's birthday in a low-key fashion, but the weather was nice, our moods were good, and for a few more months he and I are technically the same age, which means he can't call me old!  He also agreed to spend our anniversary weekend attending the US vs. Spain Davis Cup tie in Austin, Texas, which I am really excited about.  I've always wanted to watch Davis Cup tennis, I've always wanted to go to Austin, and it's been a while since Billy and I got to go away alone together, so I am really looking forward to the trip.

Baseball season opened and the Orioles are off to a promising start.  They've already won a bunch of games, and more importantly for me, they look like they are having fun out there.  They have been like a different team since Buck Showalter took over as their manager, and it makes being a fan much more fun.  It also makes me realize that one person really can make a big difference.

Each year the English department puts together an online-published journal of the best papers from English 101, which is the "intro to writing" course I taught in the fall.  When I realized that one of my students was among the 15 or so students whose papers were chosen to be included, I sent him an email to congratulate him on his accomplishment.  He wrote me back to thank me for all of my help with his papers, to tell me how much he got out of the class, and to say that I'm the first one who ever made English "exciting."  Maybe he caught me at a particularly fragile moment, but it made me cry.  So often students want to blame the teacher when they do poorly, but this was the first time a student wanted to give me part of the credit for his personal accomplishment.  Teachers are so rarely thanked for how much work they do, and students are much quicker to complain than to praise, so to hear all of that in one simple, kind email really touched my heart.  And reminded me why I keep wanting to teach... which was a good reminder to be given.

And, finally, when I plugged in my camera to get that photo of my trophy, I realized that because the camera has been sitting on the dresser for the past few weeks, I have several goofy shots of Oscar burrowed in the bed to share.  I don't know if anyone else finds these as amusing as I do, but he always helps me remember to stop and smile at the little things.  So happy Wednesday, everybody, from our house to yours.  I hope you're enjoying the little things along the way.

(I don't know anything about this book, It's the Little Things: An Appreciation of Life's Simple Pleasures, but I liked the title.)

The Deep End of the Ocean

Classes started this week.  In my first one, my professor said "Cold water, meet deep end."  No kidding.  I'm actually a fan of jumping unabashedly into the deep end, but this is all a bit much for me.  I'm treading furiously until I can get my bearings and adjust to my new schedule of teaching and studenting, but until then, I'm feeling completely overwhelmed.

So I've got pictures for you, instead of word vomit.

They were supposed to give us a sample syllabus for the course I teach, and I was fully planning to follow it.  Don't try to reinvent the wheel, I'm always trying to tell myself.  However, they still haven't done it, and I can't keep waiting forever.  So I found myself planning it like this:

I believe this to be bordering on certifiably insane.  But I have something even crazier to share.  This is a photo of my assignment book, for the assignments that were due this past week, which means they all had to be accomplished before classes had even begun:

And here's the list for next week.  Please note how few cross outs I have yet managed to accomplish.  Yet, I've been reading and planning almost non-stop since Tuesday morning.

Other news in brief: 

I dove for a ball in our softball game last night and tore open my knee.  A nasty scab is forming.  And I didn't even stop the ball.  And we played such a bad single inning that the game ended early on account of the slaughter rule.

Andy Roddick did me a favor by bowing out of the US Open in the second round, so I am no longer tempted to set aside my work for tennis watching.  Though yelling at a lineswoman for mixing up her right and left can hardly be considered "bowing."  I have a lot more to say about this but no time in which to say it.

Must get back to work. 

(The Deep End of the Ocean is a book by Jacquelyn Mitchard that I can remember reading back in the 90s when Oprah put it on her booklist.  I believe it fed nicely into my John Grisham crime novel obsession.)

Questions of Travel

image source

Dad bought our Australian Open tickets today!!  THANKS DAD!

He bought us passes for the first four days to Hisense Arena.  I think we'll be sitting somewhere under that red smudge in the corner of the photo above.  One perk of getting tickets for this court?  It has a roof that prevents rain/heat delays.  This past year, each of the following players had matches on this court during the first four days:

Andy Roddick (2x)

Venus Williams (2x)

Juan Martin del Potro (2x) 

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2x)

Dinara Safina (2x)

Serena Williams

Novak Djokovic

Justine Henin

Elena Dementieva

Fernando Verdasco

Jelena Jankovic

Caroline Wozniacki

James Blake

Marcos Baghdatis

David Ferrer

Taylor Dent

Plus, a Hisense pass allows you to see matches played on any of the outside courts, as well.  We're also hoping that by purchasing tickets for opening night in Rod Laver Arena, when the defending champion usually plays, we'll get to see Roger Federer.  (If not, it will likely be Rafael Nadal... not a bad replacement!)  The only players we're unlikely to see are Aussie favorites Lleyton Hewitt, Sam Stosur, and Kim Clijsters (who isn't even Australian but is still beloved down under because she used to be engaged to Hewitt).  They always play in Laver Arena.  But, I kind of think it would be more fun to watch one of these matches outside the stadium with this crowd, anyway.

image source

In related news, Andy Roddick made it to the semi-finals of the Cincy Masters tournament this week, despite admitting that he still doesn't feel 100% physically recovered from his mild case of mono.  He beat #5 Robin Soderling and #2 Novak Djokovic en route to the semis, where he lost to his BFF Mardy Fish, who is playing better tennis this summer than he ever has before.  (If you want to know my theory, I think Andy might have been less than devastated to let this one get away.  He served for the match in the second set, but Mardy broke him and then won the tiebreaker.  After that, I got the feeling that Andy knew he wouldn't be able to compete with Federer the next day given his level of fatigue, so losing to his best friend, who was playing well and had more energy, suddenly seemed like a not-so-bad idea.)  Mardy put up a good fight in the finals against Roger Federer, but lost 4-6 in the third set.  Can't wait to see what happens at the US Open!!

The Australian Open opens on January 17.  Just under 5 months to go!!!

("Questions of Travel" is a poem by Elizabeth Bishop in which she questions why we feel compelled to travel to distant locales.  Check out that link for the full text.  As for me, I know why I feel compelled to travel to distant locales during January-- it's summer and tennis season in Oz then!!  Do you remember what I was dealing with this past winter?!)

Hardcourt Confidential

Last week, I watched 21 tennis matches-- in person!  I realize that the desire to sit on a metal bleacher for six hours at a time probably sets me apart from most reasonable people, but the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Rock Creek Park is, for me, a small slice of paradise (though I might design paradise with more comfortable seating).  For the second year in a row, my birthday present from Billy was a pair of tickets for all 11 sessions over the course of the 9 days of the tournament.  I don't quite know how to explain why I love this tournament so much, but I'll try.  (And feel free to click any of the photos to enlarge them.)

 

 If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I love tennis, clothes, being out in the sun, and that I also love my husband and my friends but my schoolwork cuts into the time I get to spend with them.  The tennis tournament gives me the opportunity to combine all of these interests within driving distance of my home.  While the tournament has never attracted the current biggest names in the game, I still get to see quite a few top 20 players and plenty of high quality play.  The tournament is hot and outdoors, but it's still a pretty big social outing, and I enjoy observing all the different ways women choose to dress for the event.  I get to spend several whole days with my husband, whose love of the game is not as strong as mine but whose love of me compels him to sweat patiently on the bleacher beside me long after he'd otherwise be ready to head home.  For two years now I've also gotten to spend an evening at the tournament with Danielle and Anne-Marie, and having sixish straight hours to sit and chat with each of them is a luxury that's impossible during my regular in-semester schedule.  I have to admit I'm a little jealous that some people get to take in their sporting events periodically over the course of an entire season (and I get to do this with Navy football), but there's also something exciting about allowing the tournament to completely absorb my attention for an entire week that must be my version of what others experience during the NCAA basketball tournament.

 

Another reason to love this particular tournament is that Andy Roddick loves it, too.  He's won it three times, and he regularly says its his favorite stop on the US Open Series tour.  Maybe that's because the crowd loves him, or because he thrives in the heat, or because he's usually the top ranked player at the tournament.  Last year, he made it to the final and lost in the 3rd set tiebreaker to Juan Martin del Potro, whom you know went on to win the US Open itself.  This year, he didn't do so well.  He looked fine in his opening match, so I was glad Danielle got to see that one, but in his second match against Gilles Simon, he looked like this.

Honestly, the version of Andy that was on court that night was the opposite of everything I've come to love about Andy as a player and a person.  I've seen him play badly before, but I've never seen him slump in his chair and bury his head in his towel.  He's always the first one out of his chair on the changeover, but that night he was kept sitting there when the chair umpire called time.. each time.  It was depressing.  It was heartbreaking, really.  I was actually relieved when he announced after the match that he can't figure out why he hasn't been feeling like himself and is going to undergo some medical tests.  I hope it's mono or something that can be treated fairly easily.  There's one thing I love about Andy more than anything else, and it's that he fights to win until the last ball drops.  This wasn't that Andy.

That meant that this tournament also made me face the reality that Andy's best days might be behind him.  I hope that's not the case, but his losses here and at Wimbledon combined to make me realize that I may not always be able to cheer for someone whose playing style, attitude, and personality I so deeply relate to and appreciate.  And there might never be another active tennis player I like so much again.  What am I going to do when that happens? I asked myself.  Who will I cheer for once he's done?  Will I lose my interest in tennis?  These thoughts were even sadder than this sight: 

Thinking about what the ATP will be like post-Andy was sad, but his early exit also helped me realize that one of the things I really love about the game of tennis are the stories.  After Thursday night's rain delay, we got to sit in the third row up to see the match between Ryan Sweeting and Fernando Verdasco.  I've liked Verdasco since his impressive showing against Nadal at the Australian in 09, and I was excited to see him post such good results this spring after he spent some time working with Andre Agassi's trainer.  (I like this trainer even more after finding out that he says you "know yourself" "on the other side of tired.")  Plus, Verdasco's not bad looking.  Ryan Sweeting is 23 year old American who made his first big breakthrough in this tournament-- he made it in through qualifying, upset James Blake on stadium court in his first match, and beat Llodra for the chance to face Verdasco.  We realized early in the match that we were sitting only one row in front of his coach, so I really enjoyed observing their interaction.  I'm intrigued by the mental aspect of tennis as much as any other part of the game, so it was cool to see how Sweeting attempted to stay competitive against a top 10 opponent and how his coach tried to encourage him to keep his head in the game without breaking the "no on-court coaching" rule.  Afterwards, I googled the coach, Dustin Taylor, and found out that he was recently named the head American coach by the USTA and he graduated from Lakeridge in 2000.  Small world!  Sweeting lost a close 2 set match, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he fares at the US Open.

We also watched the beginning of the Mardy Fish/Marin Cilic match on the grandstand court, and though I saw Mardy win in the stadium earlier in the week, it was extra cool to see him up close.  He's having the best summer of his career (after losing something like 30 lbs and improving his fitness), and he lost this match in 3 sets, but he ended up winning the doubles title with Mark Knowles.  Truth be told, I wish we'd stayed to watch this match play out rather than heading inside to see Andy Roddick crumble, but hindsight is 20/20, right?

Another storyline I was excited to see firsthand was the return of the Bryan Brothers to this tournament, which they've won three times.  The weekend prior to the Legg Mason, Bob and Mike won their 62nd doubles title in LA (near their hometown of Camarillo), which broke the record for the most doubles titles won by any single team.  Anne-Marie and I got to watch them compete in a close opening match with this past year's NCAA doubles champions from UVA, and Billy and I got to see them play a competitive quarterfinal match that they eventually lost, eliminating our hopes of seeing them win #63.  I was never good enough at singles to learn much about the strategy involved, but I always did okay as a doubles player, so it is extra fun for me to watch the winningest team ever deploy the strategies I failed to execute in my own short-lived playing career.  : )

One big highlight of the week was meeting Patrick McEnroe and having him sign my copy of his recent memoir, Hardcourt Confidential, for my tennis-loving grandmother.  I sent him a message on twitter prior to his arrival in DC asking if he'd sign it for me, and he responded! to say he would be happy to sign the book.  Billy spotted him on the grounds, and when I approached him, he was super friendly and even asked me if I was the one who had sent him the message.  I managed to speak to him for a few minutes without shouting "OMG can you introduce me to Andy!? I know you're friends!", and he wrote a nice note to Gramma in the book, so it was a success!  Also, I was surprised at how good looking he was in person, and I still can't believe he's only 7 years younger than his brother John.  Maybe being a curmudgeon takes its toll on your looks, too?

After Andy lost and Verdasco was upset by Marcos Baghdatis in the quarters, I didn't have a vested interest in who won the tournament, but we got to see some high quality play in the semifinals anyhow.  After 5 days in a row of sitting on the bleachers and driving about an hour each way, I decided that I'd rather watch the final between David Nalbandian and Marcos Baghdatis on my couch at home.

When we turned on the TV on Sunday, Billy and I couldn't help but laugh when we realized that the TV feed had almost the exact same view of the court that we had from our seats.  The match turned out to be a little more competitive than I was expecting, and Baghdatis put up a decent fight in the second set, but I wasn't surprised at all to see Nalbandian win.  He definitely looked the most consistently strong throughout the tournament.  I can't wait to see how everybody we saw does during the US Open!

Thanks again to Billy for the world's best birthday gift in the history of birthday gifts.  And thanks to you for reading all the way to the end of this blog post, which has allowed me to relive the experience a little bit.  Today's the first day P.L.M. (post Legg Mason), and I'm a little down about the fact that there's no DC tennis match to watch, but now I feel rested and ready for my upcoming semester.  I even got a little bit of a tan!  And hey, it's not that long before the Australian Open, right?!