Man!

We should have long weekends EVERY weekend. I had such an enjoyable few days (I took Friday off to too...) it makes it hard to get back into my schedule. I traveled for the weekend and when I got home had dinner at a friend's house. It was *long* overdue and it was EXACTLY what I needed at that moment.

This week is totally crazy with tennis matches and the individual state tournament but I just looked at my calendar for the weeken and I have ONE committment on Saturday at 11am. This is completely unprecedented but I cannot be more excited. I'm SO looking forward to a relaxing weekend with no set plans. And the Sex and the City Premiere. :)

Sometimes all it takes is an email...

I have had a rough week with Jazz stuff (no surpsise, I know) and tennis wasn't the BEST in the middle of the season but we had our school wide athletic awards night Tuesday night and the emails I received after that night remind me why I do this...

Dear M,

Sometimes, in the flury of excitement, the opportunity for the genuine expression of sincere appreciation escapes. Just want you to know how deeply (our daughter) was touched when she received the Coach's award from you last night. Knowing her as we do, it was easy for (my husband) and I to recognize the special light in her eyes.

As a coach you may never know how important your influence in a person's life will be, not only now, but in the distant future. At this point, it's difficult to predict how profound an influence a gesture like this can have on a young person; but, I can assure you, that (she) will never forget last night and the thrill of being recognized for tennis by her Coach. Thanks to you and for the lovely things you said about, and to, our daughter.

Tennis Mom & Dad

and

M,

I can't begin to thank you enough for the lovely words about (my daughter) and for any influence you may have had on the awards she won. She had a rough spring, summer and fall missing prime soccer recruiting season, her club season and her senior year of soccer. As a result gained zero recognition on a high school level of her soccer abilities. Somehow I feel that last night and your little speech made up for it all. As a mother, this means a lot to me and I know it meant a lot to her. My only regret from last night is that (my husband) was out of town and missed it all!

Fondly,

Tennis Mom #2

NKOTB

Who loved New Kids on the Block?

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

In case you're living under a rock, they're back. They might even be bringing sexyback, I'm not sure.

I just felt it was my duty to let all of you know. In honor of this I'm going through my childhood clothes and finding my NKOTB pajamas and matching slippers.

Yea, I had them.

Check out the new song- - Summertime- - then remember how you and all of your friends were obsessed with... "Oooh Oh oooooooh oh, oooh oh Oooooh, oooh oh Oooooooh, The RIGHT STUFF!"

It's FaceSpace...right?

We were over at my aunt and uncle's having happy hour Saturday evening when we started talking about another aunt who has kind of wacky AIM away messages when my aunt says,

"Yea, and I heard she's got a ton of creepy things on MyFace."

Ha. Ha. Ha. I guess to some people MySpace, Facebook and AIM are one in the same.

Who watched Desperate Housewives last night? I am SO glad Kayla is gone she made. me. so. mad. I cannot tolerate that kind of wicked behavior and Lynette is justmyfavorite. I wish Tom would stop acting like such a creeper though, he's been bugging me for the past couple of seasons.

I like it much better when all of the women get together, hang out and actually SEEM like friends. Before it was too many seperate, unrelated storylines.

BUT SERIOUSLY. WHAT IS WITH SUSAN AND ADAM?!?!? Are you totally shocked?!?

Lunching

I know, one of the worst things to do as a blogger is to blog about your lunch so I won't go into details of it, but just wanted to maintain for posterity that I as of 11:07am have eaten my breakfast, lunch and two snacks for the day. Now I left to dream longingly of food for the rest of the day.

I hate days like this. :)

Brothers & Sisters

Did anyone watch B & S last night? I hate to sound cliche, but... I laughed, I cried...I love that show.

If You Ever Want to Date Me...

Please read (and achieve) this. Pay close attention to numbers 7, 9, 11, 17, 25, 28, 31 & 44.

Oh The Comments

First, thank you to everyone who cleared up that "Wawa" thing for me. I've never seen the skit but at least now I know that people aren't (completely) crazy. Speaking of Wawa though, have any of you been to a Wawa? I've found that people in Pennsylvania have an undying love of them. I mean, yea, they're nice...I guess I'd need to have one to really understand the attraction.

Secondly... I'm going to hightlight a comment here that I received yesterday:

Anonymous writes:
I was reading an article today about blogging and in it they mentioned the ability to search blogs, so I plugged in Vermont, found your blog and over the course of a couple hours have read over most of it. So were you saying that the ex was seeing someone he was coaching? I am only 48, much younger then 55, can I date you :P

First, welcome! I always love to have new reader's to the blog. Yes, blogs can be searched and it's actually quite fun. Some people I know in REAL life have found me here by searching for Vermont and Jazzercise...

Let me bring you up to speed... the Ex and I started dating when he was a coach at my college. He moved on to another college when I graduated and the person that I refer to was his player- - for a year but transferred to another school. Nothing started between them until she was no longer his player (to my knowledge...which isn't saying much.)

While 48 does sound MUCH better than 55 I have yet to actually meet anyone I've "met" via this crazy form of communication and I'm not sure that this is the best place to start. I'm flattered though, truly. :)

Here's to the WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and a few drinks post practice)

Question...

Twice now, I have heard people reference Barbara Walters as, "Barbara Wawa". Is this normal? Does everyone know about this nickname except me? I think it's totally creepy.

Busy Busy Busy

I know, I'm not the only one but it's been crazy around here. I started teaching a 6am PT class on Mondays and Wednesdays so now I'm out of the house way before 6 four days a week...I spent the weekend in CT hanging out and attending an engagement party...my two sisters and a cousin are all graduating from high school this year and we're having a joint party. Because I am event planner extraordinair I'm well...planning it. I'm also making them a slideshow of all of the pictures of the three of them we have, I'm sure once I get started it will go quickly but it's overwhelming just thinking about it!

Not to mention that the tennis drama...is sucking the LIFE out of me.

Happy Wednesday.

More Tennis Drama

Will it ever end? They don't PAY me enough money to deal with this some days...

Story time again, I hope you guys are ready.

High school tennis in Vermont allows for 9 players to play. 5 singles players and 4 doubles players. We have 14 girls on the team and 10 girls who can be competitive in matches which creates a little bit of a problem so I've been trying to rotate those last couple into matches. It's been pretty easy so far because our first match someone was missing so #10 got in, our second match someone else was missing so #10 got in again. Well, #10 was in the line-up again for our third match but, she had an appointment (that she didn't let me know about) and drove herself to the match. This. is. not. allowed. For whatever liability reasons the students MUST leave the high school on the bus then can leave the match with parental persmisssion.

So, when she showed up at 3:40 for a 3:30 start time in her school clothes I had to tell her, sorry, you're not playing today. She acted very surprised (I'm not sure why...I give them all the rules at our first meeting) and stalked to her car. She came back 3o minutes later, sobbing, claiming a family emergency had come up and she must leave. Immediately.

She was NOT in the line-up for yesterday (she knew this since last Friday) but came to the match in her uniform and warmed up with the team which was FINE because, again 9 players... that 9th player needed someone to warm up with and she would have played in the exhibition match. When we read the line-up and she was not in it she was again, upset and walked away. (This is what I can't figure out... she KNEW she wasn't playing Did she think that I was going to make it up to her the next day because she broke the school policy?)

So, the match starts and I'm watching a doubles team when she walks over to me, uniform in hand, and goes,
"Yea, M? After today, I'm done. And if you have a problem with it, you can call my Dad. I just got off the phone with him."

I asked her if she was sure and she said yes. Okay, fine. (Really I'm thinking, CALL YOUR DAD?!? IF I HAVE A PROBLEM? CALL YOUR DAD?!?!? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!? IF YOU HAVE PROBLEM YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO CALL ME!!!!! I'M NOT CALLING YOUR DAD!)

So... twently minutes later a jeep pulls up and she gets in and leaves. Without telling me.

So she quits without even trying to have a conversation with me about why she is upset and what she would like to see. High school girls...I don't remember being this dramatic.

May Day

Happy May everyone! We did see snow flurries yesterday, but today is looking a little better...here's so a WARM, SUNNY SPRING!

I had a tennis match last night and the assistant coach of the opposing team tried to start a fight with me. Not a physical fight, obviously... but she was super-annoying and CONDESCENDING. That's my biggest pet peeve, I may not LOOK old enough to be a head coach but, I am. And a pretty darn good one at that. And quite frankly, I was RIGHT! (Obviously.)

The issue was that her player (who was also her daughter) made some REALLY bad calls (I don't get too stressed out about this because- - it happens- - you've gotta let the girls work it out) when she started losing the second set.

She lost the second set (making it 1-1), and my player (who is also my sister) wanted to play a 10 point tiebreaker instead of a full third set. The match was already decided (they KILLED us) so that substitution is permitted. And, it was freezing and snowing so I was thinking...the sooner we get out of there the better.

Well, a tiebreaker was unacceptable and they wanted to play out the third set. Fine, not a huge deal. Then their player (the daughter) was adament that the ball hadn't bounced twice on her side when it had, so my player (the sister...) asked for a line judge. When a player (from either team) asks for a line judge, line judges (one from each team) are sent out regardless of whether the other player wants one. Their assistant coach lost it.

So to the super-annoying coach of that ridiculous team:

Apologizing after the fact because, "It was very obvious that I was frustrating you" is NOT an acceptable apology. I walked away from you because the issue was over. Walking over to me three times after that, just to see if you can get on my nerves is rude. And guess what? I won't let you know you're bothering me so it's a very unsatisfying endeavor try as you might. Please don't EVER accuse me of trying to "get into" your player's head. She did that ALL on her own and I have enough to think and worry about without trying to sabotage a 17 year old's tennis match. Have a little common sense. And, Really? Lady? I've got bigger fish to fry than a 50 year old mother of three. Please. And don't think that winning that match 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 was anything less than COMPLETELY gratifying. Bet you're REALLY glad you insisted on that third set.

Whoever complains about soccer moms has obviously not met a tennis-mom. Oh, they're similar to soccer moms...but they've got pleated skirts, botox, have perfected the art of calling you an incompetent imbecile while smiling and have enough "experience" from playing at the "club" to be high school tennis experts. Yea... soccer moms RUN from tennis moms.