Jan 29, 2013, at 10:38 AM, wrote:
We want to change back Great Neck instead of Bayside on 2/8/2013. Is it OK?
A trade is a trade. Even kids know it.
Archive for January, 2013
When men act sissy
A story
This story was posted in the hockey forum. I think it applies to all sports though.
To a teammate
Hope you all will take a moment to let me share a story.
I play in an adult beginners league. Our team started together 3 years ago. 2 years ago we had several new teammates join, one of which I will call Bill for the sake of this story. While most of us were brand new in our 30’s early 40’s, Bill was a little older, and had been playing a little longer, and he quickly became essentially the captain of the defense. He set lines, helped players with positioning, tried his best to bail you out when you made a bad decision to pinch in, and with a smile reminded you to never do it again.
In the locker room / rink, Bill was all business. Never talked much about his family or other locker room chatter, just always talked about how we could all get better.
Sunday night we had had a game, Bill was his usual self, blasting shots from the point, handing out advice, taking a smart penalty to prevent a goal. Nobody had any indication of what was going on.
It was Monday night that an obituary made its rounds amongst our team. It was with disbelief that we read that Bill’s 21 year old son had died of cancer on Sunday morning, about 10 hours before our game that evening. No one could believe it. Many of us had actually played a few games with his son a few years prior in a summer league, but he had quit abruptly with no explanation. Now we knew why.
A number of us from the team showed up together at the visitation, and Bill expressed gratitude for us for coming, and explained he had been up for over 36 hours before that Sunday game, because they knew it was his son’s time. But then he came to the game as a way of getting his mind off things for a little while. The game gave him a few hours of “normalcy” in an otherwise day from hell. His wife explained that she was appreciative of our team for providing an escape.
I just figured I would share this story with other players, because sometimes hockey is just a game. Sometimes it is something more.
My personal doctor
Whenever my tennis grip looks fresh, that means I just played with Wah -:). He’s always knee on making my racket looking pretty.
A great birthday present
It’s a cold cold night. Two girls come from the city with the #7 subway. I pick up one and the other girl who’s new to the team, doesn’t want to trouble anyone, opts to walk. Thank good lord another teammate spots her and gives her a ride to the the small bubble (har tru). We all huddle up in the holding cell (the small waiting room left to the court). The captains are not presented, and I’m not informed who’ll be the acting captain.
We exchange lineup a little early and leave for our own match at the main building. Court 12 is open for two hour straight but it’s kind of stuffy so we take court #6 8-9 and #1 9-10pm. Tony and I lost all sets: first set 1, the second set in tie break and the third set – I was beaten so soundly I couldn’t remember it any more -:).
The league match is fine, except there is an argument on third court:
.. On Thursday night, we had an argument with 3D guy in the tie-break. After his serve, 2-1, in their favor, we won 6 points in a row. On the next point, 3D girl hit a return that was just out. I had a good look of the ball and called it out. He started arguing that the ball was good and it’s not my call, which is ridiculous. But my partner backed me up and told him to stop. It was our call, both of us. The argument was quite disrupting. We lost the next four points before held on to our lead to win. It was good win. We deserve it!
A few of us who knew him – 3D guy who was a long time captain, felt that he should have known better: it’s our call. The 3D goes to tie break and my pair won 11-9. After the match, everyone stay to share a fruit tart and a bottle of Mondavi’s Cabernet Sauvignon 2010. A sweep is the best birthday gift!
She’s so nice today
The pool was relatively empty: five swimmers when I got there. Lady Forceful was in the middle lane with a guy taking side. I joined the singleton in the slow lane: I didn’t want any more confrontation and I won’t swimming long. There was a guy in black t-shirt looked like from the club (he later told someone that he needed to watched the kids in the pool; ha ha ha), watching over the pool. Good thing. The woman in my lane preferred taking side and she pointed to her belly:
“I’m very much pregnant.”
Hmmm .. she wasn’t .. But anyway, a few laps later, an older lady entered the pool and installed herself in the middle lane. The MIB walked over and told her to join the slow lane. To my surprise Lady Forceful said to me,
“We can circle.”
It must be a nice day that everyone was reasonable and considerate.
I did few more laps and left for the class.
A timed match
I finally get to play my first match of the season. Thrilled. I went to yoga for over an hour and swam 20 laps – only because the pool was empty, couldn’t resist – that’s why I was running tight.
The opposing captain was very nice. I felt so good that he didn’t have a proper scrod card – which made my wrong score card looked so right -:).
I played our lady opponent three times previously, she led 2-1: won two mixed but lost to Jenn and I last summer. We broke her, then I went to serve at 2-1. My partner told me just hold the serve we could win. I promptly lost it at love. There were many long rallies and our opponents were gracious, we complimenting on each others good points throughout the match. We finally took the first at 4 after trading more breaks. The second set got off to a strong start, we jumped to 3-0 lead. At 5-2, there was six minutes left. I was very mindful of the very same situation at our recent match but chose not to drain the clock with the 90 second change over allowance. I served for that game and lost. She still wanted to continue, saying there are two more minutes left. Just at the same time, Fred Derman, the opposing captain walked onto the the court, and informed her about the five minutes rule.
What would I have done should we trailing behind?
I knew I would continue but would try to hold the game -:)
A refurbished trophy
My friend played well in the 2009/10 winter season and came up on top. The other day he saw a discounted golf trophy in a shop, liked it so much that he made the shop owner to refurbished it to tennis, and awarded himself for the win, three years after the fact. file 23160
Learning something new everyday, great.
We are no just crazy about tennis, some are down right nuts.
I’ve to admit that it is a love trophy.
Good eye, buddy.
Our 5th match has gone well, nice opponents and enjoyable games.
Taking a fly 坐飞机
My time at the Equinox health club is progressing well. I return to play tennis full throttle in January 2013.
Mission accomplished.
I continuously go to the club because of the year long contractual obligation. But most importantly, I enjoy the yoga and Pilate, and could tell them apart.
A few months into the yoga, one day the instructor introduces a new pose, prasarita padottanasana – Standing Forward Bend Shoulder Opener. The name looks intimidating but the pose is really simple.
“Stand hip-width with soft knees. Interlace your hands behind your back.”
Kim the instructor rarely demonstrates. She prefers to teach by words.
“Inhale and lift your chest up and exhale and fold over fold over your legs.”
She has a smoothing lovely voice. A tin island accent only makes her voice whimsical.
“Relax. Move your arms over your head.” The eventual goal is to have your hands touch the floor with your hyperextended arm.
Many yogis when practice, is to live in that moment. To find tranquility, to find inner peace; relax and to regroup. I can certainly live in the moment, find peace and to relax but most time, I find my mind wandering. Therefore, I often peek to copy what other model yogis are doing. So I don’t have to follow her wordy instructions, thus freeing up my mind.
One look to my right. I am stunned.
Oh my dear Lord.
Is this really a yoga pose? I suddenly feel tears filled my eyes.
What they are posing now is .. doing the airplane 坐飞机, a torturous position which was widely used to humiliate the alleged class enemies during the Cultural Revolution in China.
Calm down
I haven’t been sick in ages, so when I had a headache last Tuesday night, it took me a couple of hours to figure it out why my head felt funny. Diarrhea followed on Wednesday. I went to bed early last night, watched a few movies. When I was about to sleep, I got a text from my co-captain that we had swept.
Yapeee.
Today all the symptoms are gone and I feel great. Checking on the scores, I realized someone had changed the lineup. With the newly regained energy, I started to spam everyone, as if we haven’t had enough drama this season.
No, no, no, calm down, my co-cap said. The match were well. When he got to the court as both teams started writing lineups on napkins at the small VIP Transportation Lounge next to the clay courts.
..
There is no viewing area at the clay courts so one of the opposing captains went back home to Bklyn and I sat with the other lady captain and chatted for 2 hrs. Their team’s philosophy was to have fun, play everyone and took in a lot of new players that had no teams (while we aim to make the playoffs). We were discussing if we should drive our Manh ladies home since she had 2 and we had 2. Everything worked itself out and we left very cordially.
..
There are teams that are cordial and display good sportsmanship, which makes the league play so much more enjoyable, fun for everyone.
And .. my senior moment ..
Irene:
you forgot that i already paid you 5 matches for queens league… you bought my share from GNE and i was short for some $ and then i paypal you the balance. it’s like a few days ago…
regards,
xxx
