Saw that bumper sticker today on a car parked in a police department parking lot, which I found interesting. I also felt some jealousy, wishing I had the bumper sticker.
My racquetball racquet greeted me this afternoon when I returned home from an all-day substitute orientation. It was a grind today, that is for sure, but an old lady who looked and acted a lot like Dr. Ruth made the day much more enjoyable. The racquet was a nice surprise, which I didn't expect until Friday or next Monday. It looks and feels sweet, and I can't wait to test it out tonight at the gym.
I "worked out" today for the first time since my weight training class, freshman year at UPS in 2000. Working out doesn't include the Push Up Challenge I have feebly kept going almost 11 months now (18581 push ups, 20882 sit ups, 12880 frog squats, 23.5 miles jogged). I feel alright now, but I think I'll be sore tomorrow. I joined LA Fitness, and I didn't realize how much I miss having a place to run around and go to get out of the house.
My last gym membership was in Tahoe, and I never worked out, but I did ride the exercise bike and I played a lot of basketball. The LA Fitness near my house has a basketball court, four racquetball courts, a swimming pool and a sauna--it is freaking nice. I checked out the gym a month ago when I moved up here, but it was way too expensive... until I found out the school district I work for has a great wellness program and I don't have to pay the initiation fee, and the monthly fee for gym use is cut in half!
I joined on Thursday, and decided to practice my racquetball skills (or lack there of). I borrowed a racquet from the front desk and had been hitting for about ten minutes when a guy knocked and asked if I was waiting for anyone, or if I would want to play a game? Awesome. The guy wasn't great, and the only other racquet the front desk had was about the size of a ping pong paddle. I won the first game with the good racquet and I gifted him the second game (I felt kind of bad beating him with a ping pong paddle, and he is a burly ex-army guy).
It is just cool to join a gym and be playing pick up racquetball an hour later! There is a racquetball league I need to inquire about, and also basketball leagues--I am looking forward to a fun and active winter.
Another perk of the LA Fitness membership is Dr. Chako belongs to the same gym, but south of Seattle. I played a few games with him on Saturday, albeit being a little hungover, and while he is still up in the Northwest I plan on leeching all of his racquetball skills.
Tyler and I are pretty much equals when it comes to racquetball, and it is infinitely more fun to learn a sport with someone your skill level, than learn the sport all by your lonesome. When Marc was learning how to snowboard a few years back, instead of just skiing alongside him, laughing at him while freezing my buns off; I decided to pick up snowboarding too—and we had an absolute blast. I still remember our first run, having no idea how to get down the mountain, but we raced anyways. I won with a mere 13 falls on my way to crossing the finish line first. Watching a string-bean 6’5” Marc trying to get up quickly after face-planting on a snowboard is right up there on my list of hilarity in the universe. Watching him fly off a jump—while trying to impress some lady-snow boarders—and land squarely on his non-existent ass at Stevens Pass tops the list of Marc Snowboarding Memorable Moments (MSMM).
A close second would be his memorable face-plant at Mt. Baker the day of the huge Seattle storm last year. I wrote a song about it, like to hear it? Here it goes… OK, I didn’t write the song, but I did make a video. I make a cameo appearance in the middle of the video getting my snowboard on, but Marc is the star, and don’t you forget it!
But back to racquetball. Apparently Mr. Howell, who I am observing for one more week, is also an avid racquetball player. He’s been playing for 20 years, and competitively for the last seven years. He was playing in a tournament up in Lynnwood on Sunday, and I was heading up to Everett anyways to watch the Seahawks game with Marc—so I made a pit-stop at the Lynnwood Bally’s to watch.
In the first 5 minutes of watching racquetball, I learned a dozen new things. Defensive shots, change of pace shots, serving technique, and court positioning—to name a few. I hadn’t really thought of any of these while playing with Tyler. I know how to lob in tennis, but when you are playing in a square court, where you can hit the ball off the back wall and the ceiling—it is like comparing blurnsball with baseball. The lobs I saw in racquetball hit the ceiling first, then hit the front wall, then bounce high and deep towards the back wall, which makes them incredibly hard to do anything with. The guy Mr. Howell was playing had an incredibly mean serve, that clung right against the wall. Any miscalculation on Mr. Howell’s part, and he winded up either completely missing the ball, or whacking the wall with his racquet, which never feels good.
Most of the other tricky shots I saw Mr. Howell and others hit, involved them hitting an off-wall corner, just before hitting the front wall. Some of those shots were just killer, and were basically instant point winners, where the defender has no chance to get to the ball by the second bounce.
Tyler and I got to play racquetball this afternoon down at Sand Point, because tennis practice was canceled due to about ten minutes of ill-timed rain. We discussed the strategy I soaked in yesterday a bit, then played two games to 11. I don’t think I’ve ever beaten Tyler before (although I probably should have last time we played), but I won both games today. My everyday tennis playing and being more in-shape helped, but watching the good racquetball players yesterday helped tremendously as well. Luck was on my side too, as I must have hit at least three shots that were accidentally kill-shots.
We reserved the court for Wednesday night, so hopefully Marc can make it after work for his first taste of racquetball. He says he is interested, and I’m interested to see how his 6’5” wingspan will change the game!
