BackBoardBackTalk

Recently, I was at my friend Cary's house and I saw a copy of "O" magazine lying on the coffee table. Now, I had always sworn that I would never to pick up much less open a copy of Oprah's magazine because, quite frankly, any woman who puts a picture of herself on every cover of every issue of a magazine she owns is a little creepy to me.

But, we were watching Dr. Oz and having a girls night, so, I figured what could go better with TV topics like; How to look 9 years younger in 9 days, how to get 6 pack abs without a single sit up and how to get rid of bags under your eyes, than flipping through a copy of "O"? Although, with airline baggage charges sky high these days those under eyes nuisances may start to come in handy!

So, I caved to my lesser self, compromised my principles and flipped "O" open to a self test designed to help me find my dominate self. While I was definitely wondering how I was supposed to accurately answer questions about myself to find myself if I didn't already know myself I did not let it stop me from forging ahead and answering all 12 questions that would ultimately define me for me.

After much highly technical calculating (adding 5 separate digits 12 separate times) I came up with the two words and single digit that describes me best. I am a number 4 (no super size for me, please); a Creative Type. Good thing too because descriptions for types 5-7 seemed to have been omitted from the printing of this issue. I guess those poor lost souls will continue to remain lost; at least, until Oprah and her "O" editors can find the missing copy.

I am getting to the point, I promise!

So, while I have written this all tongue in cheek I was surprised at how accurate it was. The description offered me some points to be on the look out for. It stated that if I was unable to express myself in some form creatively then I would be prone to depression, over-dependence on others' opinions, lethargy and a feeling of being unfulfilled. All of these I have been struggling with and I have not been engaging in any creative outlets. A possible suggestion was to start a blog which could initiate the flow of creative juices.

Now! For the point!

Today my friend, Steve, sent me an e-mail with a challenge/bet embedded in its text. The challenge/bet is stated below and designed to help me get back into one of my great loves, tennis. I find it interesting and food for thought that a few days after the "O" article he sent me this challenge and that one of the monitoring devices he is requesting is a blog where I discuss my experiences. Here is the challenge............

-You go to the courts where we played in the stadium court (15 courts) with attendant:

-You go five times

-30-60 minutes of hitting on the back board on each of the five visits

-say hello to the attendant and tell him/her that you are rusty 4.0/4.5 player (what ever your self rating is)

and you want to hit on the backboard but if they know of any local similar skilled players, you are interested

in getting their contact information

-on the days you are not working, it is sunny out, grab your bike and some old racquet and a ball and go!

-you can prove me wrong after five sessions

-if anyone of decent caliber asks for some hits, you have to say "YES, but I am getting over an injury so

I don't know how long I can hit" (that is your out).

-if someone asks you to hit and you have seen them hit and they are terrible, you say "Thanks but I have

to work on some back board drills from my Coach"

The Wager:

-if you get no leads/contact info/or actual 'pick up matches' in the five visits, i send you a check for fifty bucks.

-if you get some leads, some hits, only on the court leads though, then you will sign up to do this again for another five sessions

Monitoring & Reporting:

-you get to start a 'blog' (My BackBoard)

-you get to write about it

-you get to share your feelings

-you get to share your anxiety

-you get to share your exhaustion

-you get to share your feelings of hatred towards me/jerks/inappropriate tennis players

-you get to vent

-you get to grin at the amazing backboard shots and watch your stamina improve exponentially

-you get to give yourself a pat on the back - you are back & better than ever - watch out Steffi!

So, this is my introduction blog for the soon to come series "BackBoardBackTalk" where I'll be making shots on the court and talking shots at my opponents in the blog.

See you soon!

Flying: To YAK or not to YAK........

When I found out that my brothers friend, Mary, owned a YAK 52 - I YAK YAK YAKED in his ear about getting me a ride in the plane. For those of you who don't know - a YAK 52 is a 1980's Soviet jet pilot trainer.

Finally the day came! I headed off to the east bay to spend Christmas with my brother - armed with the best presents ever. I should probably admit that I was also armed with a detailed list (which included but was not limited to; web sites, maps, charts, graphs and hand puppets) of presents that I wanted. I am not shy about presents. Noooo. None of that "oh, you shouldn't have" for me! - I am more of a "wadidya get me" and a " ooooo, gimmie gimmie" kind of a gal.

So, now I am up at my brothers and Mary is at the airport. We gotta go, now, now, now. We zip off to the airport and I am sooo excited!

sidenote: Our father had his pilots license and owned several plane while we were growing up. So, my brother and I grew up around small planes and small airports. I can't even remember the first time I was in a plane - I was so young. My brother, Damon, now has a Cessna 195 (she's a looker) and I love going up in small planes!

and BTW - there are only 3 reasons that people are afraid of small planes
1) The Buddy Holly Story
2) La Bamba
3) Sweetdreams (the story of Patsy Cline)

Which means that there is only 1 real reason that people are afraid of small planes. Really bad made for TV movies about 1950's rock stars that took off in bad weather and crashed into a mountain while on their way to some big charity rock festival.

I meet Mary and she opens the hanger door! The plane is so cute! I am so excited! but wait - there is a problem - the retractable landing gear seems to be leaking pressure. NO! I try to hide my disappointment but my heart is sinking....... After some consideration we decide that we can go up. Yippppeeeeeeeee!

We take off and do a little wing jiggle to say goodbye to Damon on the ground. The plane is so reponsive and quick. The Cessna is like a nice luxury car, all floaty and comfy. The YAK is like a little red Porshe (sp?)

We buz around for a while and Mary says, "Do you wanna fly?" "On, no", I say. I don't think it is a good idea to risk her plane. Mind you I am not thinking "what if I crash and we die in a big ball of flames like Buddy Holly and pals" - I am thinking "what if I hurt her plane."

She assures me it is fine and that she is right there. So, I am at the controls. We bank, we turn, we go up, we go down, we do rolls, we.......... okay, okay we didn't do rolls. But Mary did so some wing overs and I just giggle and giggle - those things crack me up they are so fun!

We concidered buzzing some cows but Mary says she has heard that some of the farmers have been shooting at the planes when they are buzzing. So, we decide maybe we should skip it. I mean I woudn't want to die over a little cow fun.

Finally we head for home and land safely but I don't think I have really come down yet. Now I am determined to get my pilots license and figure out the rest later.

Stay tuned - there are more cows to be buzzed by this girl..........

Grand Opening - an opening statement from Marella and Valerie

Let me start by saying that both Valerie and I are much more attractive than this photo lets on. Also, neither one of us have quite such big heads. You can't believe what we went through to get this one blog up and I think that the stress shows in the glam shot included.

First, I invite Valerie and her 1 year old son, Zach, over for a nice breakfast. Sound simple, right? Think again! I forget that I have left the burner on under the pan that I plan (Dr. Suess look out) to cook the eggs in. So, I toss a pat of butter in it and the whole thing bursts into flames causing Zach to freak out and run crying and screaming to his mom. Once we put out the pan flames and the Zach flames I resume cooking. In the end breakfast was yummy.

Now, we have to get Zach to fall asleep if we are going to have any time to get the blog up and running. So, we decide to take a nice walk to the park.

Oh wait - I forget to say that Zach has decided to make a game out of stomping on my kitties tail causing another crying jag for the cat and the kiddie.

We are back on our walk - Zachy spies a toy truck and since he loves trains, planes, and automobiles we let him play with it a while. Eventually, we have to go and Zach is not happy with us - to say the least. We really need to get him to fall asleep! So we circle the block - round and round we go - checking him every 2 minutes. We start to think our only hope is crush a little Exedrine PM and toss it in his bottle. We're just joking, geez, who do you think we are Britney Spears?

Finally, little Zach is asleep and we are all ready for an nap. Valerie and I decide we need to submit a photo so you can see who were are. We try the whole stand together and hold the camera out as far away from us as possible with our own arms thing. While this technique results in glorious glam shots in the movies - it didn't do much for us (as you can clearly see). We never get a single shot that someones head is not cut in half and our heads are aways HUGE! Therefore, we have titled this series " The Big Head Shots". Ah Ha!, we think, we need a makeshift tripod. We arrange, rearrange, shuffle, turn things upside down, turn them right side up, stuggle to find the timer setting on the camera ....... At last! we are ready. We have the shot set up! Ready, set,............. change the batteries. What! What the @#$%, are you kidding me? Oh for pete's sake! That is the last time I buy batteries at the 99 cent store.

So we are forced to use the best of the "Big Head" series and just as we hit "download image" Zach opens his eyes........................

go to Valerie's blog to see another version of the days events and view glimpses of her amazing art work

http://www.projectpinksuitcase.blogspot.com

I plan to post some real photos soon - so stay tuned!