Friday morning update ....

     This is one of my favorite pictures. It's of Daughter #2 and Daughter #3 (and Jim and me) on the night of their senior prom.
It makes me smile every time I look at it.
Every. Single. Time.
And you know me ...... I'm a sucker these days for things that make me smile (thus the many weekly e-mails from my friend,S, who is always on a quest to send me a video that will make me smile, or better yet ..... laugh. Thank you, girl!).

     Since yesterday's post was so brief, I decided to be nice and fill in the blanks this morning.
Because, be it known to all ........ I'm nothing, if not very, very kind to my Peeps.

     Yesterday I fled the house as soon as I could to run a couple of errands and then went to play tennis, which was ..... as I now refer to it, "painfully great".

Tennis hurts.  

But then, sitting hurts.

Standing hurts.

Lying down hurts.

Most everything hurts ..... so I figure, "I might as well be out in the sun, smacking the crap out of that bright yellow ball, hanging with friends and enjoying being there, in spite of the pain .... than sitting around my noisy, dust-filled, messy house ...... while still being in pain.

Besides, if I chose the latter, you most certainly would be reading about me in the newspaper, or watching me on "Dateline" if you're a late-night person.  

Seriously.

It's a good thing I'm learning my mental limits.

So anyway ..... back to my day ..... I played tennis, had a quick lunch with my tennis friends, ran an errand and then went to another friend's house to talk about Son #3's Confirmation party.  And, might I just add ...... I did not shed a tear all day, the first time in over a week, (or evening ...... even when a guy projectile vomited on the way home, and part of it hit M!  More on that later ......).

We talked a bit about the party .... and then I had to leave to go meet the bus to ride to the tennis tournament down in Houston.

That was interesting.  Not what we expected, but I enjoyed the company of M and a few other friends ..... in spite of the horrible wooden bleachers.  I did think ahead a bit and brought one of Jim's hoodie sweatshirts to sit upon, but after about 10 minutes I knew that my hip .... and I .... were in big trouble.  It was a very painful evening, physically anyway.

I forgot to take my camera so I tried to be cool and take pictures myself of M with my cell phone.  Here are my efforts:

What can I say?  I am not gifted in this way.  Obviously.

So I gave my phone to our friend, A, and she managed to snap these:

Yeah .... I think I've decided that cell phone pictures are not my forte' ---- neither me taking them, or having them taken of me.

But, I knew that I had to make a sacrifice for my Peeps, because you seem to like the pictures.

(I'm thinking maybe they just give you great satisfaction at how much better your life is than mine and how much better you look than me!!).  Hey, whatever floats your boat ..... I am here to serve.

     After the tennis match four of us totally crashed a "members only" party at this exclusive, swanky club.  We just walked right in ..... like we owned the joint.  My Peeps would have been so proud.

     If you're into tennis at all then you will hopefully recognize the two young men in these pictures, who not only play tennis, but play rock and roll:

   The Bryan Brothers (one here on keyboard)

     (the other here, on the drums)

They're identical twins who play a mean game of doubles tennis.  I used to fantasize that someday they would meet my identical twin daughters, fall in love, get married, live close by, give me beautiful tennis-playing grandchildren, and I'd be so very happy.

Some fantasies die hard.  

Especially when your daughters physically gag at the thought of marrying twins.  sigh .....

So we watched them for a while and then got back on the bus to make the hour drive home.  This trip had been advertised to the tennis playing women in our club, and free adult beverages were promised.

Well, one bottle of wine does not go far with a bus-limo full of women AND men ...... so M and I got about 1/4 of a cup of wine on the bus.  

There will be a bone picked about this sometime soon.  You canNOT put a bunch of women on a bus, under the guise of giving them tons of alcohol and then not come through on the deal.  Lives could have been lost!!

     Anyway, we got there, got something to eat, bought our own glass of wine, which the nice young server quickly poured into a coffee cup for us so that we could carry it up into the stands.  Nice to know that, even at our age, we have not totally lost our "flirt-ability" with younger men (even if it was mostly pity he was feeling ..... keep your mouth shut).  

We headed into the first match.  We reached the wooden bleacher, I folded up Jim's hoodie so that it would offer me some comfy cushioning ..... and we enjoyed the match.  For about 10 minutes.  And then my hip started letting me know that it was not fooled ..... not one bit.

I think I hung in there for about an hour ..... before I gave in to it.  Then I went for a walk, bought another "cup of coffee", and took a pain pill.

     By the time I made it back for the second match, M had scored some box seats, which had a small amount of cushion to them.  Yay for M.  We were very close to the action and we enjoyed the match, though Taylor Dent played like ....... well, let's just say, my tumor-less hip and I could have easily beaten him last night!  He was having an "off night", poor guy.  And he didn't seem to listen when M and I tried to coach him!  Seriously ..... we kept telling him, not so quietly, that he HAD to get his first serve in!!  But, for whatever the reason, he chose to pay us no never-mind.  Stubborn male.  

     We then went to crash the "members only" party, which felt pretty good, too.  And then we got back on the limo-bus and headed home.  I think the driver had sensed our disappointment with the lack of alcohol and had made a liquor store run while we were at the matches.  He now had 2 bottles of champagne waiting for us ....... 2 bottles, 24 people.  Ummmmmmm ...... nope.  Not nearly enough, but at least I'm not crazy for champagne so I donated mine to M.

     All was going well (except for my obnoxiously loud hip) until we almost got home ...... and then a man sitting two down from M, hurled.  And I do mean ..... HURLED!!  Unfortunately, two people down was not far enough away from M.  She took a hit.

I had just turned my head that way and so I actually got to see the whole hurl.  And then, I was quite proud of both of us ......... she, nor I ....... hurled in reaction.  And that, my Peeps, was a miracle.

      And then we were home and that was the end of that night ...... except for Margot who had to go home and scald herself in the shower to get rid of the hurl and the memory of the hurl.

     Son #1 was home when I arrived so we stayed up to chat for a while ..... until he became tired.  Everyone in my life becomes tired way before I do now ....... as of about 15 months or so ago.  Go figure.

     I woke up this morning and found a very lovely e-mail from an even lovelier friend, R, who sent me this quote, because it made her think of me:

"Don't wish me happiness--I don't expect to be happy. . . It's gotten beyond that somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor--I will need them all." Anne Morrow Lindbergh

     

     I love my friend R ...... and all of my friends who really, really "get me" .... and understand.  They see past the outside of me, and into my heart and soul.  And when something comes in front of them that reminds them of me ...... they pass it on.  

That is one thing I've learned since Jim's death ..... never, ever just let something go unnoticed.  If something, or someone is put in front of me ...... I take the time to take notice. And then take the time to figure out what to do with it.  I have found that my heart and soul grows each time I do something like that ..... each time I take notice of something that in my "before" I would've just shoved it away because I didn't have the time to stop, look, and listen.

We should stop a lot more often than we do ...... we miss so much more than we think we do.

     OK ..... I think that's it ..... for now.  The boys are still in bed.  The girls should be on their way.  And I am still in my p.j.s   I guess that means all's right with the world for this nano-second in time (except for my very angry thigh/hip, who's still screaming about last night's experience).

Here are pictures from this morning.

Just in case you'd love to keep up with the re-modeling  .........