A Good Day in July

You know that question that comes up every once in awhile that says, "describe your perfect day"?  I love thinking about it and all my "favorite" things but rarely is it going to happen that way, right?  But then, there are those days that are just GOOD DAYS and sometimes I think I fail to recognize them.

When I began Saturday and took my first photo, I didn't think I'd come to the end of the day and say, "this was pretty close to a perfect day" but I did and am glad that I captured some of it :). I'm going to make more of an effort to recognize and name these days -- we know it's easy enough to identify a bad day.  Since those aren't usually worth recording or remembering, I DO want to be able to go back and reflect and remember the good ones :)

car packed for the day

A "perfect" day in a Day in my Life would begin about this early. . .that is, if I was in bed at 10 p.m. the night before and slept really, really well (which was what happened).  I like early starts to my day.  This was a bit early (my alarm went off at 4:30 a.m.) but the first match on Saturday began at 8 am 2.5 hours away.  The temperature reads so high b/c my car was still in the garage -- it was mainly 72 degrees most of the way down the highway, meaning windows and moonroof were open and the music was blaring :)

Quick stop right before I got off the hwy because I had had a LOT to drink on the drive down.  Knew it was going to be a hot day and was planning on being in the heat most of the day.

They have a great setup at the Rome Tennis Center. . .as I pulled in the courts were to the left and the hotel that my team was staying at was to the right.

I met up with my team on the back porch there then walked with them to their first match.  Time:

Everyone was ready to go before "official" match time so let's get started!!

This was the temperature when they stepped out onto the courts (for some reason it was still registering the town where I had previously stopped -- I'll take this at 7:40 a.m. any day of the week/month/year!)

Teams were doing well at this point. . .and eventually both of these courts did win. . .one of our singles courts also won, putting us 2-0 for the weekend before my match at 11:30.

I was super-lucky right after this and got a FaceTime call from my sister, who had just boarded her cruise ship in Barcelona!

Showing me her view off her balcony

All of my gear - ready to head to the court!

Heading to our match. . .schedule still running a bit early (it was supposed to start at 11:30 a.m.).  This was our flight for the weekend:

Ready to play NW Arkansas!!!

USTA calling out line-ups and passing out balls

Unfortunately, my partner and I did NOT pull a W for our team. . .we lost 4-6, 2-6 (that is our scoreboard and the other team packing up).  Our team won, though. . .I think we were the only court that didn't win that round.  We were 3-0 at this point in the tournament :). 

This was the temperature when we got off the court!

Actually, that is not nearly as hot as it was a couple weekends ago when we were in Murfreesboro but it was very, very humid.

We headed out for lunch (USTA provided tickets for Chick-fil-A) and brought our meals back to the hotel.  I ate with my partner from Nashville a couple of weeks ago and a teammate on this team I did not know very well.

There were other teammates out by the pool so we headed out there after eating for an hour or two.

No pictures of anyone b/c I don't know them all well enough for them to know I like to document "everything" - ha!  

(As an aside. . .this is an 18+ 4.0 team and my first year playing with them.  The tournament I am referring to "a couple of weeks ago" was my 3.5 18+ Early Start Team.  Both of these teams made it to State and then won and get to play in Sectionals.  I chose to only do one Sectional tournament this year and, since I am now a 4.0 rated player, chose to come with these ladies.)

Anyway, after pool time, I had a choice to (1) share a bed with a teammate and stay overnight with everyone, (2) they had dinner reservations at an Italian restaurant so stay, take a nap, and eat with them before driving home, or (3) head out because Tom had 14 people over at our house for dinner :/

I decided to leave.  I love having family over and didn't figure I'd even be hungry at 6:30 which was their reservation time.

I got home to this:

A full driveway!!!  I made good time. . .and it even cooled off a bit ;)

Ran in, showered and changed before visiting with our guests before they had to go (they, too, had a long day in Knoxville; they live in middle Tennessee).

Got a cute picture of Debbie -- the Maxwells had some chairs Barbara made many years ago and one of the girls was looking for something for her new apartment.  We think this might be too big for the space though.

Anyway, they left and I had "dinner" -- ha!  Truly, this is what I had -- leftover from a get-together the night before :). After a long day in the sun, 5 hours in the car, 15K steps, a beer and cake was a perfect ending to the day :)

So, yes, this was a "pretty good day".  The activity level, being around lots of people, playing tennis, sunshine, family, no cooking/cleaning (!!!), and then an early night to bed with the love of my life. . .the moments make the days that make the weeks that make the years that make a lifetime :)

Love,

Jenni

P.S.  Our team lost to the Louisiana team the next morning so did not advance to the finals.  If they would have won, the plan was to go back down in the afternoon with another teammate who could not make it Friday or Saturday to cheer them on.  It was a terrific season with lots of challenging matches, new teammates, and great experiences.