Get your ow
n diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

9:43 a.m. - 2006-03-09
Catholic School Girl Super Star
What a week. I'm beginning to feel like I am 12 years old again, trying my best to join the latest school sports team and failing miserably. I went to a very small Catholic grade school down in the 'hood. There were only 13 of us in my class and maybe 30 in the entire middle school section, so when announcements went out about try-outs for sports everyone but the smelly kid showed up. No one was cut because there were never enough kids to make a good team for anything. I tried track since I had long legs. We ran laps down the city street, around the church and convent then down the alley, jumping over the winos who parked there during the afternoon. After 2 weeks of practice I got bronchitis and had to quit because of all the hacking, wheezing and coughing.

At the age of 13 I was 5" 11" so I thought I would be a natural at basketball. Wrong. I tried out for the 8th grade varsity team and got busted back to 6th and 7th grade JV. I ran, I dribbled, I shot, I went with the coach to the shoe store to get a brand new pair of sneakers because my feet were too big to fit in to the standard hand-me-downs the team already had. The next week I fell during practice and ripped some muscle in my back never having played in a game. Thus came the end of my basketball career.

Roller-skating was next. I dreamed of becoming a Roller Derby Queen...does anyone remember the movie The Kansas City Bombers? Long story short, while at a school sponsored skating party I slipped and fell going into the bathroom. Only I could manage to jamb my right index finger into the door hinge and nearly cut it off at the first knuckle.

The freak mishaps continued through high school until I finally surrendered to the idea that I wasn't cut out to be a jock. It was there that I discovered a talent for baking bread and putting together lovely dinners and singing an occasional sweet melody. Although, there was one run-in with a Crisco can lid in the home-ec lab that resulted in a trip to the emergency room and 10 sutures in my thumb. I pretty much kept away from all things athletic for the next 25 years and stayed fairly healthy until last month.

That's right...I decided that tadpole #4 and I would make lovely tennis partners and signed us up for lessons. We did OK and the coach put us in a group of 8 or so women and we play for an hour and a half every Saturday. On the third Saturday of play I hit a nice forehand and felt a deep, burning pain in my upper right thigh. I told the coach and he said that I wasn't used to using my "stopping" muscles. He told me to apply heat and rest for a couple of days then stretch before play next week. So began the painful leg cycle. I'd play tennis on Saturday then limp for two days after. Then what did I do? I added a second tennis clinic on Wednesday evenings. My leg didn't even twinge last night but now I have tennis elbow. I looked it up on the Internet and the website said that it was caused by "poor form" and "weak wrist strength." That made me feel good. It also gave a schedule for 8 weeks of strengthening exercises.

Geez. It's hell to be a total klutz when you want to be a super star. Ed and I are going to do a 5K walk/run on Saturday then a 10-miler in April. I can't wait to see what deformity I'll manage on those. Life is good.

 

 

previous - next

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!