Drama and Alabama

I hate drama.

There was far too much drama this weekend in my life, and most of it wasn't even mine!

My tennis team played in our state tournament this weekend, so I guess it's to be expected. Nerves and emotions were running high, the rain totally fucked up any semblance of a schedule, and the weekend was just a mess. I'm really kinda glad it's over.

So, in bullets:

• Saturday morning: our 8am match, which I was not supposed to play in, was delayed by nearly 2 hours. I went out to the courts in full tennis garb with rackets anyway, for a couple of reasons. One, the other team wouldn't know which one of our singles players would be playing if we had three or four singles players show up ready to play; two, you never know what might happen at the last minute; and three, I could help warm up the folks who were playing and cheer them on during matches. 
  
  There was a curly shuffle of the lineup that morning, and for about 2 hours I was going to sub in for a singles player who was not feeling well. After sitting around for 2 hours waiting for the courts to dry, though, she felt well enough play. So mentally, my brain wasn't really sure what to think, 'cause playing that match would've easily meant two long hours (if not more) of intense tennis. I'm playing, time to get serious! Wait, no I'm not! Wait, yes I am! Wait, no, I'm not! That's draining.
 
• One of the matches Saturday morning was an absolute catfight match from hell. One of our singles opponents (call her Sue) has only been in the LR area since last fall, but she's already garnered a reputation for bad line calls and a generally bad attitude. I would have loved a chance to play her this weekend, but the stars did not align properly and another singles player on our team played her. And honestly, after watch the way that match unfolded? I'm VERY happy to have not played her, and even happier that this chick is not on our team.
  
  There were accusations thrown, bad line calls, nasty behavior, and it was unfortunately on both sides of the court, which just sucks. One of the funnier episodes, though, occurred when Sue started yelling at some random bystanders behind the court because they were "talking too loudly." Now, I was sitting back there watching the match, and they weren't being loud. In fact, I hadn't really even noticed them until S started coming unglued. But what was even better was when one of the the bystanders fired back with the comment: "You're just yelling at us because you're frustrated with your game. If I were playing that badly and were losing with that score? I'd be frustrated too. Maybe you should pay more attention to your game rather than us back here." It. Was. Awesome. It was all I could do not to crack up, because this bystander had no stake in the match, she wasn't on either of our teams, she just called it like she saw it. And what she said was true. If you are truly focused on the match, you won't hear anything going on around you. But if you are frustrated and having trouble? That will bug the shit out of you. Maybe I was more focused on her match than she was...
  
  At any rate, that was one of about 10 different conflicts that happened just during that one match. By the end of the match, a grievance was filed, a line judge was called, both teams were wrung out and the players looked like they were going to have to be physically separated. On the plus side, that individual match meant nothing because my team had already won three of the five matches. But that match wasn't about the tournament anymore; it was about pride. And it was ugly
 
• So after the match was over, I managed to tick J off ten minutes before he left town for the night with the girl to go to our nephew's birthday party in Jonesboro. There was no time to resolve anything, so I got to stew on that after he left. B stayed home because he was sick, and my team still had another match to play in the afternoon. I managed to miss a text from my captain (it never went through) about a court location change, so I had to haul ass from a Little Rock tennis venue to a North Little Rock venue in under 15 minutes in order not to get defaulted from the match or pulled from the lineup. I left a bunch of rubber on the highways between Rebsamen and Burns, and was damned lucky there weren't any cops out.
  
  By the time my match started, I was as far away from finding a zone as I could possibly be. I ended up winning, but it was an ugly match that started ok and just got more frustrating as the match went on. I was just wrung out from the day. All done, thankyouverymuch.
 
• There were a bunch of other little things that happened over the course of the weekend. People who got their feelings hurt, miscommunications, more rain, and more frustration, and then cookies and beer. In the end, if you're still reading, my team managed to eke out a win for the tournament. We won by four games. Yes, that's GAMES, not sets, not matches, GAMES. It came down to counting games lost between our team and one other team to determine who gets to go to sectionals in July. We lost four fewer games (everything else was tied) than they did.
• Mobile bound, baby. See you in July. We'll bring the rackets and drama, you bring the heat and humidity. And I have a good excuse to keep exercising for the next few months.