Before we moved to the Villa, we started playing tennis at a local center near the Castle. Doolies had played tennis for many years when she was younger, and I had never owned a tennis racket. We went a handful of times before we moved to the Villa. We purchased tennis rackets (mine a bit fancier than Doolies's to handicap her), and a few cylinders of balls, all of which now sit in the garage awaiting a tennis revival. I'm noticing a scared theme in these competitve doodles. Do you remember the scared chess one? (As I looked through my old doodles, I'm not sure I can call two doodles a theme.)

I'm a very competitive person. Lately, I've not put myself in many competitive situations. I used to have basketball and driving. I had to give up my road-rage-inspired driving after realizing how ridiculous and dangerous it was. And basketball fell by the wayside when it became inconvenient to play. Bicycling and weight-lifting (which I haven't done in over a year) are fun but not competitive since there's no winning. Work at times is competitive, when there are contentious issues being discussed; although this is much rarer than it should be. Even video games have grown less competitive as I mostly play co-operatively with Doolies and Steven.

Tennis did provide a short release of competitive energy. While it isn't as competitive as basketball--mostly because I don't get the opportunity to wrestle for rebounds or push myself into the box--I refused to lose to Doolies. I'm quicker than her on the court (thanks to my long skinny legs), and I am able to get to the ball faster. I'm also nastier, sending lots of short balls barely over the net for easy points. I won all of our games (we may have tied and ran out of time during the last few games we played). Whenever it looked bad for me, my competitive juices would churn and I would focus intently and begin dinking the balls, scoring easy points and tiring out the Doolies. I miss these opportunities to play (and win!) competitive games.

Looking through my mail today, I received an e-card from my mother. Until I opened it I couldn't figure out why she sent it. Today is our New York wedding anniversary. (I guess it's true what they say about men's ability to remember anniversaries.) As I mentioned in my last anniversary post, we are alternating our celebrations. For my mother (and, in reverse, Doolies's mother), there is no alternating: we were married in New York on July 1st. We're okay with that.