Weekend Of Ups And Downs

I was all set to have an exciting holiday weekend and come back here weaving golden tales of adventure, championship moments and debauchery. But all I have to show for my weekend is some exhausted legs that I'm icing right now because they're that sore. I guess I had high expectations, since it was Memorial Day Weekend which on the scale of "Awesome Sexy Holidays"ranks above Secretary's Day, but below Christmas.

Boring isn't always bad though. For instance, that O.J. Simpson car chase sure was exciting. But then he got framed for murdering his wife and her lover, so that's not the good kind of exciting. Similar to that, my weekend wasn't the bad kind of boring. In fact, when I compare it with some other people's more exciting weekends, I'm pretty sure I'd choose mine. I say "pretty sure" since boredom can be awfully, well, boring.

My Weekend (Boring)

On Friday, I got out of work a bit early and went down to SoHo to lunch on burgers and fries. Well, my friend got fries, while I got fried pickles, which aren't as good as you might think. They taste just like hot pickles. Afterwards, I stopped in the Adidas store and bought myself a tshirt to add to my tennis clothes collection (i.e., fetish). I had a tournament coming up, and my first match was the next day.

I came home on Friday night and caught up on DVR and packed my tennis bag for the next day. I opened a bottle of wine too, and a bottle and a bowl of pasta later, at around 11:30, I was ready to hit the sack, after watching half an hour of North Country.

Saturday, I met a friend in the morning to play an hour of tennis to warm myself up for the forthcoming events. Then at around 2:30PM, I schlepped out to Flushing Meadows to play in a tennis tournament. I was excited and brimming with confidence. I've been playing a lot lately and winning a lot. So I was ready to do well. Well I got on to the court and built a lead. I was up 4-0 in the first set, and then just lost it. I was embarrassed. All of a sudden, it was like I didn't know how to hit the ball. The second set was more of the same. I was up 4-2, when I lost it again. In all, I lost the match 6-4 7-5. I was too depressed to stay in Flushing and have good Asian food (Malaysian, Chinese, Korean--take your pick). So I just came home, wondering what happened.

All was not lost on Saturday though. I finally got to make my first visit to the taco truck on 96th street! OMG, I already wanna go back. Those tacos were so good. Actually I thought the tamales and sopes were even better. I somehow ordered three tacos , three sopes and three tamales though, which is enough food for four people. I should learn to speak Spanish one of these days.

I had my consolation match on Sunday. On Sunday morning, I ate some breakfast and watched some Nigella. Then, I left my apartment, and again schlepped out to Flushing "Toilets Are Welcome" Meadows. I thought I had gotten over my performance from the day before. But I pretty much shanked my consolation match and just lost it. This time I didn't even build a lead. I just had one of those days where nothing went right.

Bummed, I crossed the border and returned to Manhattan. I had time to squeeze in another tennis game with a friend in the late afternoon on Sunday. I redeemed myself, and played like the wanna-be pro that I am. Then, later on Sunday, I met up with one of my neighbors to catch Indiana Jones. We were actually supposed to see it with two other friends of mine, who are fans of my neighbor, but through some theater sold-out showtimes drama, we actually couldn't all get together. Nonetheless, it was a nice way to end the normal part of the weekend. Oh and Indiana Jones is worth seeing. Harrison Ford & Karen Allen are a little creaky around the joints, but it's good enough. And Shia LeBoeuf is growing on me.

Monday, I played tennis yet again in the morning (all in all, I played about 10 hours this past weekend). Then on my way home, I spent an obscene amount of money at Balducci's. But I cooked a yummy dinner and paused wistfully to marvel at my good fortune.

A Coworker's Weekend (Moderately Exciting)

At work today, a coworker recounted his tale. On Friday night, he went out with a group of friends. Two of the people at the outing were an engaged couple among a group of single friends. At one point late in the night, it became painfully obvious that the female of the engaged couple was hitting on my coworker. These were not innocent moves that a guy might hop is flirting like accidently touching his hand or complimenting him on a joke. No. This was the undeniable come-on of grinding your ass into someone's crotch which is probably the equivalent of asking a guy if he has porn they could watch together.

This, of course, raised many questions from me about the ethics of the situation.

Me: "I think there's something wrong with the relationship and the girl doesn't want to get married."

Coworker: "I wouldn't want to get involved with her anyway. She's psycho."

Me: "But are you going to talk to her about it--when she's sober--and ask if anything's going on?"

Coworker: "I could be a hero, I guess, and save the day."

Me: "But what if her fiance hunts you down...."

Coworker: "Oh I could take him...."

Me: "What if he has a gun?"

Coworker: "Well, then, yes. He would have the upper hand."

See what I mean? Would I trade being embarrassed on the tennis court for the possibility of being shot? No way!

A Brother Of A Friend Of A Friend's Weekend (Very Exciting)

Another friend of mine told me the story today of a friend of his. Now I'm not sure if this actually happened this past weekend (I don't think it did, but I forgot to ask), but for the purposes of this blog post, let's just say it did. Go with me here. You'll see my point eventually.

My friend's friend's brother is a Senior in college and lives off-campus with a roommate. He's also been dating a girl for almost a year and they're pretty serious.

His roommate wants to go on a road trip, but my friend's friend's brother has too much work to do. His girlfriend wants to go, and my friend's friend's brother says fine. Now, unless the roommate is gay, I don't know why any guy would allow their girlfriend to go on a road trip with some other guy. But maybe I'm too uptight.

A couple weeks later, my friend's friend's brother comes back to his apartment to find that his roommate has moved out and subsequently MOVED IN WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND! So far all my friend's friend's brother has gotten out of either of them is messages of how sorry his now ex-girlfriend is and how she hopes they can stay friends, but nothing from the former roommate. On top of it all, it seems that his roommate has never even had a girlfriend before. So the first one he gets, he steals!

Now maybe this situation isn't "exciting," per se. But it sure isn't boring. I would be having Machiavellian fits of outrage if I were in this situation. This is so daytime talk show material! Very exciting! But not good exciting.

So when it comes down to it, who had the best weekend? Me, losing a little respect on the tennis court but ultimately having some tasty tacos and learning about crystal skulls? My coworker who might get shot? Or my friend's friend's brother who, I can only imagine, would read this and think "Boy, you get to play tennis, hang out with your friends, catch a flick and have some good food -- yeah, you've got A LOT to complain about."