There Is A Monster In My Bedroom

There's a monster in my room. It's not under the bed. It's not hiding in the closet. Or behind a door. There is a monster that appeared in my bedroom during the days I was on my Spring Spa Vacation in Minneapolis. It has a number as well as a name. It's number is 217. The name of my monster is The Tennis Channel. Just so it's clear, I'll not be leaving the house from now on. I have The Tennis Channel. This is now the third time I've seen Rafa beat Del Potro and next up, again, is the riveting match between Roger and Djokovic. It's after midnight. My monster stays up late and doesn't scare me a bit. I wonder how much more my novel characters are going to obsesss about tennis now. One of them is already a part-time tennis teacher, I hardly dare say pro because her students are not at a country club but show up in the local park. But, oh, the details I could include. Intricacies of racquet stringing. Having models made in plastic for custom orthotics. I'm missing a whole world of tennis paraphanalia. Let's be honest. I still bring my wood, Davis racquet along to the court. Tomorrow is the day before the first day of the rest of my life. The day before Spring. Or sometimes it is Spring. I haven't seen a daffodil yet so I can't be sure. But what I do know is that Spring means spring. I could just write about tennis and bore you all to tears. Or I could go out and play tennis and, so it goes, lose a lot of yellow balls in the dusty field beyond the courts. Time to tone up, tune up, get ready to move some more. I've been challenged by a 23 year old who thinks she can beat me. This monster is starting to get to me, though. It is helping me breathe in and breathe out, tennis, tennis, tennis. My high school ambition was to become a tennis pro. Funny how that turned out. But you're hearing it here first -- or second or third. It is never too late. The monster can stay here and inspire me when I want it but I AM going to get out there and beat the fuzz off those balls. And you can take that however you want.