Your serve readers..! Huh? What do you mean what am I talking about? Well if you wont simply believe in random blogger vs reader virtual tennis matches I'll explain; you see readers in the lot where my office is located they have recently installed tennis courts and some colleagues and I are planning on rubbing rackets... wait that sounds wrong, the point is we are playing tennis, and at that moment I had a flashback... a flashback to a simpler time, a time known as the summer of '04. *begins flashback sequence*
The time was 2004, the season, well summer... didn't you pay attention before? Anyhow, it was a pretty lax summer, I had just started middle school, and didn't want to do anything this summer, but pizza and pool parties with video game marathons in between. Alas the vast majority of my friends were gone at camps, vacations, and other summer time activities so pool and pizza parties wouldn't be the common thing, nor would the occasional super soaker battle as there wouldn't be enough participants, that said, video games and drawing was what I was planning to do for the first 2 months before my own vacation trip began. Since my friend Jafar was in a similar situation, we decided to make this lazy summer into a team effort, that is until our mothers got mad at us for even thinking of using our summer to lounge around like potatoes, no, they somehow and at the last minute enrolled us into a tennis camp for a month an a half, and that is how this flashback relates to the above.
Anyhow, indifferent to the idea Jafar and I arrived at the Tennis camp of sorts where we met our future tennis-mates(?) and instructor, I don't recall our instructor's name but I remember there was this young "surfer dude" type guy and his senior coach, a strict Vietnamese gentleman. The classes started off normal, learning the basic swings, forehands, backhands, volleys, etc. Then they evolved into the occasional singles match and then spin off games like Tennis Baseball and Jail Break (I liked Jail break, it was fun and the whole class could play), as the first month ended, we were paired into doubles for the end of camp tournament. Of course Jafar and I had great chemistry and were paired up, I remember 3 of the other teams in specific, these two girls (I hate to say this but I believe I only remember them because they were the only competent female players there/ but I know for a fact they weren't the only girls at the camp), this team of a pudgy kid and a whiny blonde kid named Jared, Jared stands out in my memory for never wanting to try anything new, or complaining about anything and everything that he didn't agree with, I also remember constantly pissing him off because Jafar and I would call him Stoop Kid. Stoop Kid, for those who don't know was a reference to the Hey Arnold cartoon on Nickelodeon, Stoop kid referred to a kid who would never leave his stoop, he was afraid to do or try anything that involved leaving his stoop, so we compared Jared's unwillingness to try new spin off games to that character, much to his disdain, but everyone else's enjoyment... Well everyone but senior Vietnamese coach, he didn't seem to like us much...
Last but not least there was this round Indian boy named Sonny, and a young Asian child named Mini, they didn't talk much but were alright at the game and had good synergy on the court.
The summer continued and teams started getting knocked out of the tourney and despite neither of us being particularly gifted at the sport, Jafar and I made it to the summer tennis finals!! Our chance for the coveted whatever cup trophy was very real and we were ready to go, our last obstacle was the silent duo of Sonny and Mini, the two didn't seem too expressive but we didn't let their silence rattle our nerves, we were ready for the win. It was an intensely close match, we ended up getting into a deuce and we simply couldn't keep the advantage but neither could they, as the intensity rose, the hour became late, the game had to end in a tie, but regardless, Sonny and Mini ended up taking the trophy home...!! Vietnamese couch gave them the win, now it may have been because they played the sport with a less cynical approach than we did, or it could be racism, just because Jafar and I were both half Hispanic the Vietnamese couch let us fall (he could possibly be voting for Trump in this year's election as well lol). In the end, we felt cheated, we left that court, sour, bitter, and with an impromptu song in our hearts; The song was like a terribly done parody of the existing song "Christmas Shoes", as song that both Jafar and I cannot stand as it was over played and it forced sentimentality, which we were not about, we both hate those who self-pity, like Sonny and Mini... and it went something like this;
♫"It was almost finals time, and they both stood in line
Training for the last minute or two, Jafar and Luis not in the mood
Sonny was swinging anxiously
Mini was doing fake power ranger kicks as all minis do
and in their hands, they held their rackets, and balls too
And they were sad and desperate, sweating from head to toe
and when it came time to play
the coach couldn´t belive what he heard them say;
♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪
[Chorus: sung by Sonny and Mini]
Coach, we wanna win this trophy, for our mommas please!
It´s the final match, and we´re not all that good...
Could you hurry coach, cuz it´s almost game time...
Ya see, they´ve been losers for quite a while! (like us)
And this trophy would make em´smile!
And we want em´to look beautiful, when we win a tied game... Toniiiiiiiiiiiiight!
They tied their shoes for what seemed like years
Mini counted the balls and said, "There's not enough here!"
They got more from the bin
Turned to the coach and puppy-eyed him
Our mommas made tennis good at our house
His name's Mini like the mouse
Tell us coach what are we gonna do?
Somehow we gotta win this tennis game
They got in their places, the coach just had to help them out
for he´ll never forget the look on their faces, when they said
We´re so lame that if we win, momma´ll think we´re great!
♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪
[Chorus: sung by Sonny and Mini]
Coach, we wanna win this trophy, for our mommas please!
It´s the final match, and we´re not all that good...
Could you hurry coach, cuz it´s almost game time...
Ya see, they´ve been losers for quite a while! (like us)
And this trophy would make em´smile!
And we want em´to look beautiful, when we win a tied game... Toniiiiiiiiiiiiight!
The four played their match, the doubles were intense
15-luv and then 15-15, 2 fifteens
the boys felt so proud, what drama queens
in the end they were locked in deuce
Time was up it was a tie, J and L didn´t lose
But they´re song was so touching that they won....
Jafar and Luis were cheated, it was done......
[Bridge: sung by the Coach]
I knew I'd caught a glimpse of heaven's love
I helped them beat Jafar and Luis, from help above
I knew that God had sent those little foreign boys
To remind me just what Tennis is all about
♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪
[Chorus: sung by Sonny and Mini]
Coach, we wanna win this trophy, for our mommas please!
It´s the final match, and we´re not all that good...
Could you hurry coach, cuz it´s almost game time...
Ya see, they´ve been losers for quite a while! (like us)
And this trophy would make em´smile!
And we want em´to look beautiful, when we win a tied game... Toniiiiiiiiiiiiight!
[repeat]"♪https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i9G60wvH7Y
Now I know it wasn't perfectly sung, but give us a break we were in our early teens and it was after an unfair advantage, the point is we can't hear the song "Christmas Shoes" now without thinking of what could have been, what SHOULD have been >:P *AHEM* anyhow, remembering said harsh Tennis past, I swallowed my pride and actually stopped blogging at this moment to go out and play, I am now back and am admittedly super rusty after 11 years of hiatus, but I am now planning to do this at least once a week, and then, once I improve, I plan on finding Sonny and Mini and kicking their Christmas shoes to the curve once and for all. (If not in real life, maybe in that new Mario Tennis Game eh?)
All in all I am thankful for that time in that tennis camp, not only did it bring Jafar and I closer together as pals, but it is a semi fond memory I still hold to this day. That said, even if you suck at something, but enjoy doing it, then have fun with it, don't let the Sonnies and Minies in your lives keep you down!!
Therefore I urge you readers, go out there and make the best out of any invitation, it's never too late to get back into something you may have left behind.
 |
| Everyone needs help sometimes, the key is to persevere, even if it's 11 years later |
With that, I'll leave you all on this fine day, I hope this random throwback was as entertaining for you to read, as it was for me to remember.
Much 15-Love,
Wachi
PS. Luis and Jafar still remained friends despite the Tennis summer of despair.
PS. Luis and Jafar still remained friends despite the Tennis summer of despair.
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