Goodbye Melbourne......Hello East Rutherford, New Jersey! :-)

     It's another Monday. A day following a great sports weekend for me. And a great 'virtual' date weekend too! ^_^ We went to Africa and looked at animals and played in the water. Then we popped over to Australia to see the women and men's singles finals of the Australian Open tennis matches. :-)
       In that sense, it was a great weekend...except for some moments of sadness.
      

     Rafael Nadal's moments of sadness were different from mine though. 'Baby Boy' was sad because once again an injury stopped him from being able to play to his full capacity. Although, frankly, I'm not sure his full capacity could have stopped him from being beaten this year! Stan was on fire!!!...I'll tell you more about that in a minute.
      First I wanna mention my moments of sadness. :-( I thought of my friend Nancy all weekend. (Her memorial talk will be this coming weekend.) :-( I thought about how much she liked to have fun, and travel....And I also thought about what a spiritual woman she was, and how she threw her everything into doing things for people. And how sad her former Bible students would be when they heard of her death. :-(
     Thankfully it was only moments of sadness though. Somehow whenever my mind would drift to a sad moment,  it would be followed by a happy or funny moment...like when her and I went pre-wedding shower shopping for negligees for her daughter. ^_^ Oh!...we had so much fun in that store!!!!
      And in between all of the 'moments' there was tennis. :-] ...

     I saw Li Na raise the woman's singles trophy, after beating Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets.

      And I saw Stanislaw Wawrinka, the 'Stanimal' he is now being called, beat my 'baby boy', Rafael Nadal, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in his very first Grand Slam title!! :-] And although I would have liked a different outcome, I have great respect for a good player. And Stan is a great player!!...In fact, he was putting the royal 'beat-down' on my baby boy even before the injury!
      So congratulations to Stan!! :-) ...
 

      Enjoy your victory!...for this year! ^_^ You absolutely deserve it!!! (By the way, if you wanna go to the Facebook page that the photos above came from, just click on the photos themselves.)

     With no more tennis to cloud my view, I have to move on to other sports! ^_^ And thankfully there's no shortage of sports to worry about! :-)) Next weekend is the Superbowl...football!!!! (American football...Not soccer, which is called football in other countries.)
      I'm already packing my bags for East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the Superbowl is being held this year. And I'm setting aside Superbowl finger-food and slider recipes for game day!! ^_^ It almost feels like the weekend already!!! ^_^ ... But it's NOT!! It's Monday. And don't I know it people!!! :-)) I'm like the white rabbit in 'Alice In Wonderland' already this morning...."I'm late! I'm late!...for a very important date!!" LOL
     I have some studying to do...a brooch to crochet...a package to ship out...my hair needs washing...etc....Monday stuff!...YIKES!!..Have a good day, Everybody!! See you tomorrow! ^_^

I only have one brain

There have been times when I felt I needed
an extra brain to remember some stuff.
An extra 'noggin' to handle the chaos,
when my life and my schedule got tough.

A much bigger cranium for non-essentials;
Somewhere to go when my brain wants to bail.
An extra universe inside my skull space,
where I could place all my 'Mental Junk Mail'.

But, knowing my thinking, there's no use
having two places for my mind to stretch.
Two places to toss around ideas.
Just more balls of ideas I can't catch!

My one brain is an occupied scramble.
A pink-celled, forgetful and frustrated mess!
Do I need another brain somewhere,
holding problems that I must address?

No, I have enough things to focus on.
Things so confusing and numerous to do.
So it's a good thing I only have one brain!
What in the world would I ever do with two!

Have You Ever Run?!!

(Track and Field Button Earrings by ButtonUpp)

       No, I'm not talking about the kind of running like when you ran from your mother after you did something wrong! LOL I'm talking about the kind of running where you put on running sneakers, set a course in your head, and took off on the road at a full bolt...Have you ever done that?!

       Just watching the ladies in London run has brought back my own memories. Yeah....I ran...ONCE! And once, for me, was enough! ^_^ And don't get me wrong, it wasn't 'enough' because I hated it. It was 'enough' because of what happened!...I'll tell you about it in a minute. :-) 

    First let me say...in case you're new around here...I LOVE SPORTS!! And while I know that usually sports involves some kind of competition, and that sometimes it's the competition part that can make people crazy, that's not the reason why I love it. I love it mostly because of the way the endorphins you produce while you're doing it, or frankly, when you're watching somebody else do it,  makes you feel....GREAT! ^_^

(Olympic Swimmer Original Oil Painting by khawk99)

      And when you're 'ME', and you're barely sleeping because of a physical issue, and you really need a distraction from your mind trying to take you down a negative road about what all of the lack of sleep and everything are trying to tell you...(but I slept a whole five hours last night though, by the way....Woohoo!!! ^_^)...and there's sports on almost every channel because of the London Olympics, you find out that you REALLY love sports!...and you're really thankful for the ability to appreciate it!

(Beach Volleyball Original Pastel and Chalk Drawing/Painting by artistmitch1974)

       I kinda wish that the sports itself wasn't so connected with where everybody was from though...as if you can't like certain players if they're not from 'your country' and you shouldn't root for certain athletes if they beat somebody from 'your country' in the past. I just think that's pretty silly...I mean, we're all humans with the ability, when we're healthy, to run, jump, strategize, etc...So why does the country that we happen to come from make it the most important thing to talk about when it comes to sports?! (Fully acknowledging that sometimes the country you come from is indeed a factor.)

      Aren't there players from 'your country' that you really don't like the way they play, or that you don't think are the best at whatever sport it is?! O_O Aren't there athletes from other countries that you really love?...Or that you have fallen in love with, because of the back story about how they got to where they are, or because of their work ethic or something?!...All of this is true for me...I find the customs and skill, personalities and language, of people all over the world truly fascinating!

      I won't name the players or athletes that I'm talking about...the ones I'm not that much of a fan of I mean...out of respect for the fact that while I might not like them, I still can appreciate the hard work that it takes to do what they do. I know I can't do it!...even though, in my opinion, their attitude could use some adjustment!...just saying.

(Smash-Original Pastel and Chalk Drawing/Painting by artistmitch1974)

      I like who I like!...wherever they're from...or not from! And I'm sure that the list of who I liked...or didn't like...would be more diverse and maybe even sometimes 'awesome' if the country that I'm from focused as much on people from other countries as they do on the people from their country. :-) ....But that's life as we know it right now. One day the world will be one big happy family, speaking one language...the language of love...But for now, when I get an opportunity to see and enjoy SPORTS....from whatever country, like the London Olympics is displaying, I fall in love with new people..and new sports..and I marvel at the possibilities of how great it could be if we all were allowed to just like who we wanted to without judgement!...Would you still like the same people then?!...Would you say so in mixed company?!^_^

      Now, about my running story...I admit that I probably could have given the running thing a bit more thought...and probably SHOULD have! But it was just such an unexpectedly beautiful day when I came outside, prepared to walk the couple of blocks over to the Post Office. So, taking off and running to the Post Office instead of walking was a spur of the moment thing.

     As I rounded the first corner I was flooded with the emotion of the fact that I was jogging for the first time in my life, and I was in awe of the fact that I wasn't out of breath...or even close to being out of breath! :-) At that moment I just knew that running would be a part of my life from then on!...Then I rounded the second corner...and my bra strap broke! LOL

    I could leave the story right there, and any of you who have a breast size above a "C" cup would totally understand! LOL But I wasn't a "C" cup. I was more like a "DD" cup!! O_O...*Gulp!*...A "DD" cup...and almost 2 blocks from home! YIKES!...Yeah, you guessed it...that was the last time I've ever run. And all of my bra straps, if they could talk, would thank me! ^_^

      I now know that running isn't for everybody! I can love and appreciate running. And my endorphins go into over-drive watching other 'less endowed' women doing it with such joy. But I know that unless my mother, the police, or some other threatening person who I haven't been able to wrestle to the ground and smother while sitting still, is chasing me.....I'm done being a runner!!! LOL

      The only running I do these days is running lines through my mind when I'm trying to develop a poem, or running my fingers through the pages of a book or some crochet pattern or the other to see what I'm gonna come up with next! ^_^ ...Speaking of which...this is what I came up with recently...

      And now...my chattering on this blog post is running on and on! LOL So I'm gonna 'strap it up'. ^_^ Have a good day, Everybody! 

Sometimes

Sometimes you expect a little 'This', and you get 'That'.
Sometimes you will wave away some dust, but it's a gnat.

Sometimes it's an image in the distance that's right here.
Sometimes all the straining isn't worth the things you hear.

Sometimes you will find that 'pretty bad' has got a perk.
Sometimes a vacation is the thing that you call work.

Sometimes conversation meant to heal can go too far.
and sometimes on reflection you are happy who you are.

Sometimes poetry can be so random, and yet deep.
And sometimes it's, upon reflection, thoughts you ought to keep.