Rope!

Did anyone play tetherball when they were young?

Last night I went to the yoga class at the Y. I was hoping to see Erin there. It's been almost a month since I saw her last and I wanted to give her the gift that I got for her. We're already out of the Christmas season so any further delay and it probably would have turned into her birthday gift. She was a no show, so I got to have the women all to myself. Oh yeah... ;-P

When class was let out, I drove over to her house expecting that she would be there so that I could give it to her. Ha! Me and my expectations.... So I get there and no one's home. So I try to think about how I can get this gift into her house. I've broken in before. No big deal. I try the door. Locked. I try the mail slot. Not wide enough. The porch sliding window. Locked. Hmmm... that's unusual. The secret hiding place for the spare key? The key is gone. Where'd she put it? The garage. Locked. When did she get a lock for this? I was locked out! Unbelievable . It's great that she's safe, but damn...

So I give up and on the way back to my car I notice in the yard that a tetherball was set up. Now. I haven't touched a tetherball since I was in third grade and living in Idaho. Tetherball was real big there. If you didn't play tetherball, you were jump roping or skipping around the place with the girls. If not with them, then you were hanging out with the future potheads of America by the lunchroom dumpsters. Every recess, we'd get into lines and play the "kings" of the various tetherball poles. There were four of them and if they ever got dethroned, it didn't take them long to get back. But we still had fun trying.

I admit it, I was terrible. But I suppose it made every win that I did make that much sweeter. Mostly, my problem was trying to connect with the ball. I was always missing or fouling by touching the rope. And even if I could finally wrestle control of the ball, I could not angle the trajectory so that it would go above my opponent and then back down towards me.

So I looked at this tetherball. It's calling to me. Hit me. I hit it. As hard as I could. I put into it all the frustrations of not being able to break into a house and all those times I got beat in third grade. I connect with it and cause the ball to to make it's first revolution around the pole. And when it comes back to me, I am determined to hit back the opposite way. And just like all those times before--- "ROPE!"

Crap. I still suck.