The Deuce Club, 3.12
By Jackie Roe, TW Social Director
Hi there, TWibe. I’m auto-posting this, as at the time this goes up, I’ll be in sunny Indian Wells! For those of you attending the tournament, don’t forget about our TW gathering tonight (Friday, 3/12), following the Hit for Haiti, at The Beer Hunter.
For the past several days – oh, who am I kidding, it’s been weeks! – I’ve spent almost every waking hour thinking about and preparing for this trip. Even though I’ve been to a handful of tournaments, the anticipation hasn’t waned in the least; you’d never know that this wasn’t my very first live tennis experience! Heck, you might think I was about to play in the tournament, what with all this giddiness and anxiety.
Apparently, all of the excitement has hampered my ability to pack efficiently. It’s become a complex, multi-step process: Weeks ago, I started a couple of lists. One of items I needed to buy, another with what I needed to pack. Eventually the two lists morphed into several scraps of papers and Post-Its that I somehow managed to keep straight. (There’s always a method to my madness.) Then, last weekend, I did an inventory of all of my summer clothes, which is presently organized in various piles on my couch. One represents the actual outfits I plan to wear. Another, the “just in case” clothes. Last, the rejects. That’s what happens when a) you very rarely go on vacation and b) you have to prepare for temperatures between 50 and 90! But the piles don’t end there – my dining room table is covered with notes, chargers, snacks, and other assorted travel “necessities.”
The best part? I won’t even look at the “what to pack” list until I’ve already finished packing. And I won’t have missed a single thing. (I’m fairly certain that’s not the point of making a list … )
For a lot of folks, the trip anxiety doesn’t kick in until they’re about to hop on the plane. Oddly enough, with me, it seems to end there. Flying doesn’t bother me in the least, aside from the offensive airplane smell. I’m usually passed out within 15 minutes of boarding. (I just jinxed myself, didn’t I. Turbulence awaits.)
In any case, it’s been a busy last couple of weeks, and I think I’ve done all I can to ready myself for what I hope to be an eventful, relaxing, and memorable vacation. That’s a given if it’s anything like last year’s IW trip. The tournament is just fantastic, smoothly run and set in a virtual paradise. You’ll have to check it out sometime, if you haven’t already.
As I alerted you last week, I’ll be Tweeting from the tournament, so click here to follow me. Hopefully you’ll find my updates marginally entertaining!
Please use this space to talk about your own approach to preparing for trips, IW predictions/results, or anything else that’s on your mind. But before I turn it over to you, I’d like to share a very special report from TWiber Shelley. (This is the third consecutive DC featuring write-ups from TWibers. I think we’re all lovin’ this trend!)
Hit it, Shelley!
When I graduated from college in 2008 (GO TERPS), I knew I wanted to work in tennis but I wasn’t sure how I would get my foot in the door. I applied for jobs with the USTA and various tournaments with no luck. Then, through a friend of a friend of my mom’s (did y’all follow that?), I met a woman who has her own event management company in the D.C. area and mainly plans and runs tennis events.
I e-mailed her last October and she told me about this event she was working on for the Mid-Atlantic Tennis and Education Foundation (MATEF). It was a Hall of Fame dinner along with a silent auction. My job was to get local restaurants, sports teams, etc. to donate items to the silent auction. I was able to get close to 20 items for the silent auction, including several local restaurants, a Washington Nationals autographed baseball, and a Washington Kastles poster signed by Serena and Venus Williams.
On February 27th, close to 150 local tennis enthusiasts and people who have influenced tennis in the Mid-Atlantic region descended on the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, VA. Wayne Bryan was in attendance to MC the live auction. He was great at capturing people’s attention and getting them to bid on all the items. Everyone was there to honor tennis players and others who have influenced tennis in the Mid-Atlantic region, including Stan Smith, Paul Goldstein, and Ken Brody.
Ken Brody is well known in the Mid-Atlantic region because he is the founder of the Tennis Center in College Park, Maryland (TCCP). Four of the U.S. boys that train at the TCCP are ranked in the top 20 in the world junior rankings, which is a wonderful accomplishment for a fairly new junior program. Mr. Brody spoke of his love for the sport, noting it didn’t happen until 22 years ago. He said something along the lines of, when older people fall in love with tennis, they tend to become obsessed with it. That was something I could totally relate to because I didn’t fall in love with tennis until I was 20 years old and have been obsessed with it ever since!
Stan Smith gave a great speech and talked about his Wimbledon win against Ilie Nastase. When he was talking about how long the match was (over three hours), he paused and said, “I was going to say when men were real men and didn’t sit down for 90 seconds on each changeover,” which got a laugh out of the crowd, including me. Matches are so long these days, especially Rafa’s matches (hey – I’m not complaining, just making an obvious statement)! I missed Paul Goldstein’s speech because I was making sure people were getting the auction items they won, but overall it was a great event! We raised some money for MATEF so that children in the Mid-Atlantic region can continue playing tennis.
I hope to help out with other tennis events and pursue further work within the sport, whether on just a voluntary basis or later on as a career (who knows?).
For more information about the event, click here.
Very cool, Shelley. Thanks so much for sharing!
That’s all for now, TWibe. Again, I hope to see some of you on Twitter, and I’ll be back in a few days with an IW report. Wish me luck!
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