Pickleball and Lasagna Day
Posted on June 3, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Hobbies.
I completely took advantage of day time pickleball play during my time off work last week. Karen and I managed to arrange a pickleball play date with Jimmy and Michael by bribing them with her delicious lasagna.
Anyway, the day before our reservation, Jimmy asked me if I could reserve the second court because Tavon was in town and wanted to play. He said if I reserved the court, he could find three other players to complete the roster.
I knew of Tavon (because he’s a really good player) but I hadn’t met him personally yet so naturally I jumped at the chance. I quickly got the second court reserved and told Jimmy to proceed with finding the three other players.
I also immediately texted Karen and told her that we would be playing with Tavon. She was utterly confused because our appointment was with Jimmy and Michael so I had to explain the whole reserving the other court thing and then I asked if there would be enough lasagna for everyone. LOL.
Jimmy invited Han, Mark, and Cody to round out the roster. However, Cody had to work so I asked if Chris could take his place instead since I had a lesson with Chris that afternoon and he was coming early to eat lasagna with us anyway. Basically, he would just come a couple of hours early to play with us also.
Not only did I get to meet Tavon last week but I got to play with him too. And, it’s not very often that Chris is available to play with just regular folk so it was a real treat. Even playing with Jimmy and Michael is a privilege because Jimmy can be really picky with who he plays with (often you have to bribe him with food or drinks to get him to play – unless you’re one of the super elite guys).
Here are some of our photos from that day…
This was a pretty stellar group. I can’t believe I got to play with these guys (from top left: Chris Heck, Karen Fox, Tavon Morrow, Hanbeen You, Mark Narongvate, Michael Cheung, and that’s Jimmy Cho on the floor).
When Karen and I planned our outfits, we had no idea that we would accidentally coordinate with Tavon too.
Karen thought of everything. She even had individually wrapped utensils for everyone. And, she brought Ferrero Rocher chocolates for dessert.
I was good and only ate one piece. I would have had seconds normally but I didn’t want to be a pig in front of everyone. Also, I had my lesson after so I didn’t want to overeat and feel bad during.
Karen’s lasagna is amazing. We ate every bit of it until there was nothing left.
We hung out and visited while we ate. It was super nice because I don’t normally just get to sit and chat with people. Most of the time we’re in the middle of a game and don’t really get a chance to visit. It was really refreshing.
After lunch I had my solo lesson with Chris. He is such a great teacher. I have learned so much in the time that he’s worked with me. I feel like I’ve improved so much since that fateful date in January when I took my first lesson with him.
Anyway, I had a couple of errands (met with my group fitness coordinator at VASA to get brought up to speed on resuming our group fitness classes and the procedures we are to follow to ensure everyone’s safety; and then had my first post-COVID waxing at Beau Monde) before going home to feed the girls and freshen up before my next pickleball appointment.
Pickleball that night was at Chicken N Pickle with Mark Smith, Gregg Smith, Kim Shea, Brooke Ayala, and Kim Knotts. We had a pretty good rotation. However, while I was waiting Brad (another pickleball friend) grabbed me to play with them because they needed a 4th to play with them while they were waiting for one of their other friends who was coming all the way from the West side. As I was playing with this group, guess who walks by — Tavon. Apparently, he had multiple pickleball play times scheduled that day too.
This was the most perfect day of pickleball I’d had in a long time. It wasn’t even that I played particularly well because I didn’t. It was just so nice spending time and playing with these wonderful people. I feel so blessed that they let me play with them. I sometimes wonder how I got so lucky because I know I am definitely not getting invited because of my skill. I often joke that what I lack in skill I make up for in cute outfits. It might just be my way of overcompensating. I’m like the guy who drives a fancy car because he has a small penis. LOL.
I’m taking lessons though, so I am getting better. But now the cute outfits are kind of part of thing. Extra bonus when my friend Karen and I match. I just enjoy everything about pickleball, from playing to friendships to matching outfits.
That’s all for now. Until next time. GNG.
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