game set match in the hood
it’s saturday and on friday, since i was hungover and dehydrated, i got up at 8 am as i tend to do and went to the gym where i think i saw a couple of the real world dc cast members, but didn’t see any cameras so they were probably just a couple of young, annoyingly good looking, rugrats of the mtv kind.
at eleven i had an appointment to meet kai for tennis so after the gym, i drove over to his building to pick him up, parked illegally in the loading dock area and called up. he said, “i’ll be down in five”.
twenty minutes later, he comes down.
all the courts were packed. of course. holiday, beautiful and sunny. why wouldn’t they be.
ps. i’m watching Dirty Dancing. “go back to your play pen…Baby”
oh, sorry…where was i? oh yes, trying to find a tennis court. so the P st. courts were out. then we tried a couple we often play on in the capital hill neighborhood and there were three problems with that:
one. there were already people on the courts.
two. one of said people was a large woman in pink who was basically worthless on the court and i’m like nope.
three. of the two other couples waiting to play, one was an elderly couple (which is cute) but i don’t think i could stomach watching old people play tennis (which would be ick)
so we think maybe we can go to these courts across the high way, sort of more nearer to the hood. but we get lost.
pps. i think i’m going to play the dirty dancing soundtrack while i’m watching dirty dancing and writing about it. they are practicing the lift.
which takes us deeper into the hood. but we find a lonely court off half street. or something like that. the court is pristine and probably never used since black people don’t play tennis. so know that we were the only white people for miles and know that anyone mentioned from here on out is not white (unless i use the words “I”, “me” or “kai”–the people i’m referencing ain’t white) and i parked my car on the street just behind where we were playing and these are the reasons, being so close to our countries birthday, that i’m a bad person:
one. anytime someone walked by my car, i had to watch to make sure they were not breaking into it, stealing it, keying it, tagging it or shooting it. awful i know. this made playing tennis very difficult. it was like checking your blind spot every three seconds while driving. finally kai had to say something like “tennis isn’t going to work if you’re watching your car every time some one walks by it!” true.
two. two kids across the street were setting off fire crackers and i dove for cover every time.
three. stashing our stuff (gym bags, phones, etc) to the side of the court, i made sure to keep my keys in my pocket should anyone grab and stuff and run, we’d still have a ride home. i might not have money, credit cards, i.d., phone, etc…but we’ll have a ride.
four. i noticed an abundance of sirens in the neighborhood, and two cop cars and an ambulance parked on the block. i’m sure they were there just gettin’ ready, like, “oh shoot, there’s white people playin’ tennis in the hood…well, we’ll just keep the engine running.”
sigh. anyway.
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