TTFN

Every time he said it I could never remember what it meant. Though he told me a thousand times over, it just never clicked, until now.

On Friday August 21, 2009 my family lost a great man.

It was sudden and completely unexpected and has left us all in shock, devastated even.

My Mom is completely and utterly devastated and it’s crushing every fiber of my being.

You never truly know how much someone means to you or fits into your family until they don’t exist anymore. The life-interrupted a few nights a week, the “pinch your fur” my Delta had to endure that secretly she loved, but Miki knew better. The laughter at the family night dinners at the most inappropriate of conversations. I think he was probably the only person besides my Fiancé that could laugh at those topics lol.

He taught me all sorts of useless and obscure information. Like in India they kill female babies until they have a male baby, (I just thought that happened in China). He also steered me towards the Episcopalian Church when I was having a problem with the Catholic Church.

He would give me pointers and hints when I was going for Golf lessons, and for the most part, they worked. He would let me have his Golf magazines when he was done with them so I could read the articles and get hints and pointers from the pros. He introduced my Mom to the sport of Golf. Which she is very good at by the way. They golfed everywhere together: Vegas, Jersey, you name it they went there. I also think this is what she needs now. A hobby and a sport that she can have a positive memory of him and it will keep her busy and in the social environment.

He lived life very loosely. Nothing really bothered him too much. He kind of just ‘went with the flow’. He loved his wine, he loved his golf, and he loved my Mother… Most importantly, he loved my Mother; he loved our family and we loved him just as much. He made my Mom very happy and vis-à-vis. They were the best of friends, they laughed, they cried, they partied, they dined, they golfed, they frequented AC and Vegas.

I tell my Mom to be strong, but I know the feeling. She’s empty inside, which will eventually fill back up, it’s just going to take time. She will be ok though, she’s a strong woman. He would be extremely angry at her if she whittled away, he would want her to continue partying, continue golfing, and continue living until it was her time to hit the Tee, that I’m sure he has already reserved for her.

So Ta Ta For Now Baker.. You are missed greatly.. just keep our clubs clean and shoes ready.. we will eventually have a good day on the course. May all of your holes be Eagles.

Love

T

Keeping Busy for The Winter

Yesterday i signed up for more classes at my former high school. I will be going for another round of Golf lessons starting on March 19th (because i can't remember a damn thing from my last round of lessons). I'm SYKED!


I will also be going back to my Tuesday night Yoga family! Jeanne will be my teacher again. A side note about Jeanne. Last night i received, in the snail mail, a hand written letter from her thanking the few of us that waited patiently in class while she endured a 4 hours Joisey Jam on the Parkway on our last day of class last semester. She also thanked us for not even bringing up the fact that she offered a free class that night, 1 week prior to the Winter semester starting, when we signed up. So in double thanks she's offering a 3 hour double class for any and all that want to attend free of charge one week before classes start. I thought that was extremely nice of her and it really just goes to show you the caliber of woman she really is. I love my Yoga teacher!


My 3rd class is high energy aerobics. That class is held 3 days a week. So on Mon, Wed, and Thursdays i will have Aerobics. Tuesday is Yoga and when my Thursday aerobics class ends Golf lessons start until mid April. Not to mention the workouts on Tuesdays and Fridays at work and all the Wii fit games i play at night my bod is going to be super tight for the Summer! I can't WAIT!

So how are you keeping busy this Winter?

Consistently Inconsistent part duh

I'm so disgusted i can't even write about it anymore..
The putter is easy once you know how to hold the club correctly.. no biggie.. it's a flat surface so putting was a cinch.. Get on a real green where there is a break, then come see me about it.

Prior to putting, George instructed us to hit some balls.. didn't care which club, just practice.. Yeah well i suck.. i don't understand why i cannot grasp, week after week, a very simple swing!!! i mean COME ON!. (yes, for all you golfers out there you can understand my foul mood, perhaps i should not blog after a shitty night at lessons). I don't shift my body, I'm topping the ball.. out of a jumbo bucket, my hybrid and my precious enemy the 5 iron, i hit 3 balls correctly.. 3 BALLS!!! i stopped with 10 balls in my bucket cause i just got so damn fed up. and that's my story.

On to even better news.. the tires are fixed and I'm $512.48 poorer. My next car? a 10-speed. Tubes are just a few bucks.

I hate this week.. i need a vacation and my vacation to W VA. on the 5th just isn't going to be enough I'm afraid.. i think i need to go somewhere warm.. maybe visit some friends while I'm away that i haven't seen in a while.. traveling alone sometimes is good for minimal aggravation.

Consistently Inconsistent

I had my fourth golf lesson tonight. I'd say i totally shot under par if i had to compare.
I don't know if it's because i was rushing around before class that i just didn't focus or what, but it was very off.. my game that is.

Tonight we were to learn the DRIVER. OK, I'll admit i was intimidated by the mere thought, but my suckiness wasn't even with the driver. I brought my best friend, the 5 iron, with me as well in case i got tired of swinging the heavier, more awkward driver. I started off with my 5 iron to get the feel of the motion with my instructor looking on while we waited for all the other people to show up. I was off.. topping the ball, couldn't get my grip right, my right hand was really hurting and getting tons of vibration. The club head kept falling under to the left and i was getting frustrated.. and knowing the driver was ahead made me more nervous because if i sucked this bad with my best friend, the 5 iron, the driver was going to own me.

George let us out of our cages to watch his instruction. He taught us how to address the ball at the tee.. which is very good information to have by-the-way. You see, all clubs in your bag have a different degree of angle on them. The higher the degree the steeper the slant the higher the ball goes and from what i saw it looks as though the shorter the shaft of the club so you have to stand closer to the ball (i guess that would make sense why the sand wedge is pretty slanted and you almost have to stand on top of the ball). The Driver is flatter than all of them, mine having only a 12 degree slant and the men's typically 8 or 9 degree. He explained that for hitting with the driver, the ball's mid-point or horizon line should be at the top of the driver's edge, therefore requiring a higher tee. At address, the ball should be closer to the inside of your left foot. Why? AHA! i bet you thought i didn't pay attention! When you are hitting with your driver, being that it is flatter, you want to have an almost upward motion to get the trajectory. So the farther away from center, (center is in the direct middle of your stance), to the left (for righty swinger, obviously opposite for lefty swingers) you address the ball the better your trajectory because you will be coming up and with a lot of force. You never want the ball on the outside of your stance though.

So here i am at address, my grip was adjusted by George and he's awaiting his star pupil to do her dirty work.. (which is usually topping the ball) I bring the club back, (remembering what my mom's SO told me about the tees to the front and rear), and i let go with as much force as i could muster up with the fear i had of hitting the ground. WHAM! the ball takes off.. to the right. lol,
but i hit it.. i didn't top it which is good. i mean how could you? the damn ball is like 2 inches off the ground and I'm hitting it with a club-head the size of donut. George corrects my grip again and shows me that my shoulders are not correct, and we fix that. I go for swing #2 and WHAM! there it goes! far far away! it started off straight then banked hard right! i swear if there was a wall there i could have cleared it and went around the wall! lol. it was very windy so that might have had a lot to do with it..

I continued to swing like that for a short while.. Then i stopped to take a breather and check my grip and stance and shoulders. I should never have done that because when i started up again i sucked.. I was topping, or missing, or hitting the ground, or slicing HARD right, i even hit the ball so below it that i nearly did a completely straight pop-up! kind of like in baseball when the catcher throws his face mask off, waves his arms and catches the ball! thank GOD there was a roof above us! lol. George came by and fixed me up again and i was back to hitting nearly straight shots.. i can't tell you how far they went because they went so far that it hit the wall of darkness and i lost it at the 100 mark. (there are no field lights there as they will be closing their doors soon to condo developers and the owner doesn't think it's a necessity to turn the field lights on being as they really don't have that many customers anymore. Such a sad day, because that place used to be such a hot spot.. they have a par 3, mini golf, mini race cars, bumper boats, batting cages and the like..)

If i had to guess, i think 1 out of every 5 balls did what it was supposed to do. When i ran out of balls George sent me down to get another bucket to split with a couple of other people and i simply could not get my groove back.. i think i was just exhausted. My hands were hurting from the bum shots with the 5 and the vibrations. So i pawned off a few more balls and hit the remaining 4 that i had and 2 of the 4 went straight and far.. the other two sliced off pretty hard. I packed up my stuff, bid my farewells until next week and went home.

When i talked to Kyle and explained to him my dilemma he put a phrase to it.. "Consistently Inconsistent- you are either going to be good with the Irons and suck with the driver, or vis-a-vis." He was 100% correct! i sure am glad there is a phrase for this dilemma, and that I'm not the only one that has that dilemma! lol i felt better after he gave it a name.

Next week.. The PUTTER!

FOUR!!!!

WOW! WHAT A GOLF LESSON TODAY!!!
Just call me Tigress Woods.. lol

I got in the grove by going to Charlie Browns right after work to enjoy a REALLY GOOD salad and to sit down and read the latest GOLF magazine i received in the mail the other day.. Sergio Garcia is the featured Golfer and i read about Anthony Kim too.. Now I'm TOTALLY in the mind set to take lessons tonight..

Raj and I were the first and only two students there for a while so we had George all to ourselves. He showed us the computer where it takes a video of the golfer.. he showed us pro golfers and how they tee off.. REALLY interesting stuff.. stuff you can't see on TV because it goes WAY to fast.. this machine shows frame by frame what the golfer is doing etc.. Wicked cool stuff! With that he sent us up to our cages for the next hour and 15 minutes. What helped me on my first address was the tip my mom's beau gave me at dinner the other night.. He told me to put a tee 12 inches from the front and rear of the ball and that will help me keep my club straight.. Well i didn't put the tees down, but i visualized it in my head and it worked! George spent about 10 good minutes with me and was instantly happy with my first address and shot.. perfectly straight about 75 yards.. a much bigger improvement from the week prior, and with very little effort.

I was in a BAD funk last week.. don't know why.. but i was topping the ball every single time.. i was frustrated, and the more frustrated i got the worse it got.. my head was WAY to into it.. hold the club this way, bring it back this way, shift your weight, move your hips, blah blah . wah wah wah.. Charlie Brown! OMG it was an atrocity!!! (hmm that sounded eerily like a news cast.. ATROCITY! lol) but i digress.

Today, all the stars must have been in alignment because i sure was.. From the grip on the club to my contact.. i plowed that sucker 125 yards in the air and it was dead on balls straight.. with my 5 iron.. i didn't know a 5 iron can make a ball go that far! I'm still learning about all THAT math stuff with irons, hybrids, woods etc.. so if i sound like i don't know what I'm talking about it's because i don't lol. You may ask.. wow one good shot huh? NOPE, my friends.. out of a jumbo bucket and a 1/2 i can honestly say an ENTIRE jumbo bucket was dedicated to perfect shots.. My teacher was very impressed with my performance this week. Most of the time he wasn't watching me because he was tending to the others but he HEARD my shots.. " I don't need to see you swing, i can HEAR it. It's the perfect sound of club head meeting the ball and then i hear you say ever so quietly wooooooooww.. straight as an arrow. That's when i know you hit a good one. Now next week i want you to bring the driver"

OMG! The driver! that sucker isn't my 5 iron! or my 7 iron! which I've mastered! The driver is heavier!
but as my more positive SO said to me earlier "just think.. it's going to go ALOT farther than your 5 iron"

I guess he has a point.. if i can plow that ball 125 yards with my 5 iron, i certainly can smack it into next week with my driver.. I'm looking forward to it.. BRING IT ON!