Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The two things that keep me up at night.




Yup, you guessed it. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, and tennis. Every day this summer, David and I played tennis after work, went grocery shopping, barbecued, and watched a little something on TV. My world has now come crashing down, along with the Dow, now that I can't play tennis in the evenings. When I get on the ferry, I curse the rain, and practically jump out of my skin on the way home because I have so much energy that hasn't been expended. There is something so satisfying about slamming the ball home, hitting the perfect shot after dashing full speed across the court, swinging the racket in perfect form. We got pretty good during the summer days, and now I can feel the tennis muscles in my legs beginning to atrophy. It's been a week and a half since we played, and already, I'm turning into a couch potato.
Yes, this was something that woke me up at 3am. Images of myself gaining weight and losing muscle. My brain weighing the options. Expensive tennis club? Or no tennis? Will we use it if we join? Will we be able to secure a court on a regular basis? Will David feel comfortable there? Will I like the people? Maybe I should just take a workout bag and exercise at the Fisher Plaza gym every day. No, I don't want to be at work longer than I have to. Plus, are you kidding yourself? Tennis versus a treadmill is no competition. These were the thoughts swirling in my brain that I couldn't stop, so I did what any reasonable woman would do, I woke up my boyfriend.
"David I can't sleep."
"Neither can I. I'm thinking about work. You?"
"Tennis."
"Tennis????" He says incredulously.
"Tennis. I really, really, really miss playing and can't stand the thought of not playing for 8 months cause remember last year we couldn't play until June and now I feel my legs atrophying and I have so much energy and I can't stand it."
"You could go downstairs and play tennis on the Wii."
"ITS NOT THE SAME!"
"Well, we could join the club if you want."
Ok, well, after that was settled, David and I began talking about the economy, yes, to get my mind off tennis. Then the economy started worrying me way too much. We talked about how the world stock markets are crashing, how the Dow was down 800 points and 10,000 somethings and whatever the hell that means, but yes, it sure is bad because it hasn't dropped 10,000 somethings since 2004, and that is BAD. We then started talking about how this could affect our lives and maybe someday we won't be able to buy a house, and how violence will go up because people are poor and angry. Finally, we both drifed off the sleep with the Dow and Tennis on our minds.
Luckily, this morning I'm feeling pretty good, even though I was awake for about an hour in the depths of the night. I know it will all work out, this crazy life, and if I need to play Wii tennis to sleep at night, so be it.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay, time to shift gears and find a rainy day fitness activity, that you can share. i don't know what indoor recreational opportunities there are on Bainbridge, though. Unfortunately indoor tennis is generally *expensive* unless you go to a community center or college. How about a nice gym, with weight training, spinning and oher classes, etc.? Getting back into obsessive dancing! You guys love that and are good at it. Find something. I am a fitness freak and would go crazy if I went more than 3 days without exercise. :-) I know I LOVED our long bike rides around Portland many weekends this past summer, but those days are probably over. I think we will switch to salsa.

Contact Travis said...

the market is finally starting to worry me as well.

i keep thinking...what if i lose my job...or worse (much worse) what it Curtis loses his (not likely, but who knows?) ... what would happen to us?

We live a comfortable lifestyle, we have savings, and investments, and we own a home...YET..it still feels like in a bad economy...we could be only a few months away from serious trouble if we were unemployed.

Dan-Eric Slocum said...

The only reason I inject levity here is because the situation is dire.

Andy told me about something he heard on the radio. The announcer said, "I wake up in the middle of the night to check the Nikkei and I don't even know what the Nikkei is." Ha.

Kristin. I will be first in line when you write a book.

andrea said...

I'm pleasantly ignorant. I don't understand what's going on, I don't own a home. I'm paying off my credit cards, replenishing my savings (just in case) and well, I live my life. I've heard Isaiah say, "it will be fine, it will all be fine", but it's more like an after thought after trauma. I know he's worried and if he's worried, that worries me. But out of all the worries I have on my large portion sized plate, this is one I don't worry about, why? Cuz I'm ignorant about the stock market.

Anonymous said...

Mark is buying tons of gold and talking of moving to Germany. Me? I've never really had anything so the thought of losing it all doesn't bother me a bit. You can't lose what you never had:)

I have few possessions and really don't want to acquire any. I never bought a place because I always wanted to be able to pick up and leave at a moments notice. Where to? I have no idea but the thought has always been there...weird maybe this is when I will find out and live in Germany

Anonymous said...

Mark is buying tons of gold and talking of moving to Germany. Me? I've never really had anything so the thought of losing it all doesn't bother me a bit. You can't lose what you never had:)

I have few possessions and really don't want to acquire any. I never bought a place because I always wanted to be able to pick up and leave at a moments notice. Where to? I have no idea but the thought has always been there...weird maybe this is when I will find out and live in Germany

Kristin said...

Andrea, everything should be fine, but when things go bad on Wall Street, it hits us as well, and you don't have to understand stocks. It trickles into our lives like a domino effect. Businesses can't get credit, so they can't meet payroll or expand, then they have to lay off workers, who in turn can't pay off their homes and the homes are foreclosed. That results in a bunch of useless debt that no one can pay off, so the government buys it, which obviously hasn't done anything to our economy yet. It's scary, but not as scary when we don't have a mortgage or investments.

Melissa - Germany would be SO FUN!! It would be the perfect time to move to a foreign country, as long as the economic woes don't creep overseas.

Eric - LOVE the quote. haha. Sounds like something I would say.

Sue said...

I'm also worried about the market...how long will I get to be a stay at home mom? Ian wants back in radio, but it's a scary time to be looking. His parents say they've lost a lot of their invested savings already.

Kristin, I love reading your blog! Always interesting and unexpected.

danielskiffington said...

I dont think there is any reason to be worried long-term, especially if there is no need to cash out retirement investments right now. I know my dad has lost many thousands of dollars from his retirement accounts, but even him at the ripe old age of 61 says, it will bounce back.