Misery Loves Company

My apologies to my faithful reader(s) for not posting last week. I have been so incredibly busy with my upcoming plays that I did not have time to post.

Click here for details by the way.

I really don't have time this week either but I didn't want you to think that I had given up. Rest assured, as soon as my schedule frees up I will be right back at it. Flogging myself as usual.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to play a round of Pitch and Putt golf with my nephew. A strapping young lad of sixteen years. Now I know what you're thinking. "He has his whole life ahead of him. Why are you dragging this poor young man into this nightmarish game?"

The answer is, I am an incredibly selfish human being. For one thing, as you may recall, Pitch and Putt golf is significantly easier and therefore I was able to just kick his ass all over the course. Which is a huge respite from getting my ass kicked by the golf course. For, while I still sucked, I was way better than he was.

Second, it gave me the opportunity to be one of those know-it-alls that I despise. Although in my defense, he would ask me for tips which I was more than happy to provide him with. For you see, even though I don't know much, I definitely know more than he does. (Ego boost.)

Finally, I just enjoyed spending time with him. Yeah, that's right. I said it. He's a cool kid and I actually enjoy his company. I mean it's always a little tricky having one on one conversations with any teenager (no matter how mature and cool they are) but it was really nice to able to bond over a round of mutual suffering.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

"Lay off for three weeks, and then quit for good."

-Anonymous

This week I actually did nothing as far as golf was concerned.

Absolutely nothing.

I didn't tackle the infamous Van Corlandt, I didn't go to the driving range, I didn't even have a brief tune up at the Pitch and Putt. No, this week I chose to take a little break from the obsessive-compulsive behavior of chasing an ecstasy-filled high that the golf game has so stingily provided.

And while I can't say that I've kicked the habit, I can say that it has been a nice little break. It's been nice to have a week that doesn't involve being so driven to accomplish such an elusive goal. It's actually been nice focusing on a couple of other things.

For instance, I've just started rehearsals for 2 plays in rep: Othello and Much Ado About Nothing. I will be playing Othello and Benedick. Click here for details.

But other than shamelessly promoting my acting career, I've enjoyed a fairly relaxed attitude that I hope I can bring to the golf course next week. I will then conquer that golf course and make it run home crying to its mommy.

Now That's More Like It?

"It's not so much the mistakes, it's when you make them."

-Me

On my last round of golf, I set out with the goal of breaking 90.

In my heart, I had the realistic and achievable goal of breaking 95.

I shot a 100.

Now I should be happy about this, right? Wrong. I'm never happy. (I am a golfer after all.) But this particular round was almost more painful than shooting a 109 a few weeks ago. At least when I shot a horrible score, I knew there was no chance whatsoever of reaching my goal. But being so close, and yet so far away, just hurts my soul.

For one thing, I literally had 7 putts that just missed by inches. INCHES. That alone would have gotten me to my goal.

But the overall theme of the day was summed up in the aforementioned quote. As I finished my round, I ran into the course's golf pro. A very nice man who I've actually played with once. He asked me how it went and I said, "It's not so much the mistakes, it's when you make them." Meaning that hitting the ball short isn't the problem, it's hitting the ball short when there's a water hazard in front of you. Hitting to the right isn't bad unless there's a cluster of trees where you hit it. And THOSE mistakes, sadly, were the ones that kept me from my precious goal.

The golf pro acknowledged the brilliance and wisdom of my insight.

But the good news is that I seem to be at the point where I finished last season scoring wise. Maybe there's a chance that I could actually be improving.

Maybe.