I may be training for my first marathon now, but I didn’t always love to run. (See how I started loving running here.)

I started playing tennis when I was 10, and I was hooked. I don’t know what it was about tennis, but it put me in my happy place. Some people imagine the waves of the ocean when they’re in a stressful situation; I used to imagine a tennis ball going back and forth over the net. (Weird?) I played every single day between the summers of ‘97-‘99, and I met some of my best friends playing tennis.

Unfortunately, I don’t play much these days because it’s so damn hard to play in NYC. You have to pay $100 for a permit and still wait at least an hour for a court. You have to find someone to play with you. You have to travel to a court. With running, I can tie up my shoes and go.

But U.S. Open time is still one of my favorite times of year. I usually go with Eileen, who gets tickets at a good discount through her job. But since she’s on vacation right now, she asked me if I wanted her tickets, so clearly I said yes, and I brought Laurel. We saw Federer play some Argentinian guy and Venus Williams play some Italian girl. While it was awesome being there, the matches were kinda dull because they were so uneven in terms of ability.

It was a gorgeous night for some tennis. (That’s Mayor Bloomberg on the monitor. Alec Baldwin was there, too!)

I got tacos to eat:

Anyone wanna go again? I can’t get enough tennis!