September Flew By, Bringing Age and Bucket List Fulfillment!

WHIRLWIND . . . that's the best word for my past month. BLESSED, too!

It began with my birthday, the 60th, celebrated at home with Toby, Kacie, Brenna, and Elliott before flying the next day for a brief but nice visit to Raleigh to see my parents, brother and his two youngest children and significant other, then on to New York City for a totally fulfilling celebration. My law school friend, Deloris, came from Paris; my college friend, Dick, helped us get 6th row center tickets to see Jersey Boys, friends and family came over to our rented Times Square apartment for a Sunday birthday brunch, and --BUCKET LIST ITEM--we attended the U.S. Open Championships at Flushing Meadows. After Friday night dinner, theatre, and watching Nadal on a chic bar's tv, our first "day session" went until 9:30 at night, including a 4-setter between Federer and Hewitt, a 3-setter between Maria Sharapova (best outfit) and America's new love, Melanie Oudin (who won in a third set tiebreaker), and then a match that went to a fifth set tiebreaker between the tall, young American John Isner and Andy Roddick. What a day! The next day, we enjoyed socializing over brunch, then saw Clijsters beat Venus on tv before heading to see Zvonareva melt down in her match against Pennetta and then Murray-Dent. I liked watching women more my size than the 6-footers! On Labor Day, Deloris and I headed out to see Soderling beat Davydenko from seats just 10' from the baseline, then to catch an unknown to us who would become a semi-finalist (Yanina Wickmeyer). Out in the open space of the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, we enjoyed the Oudin-Petrova match on the giant screen, with thunderous applause from the stadium, and then a kind soul gave us his night session tickets and we saw Wozniacki defeat Kuznetsova and the first (easy) set of Djokovic/Stepanek.

Tuesday, at my sister and friends insistence, I ventured over to Frederic Fekkai to get my hair cut. Then Toby (great sport for all this, since he's not naturally a tennis fan) took me to my dream -- box seats, close and center-court at Arthur Ashe, for a night match with my favorite, Rafael Nadal, against Fernando Verdasco. The weather was perfect, the seats were great, Nadal won, and afterwards, he was so gracious, staying for almost 45 minutes signing autographs and smiling. I got within inches of getting my t-shirt signed. I was in HEAVEN! What a way to celebrate. Made me feel young and foolish! And most grateful!