A good day at the US Open

With Donna Young and Lori Chase.

What a difference a year makes.

Donna and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip we took Friday to the US Open on the bus from the Enfield Tennis Club, where we met up with our friend Lori Chase. It was much better than last year because, (a) we knew the ropes, and (b) I wasn't just a month out of surgery like I was the year before.

Knowing the ropes meant going straight to one of the field courts, Court 7, and watching a good women's doubles match instead of wandering around, and then when we went to our seats in the nosebleed section of Arthur Ashe, following the lead of other carpetbaggers who did not go all the way up. You can do this earlier in the tournament and if someone comes, you just move back a little. Hence we had a good view of a three-set battle between Venus Williams and Sara Errani and were able to get in on the excitement by cheering Venus on. (She lost in the third set tie-break.)

After lunch we had good seats on Court 17 where we saw Roberto Bautista Agut win the match that will pit him against Roger Federer next.

It is just amazing to sit so close and see how hard they hit the ball.

Happy on the bus.

The other good news is that I did not get totally dehydrated in the heat and then proceed to drink two vodka lemonades made in a special glass with a list of the Open champions on it, and that I did not proceed to feel very sick in this scene that Donna and I can laugh about now: We needed half an hour to get back to the bus (scheduled to leave at 6:30), but we left too late, and our friend Deb Doner was walking at a very fast clip ahead of us and telling us to get a move on or we would miss the bus. Deb even wanted to get a pedicab for me, but all were full. Donna, who had stayed back with me, called ahead, "I can't pick her up!"

The bus of course did not leave without us. But let's just say that when I got on I did not feel well enough to eat the walnut chocolate chip brownies that the organizer of the trip brings every year.

This year we left plenty of time and even had a chance to wait on the grass and enjoy the day for a few more minutes.

I had my brownie, covered myself with my jacket and fell asleep, visions of tennis balls dancing in my head.