Kelly’s Unnecessary Blog

In an alternate universe, maybe dogs would be allowed on the lawns at Wimbledon. In an alternate universe, maybe I???d still be in London.

It has only been half a month since I returned from my London vacation, but already it???s a distant memory and hardly feels like it happened at all. Maybe I was just dreaming that I finally got to meet the world???s best dog, Casper. Maybe I was just dreaming that puny little me was actually inside the ground at Wimbledon. I stepped off the airplane with no plans of how to spend my nine days in London, except knowing that I wanted to go to Wimbledon because I was there during the time of the tournament.

In hindsight, I probably should have walked around looking at things more, since I was there. It was the day of the men???s semifinal matches and once Dan and I found a prime spot at the base of Henman Hill from which to watch Andy Murray???s match, we didn???t much move.

Dumb as it sounds, it was very exciting seeing in person things that I had seen on television for years. There were Centre Court and No. 1 Court. There were the prim and proper ushers keeping everyone in place. There were off-duty ball-boys and -girls giggling with each other. There were rowdy fans demonstrating national pride. There were the proper strawberries and cream; we had stopped at Tesco and bought some there.

And let???s not forget that there was yet another large hill to climb to get to the neighborhood. It seemed like every day, there was a breath-sapping hill to climb. Perhaps it was the alternate universe. In my previous visits, I sure didn???t remember London as being so hilly, except for getting up to the observatory at Greenwich.

We took Casper out to parks a few times. Maybe when he was chasing his beloved tennis ball he was really thinking about running on a finely dressed grass court at Wimbledon. It would have been a gas to set foot on a court. I remember what a cheap thrill it was when I took five steps out onto the field once at the Metrodome here in Minneapolis. In an alternate universe, maybe I would be a tournament finalist.

Okay, back to reality.??