Itching to Play

It's very early on Thursday morning. We are flying out of the new Panama City airport mid morning today to start our venture through the Midwest. I am up extra early thanks to an ongoing horrible itchy, hive rash that has consumed my arms, legs and neck. In fact I'm going on day 13 of dealing with this monster. Since the onset of these devil hives, I've been prescribed and treated with creams, lotions, steroid pills, steroid shot, itchy pills, ice. You name it, I've tried it. I get some relief, but no cure yet. The suspected culprit that is causing this is my heart medication, which I've been off of for a bout seven days now. If I could just get my skin to stop feeling like it's crawling! It's driving me crazy. Actually the past two days have been ok, but I wake up around 2 in the morning just itching like a mad dog. I really thought I was better when I went to bed last night. Oh well...what are ya gonna do...just itch I guess.

Back to our road trip.....so we're flying to Columbus this morning to spend four or five days checking on Phil's condo, seeing his boys, seeing all his friends and buddies that I know he misses and most importantly getting his car (which has been sitting in the parking garage up there for the past few months). On Wednesday, we'll drive to St. Louis, about 7 hours, to play in the National Public Parks tournament. My brother and his family live in St. Louis, so it will be fun to see everyone and also great fun to catch a Cardinals baseball game! Our tentative plans from St. Louis are to drive to Little Rock for a day or so. I'd really like to see my Mom and Dad's grave site at the church. From Little Rock, we'll trek on back to Destin. I preface all this driving by saying that Phil is not accustomed to lot's of driving. He thinks the 6 mile drive to work everyday is a road trip in itself! So we'll see how this all pans out. I have a feeling though that once we're out on the open road, it will be fun. Definitely what we call "memory making" times! Everyday will be a new adventure!

We're both eager to play a tournament. Seems like we've been on the practice court forever and now it's time to put it all to good use. Neither of us has played as many matches as we would have liked by now, and we are being realistic about our goals for this tournament. This tournament will be a good stepping stone and barometer for getting us ready for our upcoming fall nationals. It's important for us to keep it all in perspective.

The links to the draws are to the right of this posting. I'll be posting all week, and look forward to the day I can say I'm itch free. Until then, I'll keep on scratchin'!