Remembering Old Friends

Rhea and Benjamin

I remember this picture from when we were doing that stupid stage show a couple of years ago.

Rhea is doing time in India (working, and she apparently hates the city she's in) and Benjamin is in Germany working. They are getting back together next year. Rhea is my wife's classmate from  kindergarten through high school and those two have been close friends almost forever. Benjamin is her half-Bengali boyfriend. Bengali father, German mother. These two prove that sports can be educational. Rhea paid her way through college in the US on a tennis scholarship and Benjamin played league soccer in Germany to put himself through college.

For those who fancy themselves budding tennis players, as I sometimes do, it is sobering to play a game of tennis with Rhea. You will not leave with your ego intact.

I've never tried playing soccer with Benjamin, and I don't even want to try. I used to be a passably good soccer player myself at one time and was totally crazy about the sport, but now, well...let's just say that I couldn't trap a soccer ball if you slathered it with krazy glue and threw it directly at my feet. I feel like crying every time I see myself play soccer now. All the grace is gone. I look like a small, mentally disturbed dinosaur trying to do a mating dance. Pathetic.

Benjamin and me used to play billiards, though. The rivalry shall continue when he's back.


Postscript:

I need not feel so bad about my tennis game. I've just been pointed to Rhea's official NCAA ranking. It appears that she ranked 12th across the Eastern United States in 2002. Here's the list (Click here) -- Rhea's name (Rhea Bose) is the 12th name in the Eastern Zone rankings. I'm guessing that this means something. So maybe I am not too bad a tennis player after all, eh?

Who am I kidding?