The Golf Course

Not only is it a home for the coyotes, deer, and my sister's runaway bunny, R.I.P. B-Bop Mac Dre, but it is basically right where I live too. Its steep and slender grass hills are great qualities for ice blocking, frisbee, and throwing tennis balls for my dogs...and golf too, I guess. I have yet to ice block, but it is on my to-do list before I move back to the city. Every now and then I will play the course with my dad, but I live for the golf carts; I love golf carts, except for the one incident that happened 2 years back when my family and I visited my grandparents in the Villages over Thanksgiving break. My sister and I decided to take a little drive in my grandparents' golf cart, since that is the only thing people drive nowadays in Florida, and I wanted to be the driver. As we approached a tunnel, at 5 mph, another cart was coming our way. I freaked out and slammed into the tunnel wall; my sister fell out, I crashed into the other cart, one of my cart's hub-caps fell off, and my sister almost dislocated her shoulder. I don't understand why, but this is why I am not allowed to drive golf carts anymore.
Similarly at the tennis club, I also face discrimination from the adults at the golf course. This gold course is public, not that amazing, and it is full of middle aged men trying to play golf while drinking a beer with a cigarette in hand. Yet, when I show up to play with my nice set of clubs in my keds, the guy tells me I am not allowed to play because I don't have golf shoes on. Doesn't make sense to me.

The Club

There are two "clubs" where I live. The 2 a.m. club where parents like to party it up and the tennis club. Every weekend my best friend Katie and I have a routine; we bike down to the club, play some tennis on the ball machine, because we are at different levels, say hello to our friend Pegasus, or Raphael, then we split a chinese chicken salad (chicken on the side, extra crispies), and a grilled cheese with ketchup along with two APs. There are pros and cons about the club. One con is that it is old people central. They think they can play tennis, but they are simply overly competitive and they also have the authority to kick kids younger than 18 off a court...I know, lame. Every time I go to the club I am simply not welcomed by any of the adults; the one of few times I was noticed was for my tennis skill, obvi. Another con about the club is that it doesn't have a wii near the TV; any place that doesn't have a wii needs to get one. The pros of the club are that it does have delicious food that I can charge to my club account, so I don't need money. The club is also conveniently close to my house and it has a ping-pong table...I know, right? My sister and I especially enjoy the ping-pong table when she visits from college and as we finish a 40 minute session of tennis, we like to "get some diet cokes and talk about our feelings," as she likes to put it.

Pearl's Phat Burgers

One of the local food places for all ages is Pearl's Phat Burger; notice instead of fat, it is phat, as in cool. When I feel like a hamburger and fries, or sometimes the occasional "frings", I go here. When I first started coming here with my older sister, we immediately became creeped out by the older cooks who put their numbers on my sister's hamburger container...but that didn't stop us from coming to get our two diet cokes and chili cheese fries; it is pretty evident that this place is pretty delicious if we still keep going. Luckily, the cooks don't work there anymore...I never found out why exactly... Anyway, I didn't grow up in Marin, but I have lived here for 5 years and Pearl's has always been a place I go to at least once a month. If you are looking for somewhere to have a diner meal, Pearl's is the place to go; if you are looking for a flock of Tam kids on a Friday night, Pearl's is also your place.