Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams and TAGLINES

This is the Martin Luther King statue Hal and I went to, in DC.  You don't always have to STAND for something.  But when the moment arises.  It's OK.  If I worked for Adidas right now, or if I were a Real Housewife, I would make my tagline, "Stand for something.  Not EVARAYDAY, but when it WARRANTS it.  Point, Blank. Period." 

I haven't been PROPHESIZING on everything going on in the media with the #metoo movement and Trump and fake news and Facebook and suicide survivor shaming and Op Ed's and families being separated during the immigration "process" and everything else that when I look in, makes me sad.

Therefore, I have been just concentrating on what is in front of me.  And then I get tidbits of how the World is going to HELL in a handbasket thru Instagram and my girls and my friends and my husband and then I investigate said tidbit and stop because it is too easy for me to go down the rabbit hole when something intrigues me, and then something like TODAY happens.

I just sat down to watch the U.S. Open.

Up front, I will just say that I LOUUUUVEEE Serena Williams.  So, I, hands down, wanted to watch her win the title and a grand slam, after becoming a Mom.  But, really after she starred in Beyonce's video for "Sorry".  No apologies and no pun intended.  She is the fucking I Ching.  Again, no specifically Asian pun intended.  I just like the term.

Another thing I LOOOUUUVEE are the Japanese.  I've been there twice and have friends there and I was JUST talking about them today with Hallie, before the match, and ALLLLL of my kids want to go there one day because I love the people so much.

(I have a couple of posts in my archive that I know I am supposed to link here but I don't care.  Look it up.  Search Japan or houseguest, I don't know.)

That being said.  I sat down to watch the match and didn't sit the entire time.  Before the match started, the commentator stopped each in the hall where they had to take their Beats (for Serena) and ear buds (for Naomi) out to be interviewed in the white corridor right before they reached the court.

Serena got a glaze over her eyes and said all of the things that Kevin Costner's character tells Tim Robbin's character when he is interviewed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeVca9MwDX8

Naomi, a virtual deer in the headlights was fresh and gracious and awestruck.

They put their headphones back in and proceed to the court.

Serena for all intensive purposes gets SMOKED in the first set. It lasted like 30 minutes.

Then, the proverbial SHIT hits the fan.

In a series of three fail swoops, Serena gets penalized two points and a game because the ref accuses her of being coached on the sidelines, which according to Chris Everett, "happens all the time" with EVARAYONE.

Serena didn't even see it.  Or maybe she did.  But this blog is about the rules applying to SOME and not ALL.

An exchange ensues.

He accuses her and swiftly punishes.  She is surprised and then processes.  She defends herself.  He flexes his Man muscle - the EGO. She is perplexed and shocked that this is happening.  She slams her racquet and he gives her a second strike. She goes at him again, not during the match, but on break, defends her honor.  He penalizes her again.  She is enraged and will not back down.  He gives her opponent a GAME.  She calls in the supervisors. They are stunned,  and yet hog tied as she is as she pleads her case.

The match proceeds, Osaka is stricken, but wins the match fairly easily with one game to go. I felt like she might have given up a game after the penalty, because the Japanese are so accomodating, but I'm not sure.

Serena is balling.  Naomi is balling.  The crowd is booing.  Serena asks them to stop, not ONCE but TWICE and she hugs Naomi and concedes to her like Beyonce did when Solange beat the shit out of Jay Z in the elevator.

End scene.

How FUCKED UP is that?

The World is going to HELL in a handbasket.

Let's switch gears.  I have long LOATHED the male driver when taking my kids to school.  They are so aggressive and they don't think the rules apply to them, but if you bend the rules as a woman, they will literally eviscerate you with their body language and their eyes.

And that's fine.

I just flipped off a good friend of mine, let's just call her Christen, because she was trying to play chicken with me on Northstar, a road riddled with jankily parked cars on each side feeding out to the road my CVS is on.

Side note:  My family and I have been sick with various ailments for a two weeks.  CVS and it's amazaballs Minute Clinic are now considered HOME in my google maps.

To be fair, cause Im DOWN with the #METOO movement, I am an equal opportunity offender and flipped the bird at a Dad, dropping off my kid at the high school.  In my defense, I was dropping off Mills for practice and apparently she took too long and he HONKED AT ME.

My point is, that MALE EGO muscle has a mind of it's own.

But so does the post-partum ego. And by post-partum, I mean any woman who has gotten pregnant or had a period.

Hell Hath No Fury than when you FUCK with Momma.  ESPECIALLY when she is RIGHT.

It's just that "What the fuck is WRONG with you?" reflex.  Am I RIGHT Ladies?

But, then again, you KNOW what is wrong.  He done flexed his ego muscle.  And then it's ALLLL OVER.  There ain't no comin' back from THAT.  He done LOST his MIND.

That is what happened today.  At The Open.  It might as well have been the Billie Jean King Battle of the Sexes all over again.  Only it was a not an equal playing field.  Ya dig?  Let me break it down for you.  He had all the power and he knew it.  Ultimately.  I'm not burning my bra, here, mostly because it would not be a real statement, considering I rarely wear them and I look forward to Fall because I can wear sweatshirts again.

I DID, however,  just get some AMAZING bras from Aerie, American Eagle's lingerie and intimates counterpart, that are soft and lightly padded and basically a sports bra with ZERO sex appeal other than their color that are SOOOOOO comfortable.

My point is, that I would never burn them, but might, if provoked, burn my underwire, heavily padded lace ones.  They don't fit anymore anyway.  Is that still a statement?  I think SO.

AIIIGHT, let's go back to the Match and it's implications.  Serena was NOT gonna put up with his shit.  In the moment, she was the proverbial Tina Turner, when she confronted IKE.  For the last time, that is.

I kept thinking as I watched it, "She can't BELIEVE this is happening." And if you watch it, you will see that in her eyes.

It was genuine DISBELIEF, and then ANGER and then RESOLVE.

She got a HOLD of herself and that is more than I can say for the Ref, that betta get hisself into
witness protection STAT.

Think of the bigger impact, though.  This will make history.  All of it.  And all of the outcomes.

This is NOT the open.  I just Love the pic.

You made history, tonight, Serena and Naomi.  You showed the World what a lady looks like.  We are complicated.  We are emotional.  We are introspective.  And we are resolved.  Right, ladies?

Disclaimer:  I write this as my husband is in Vegas and we have been sick for two weeks and I probably should have some carbs.  But, whatev.  Girls RULE!