Things I Enjoy That I Hardly Ever Do (How About You?)

A couple weekends ago the family and I attended a community theater production of “Damn Yankees,” the old Broadway hit from the 1950s. We made the 45-minute drive from our home because the stars of the show were my wife’s cousin and cousin-in-law.

Her cousin, J., is a classically trained vocalist who spent a few years in New York City singing professionally for operas, stage productions, and TV shows (he also sang at our wedding a couple decades ago). He eventually left that life behind, got married, and moved to New Jersey. But he and his wife, S., still have the theater/performing itch, and local productions let them scratch it.

Both were splendid in “Damn Yankees,” and we all damn well enjoyed it.

It reminded me how much I like seeing live theater productions – even though I almost never actually go see them. Before “Damn Yankees,” the last live theater show I saw was in October 2021, when the family caught a production of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the original Globe Theatre in London, right by the Thames.

Before that, the last show I saw was in September 2019 at London’s Garrick Theatre in Leicester Square. The play was “Bitter Wheat,” written by the great David Mamet and starring the even greater John Malkovich. Loved the play. But what a strange night that was.

Before “Bitter Wheat,” I guess the previous show I saw was with my wife, when we caught a performance of “Chess,” the 80s-era Cold War musical whose creators included Tim Rice and members of ABBA. We saw that sometime in the early 2010s, at Spirit Square, the lovely and charming uptown Charlotte music/theater venue that has since been razed to make room for some kind of glass-and-steel office development, because that’s just how my hometown rolls.

Anyway….

Before seeing “Chess,” the last live theater performance I saw was about a decade earlier, when my wife and I saw the play “6 Dances Lessons in 6 Weeks” in Los Angeles. The play was written by Richard Alfieri, and this particular production starred David Hyde Pierce, best known for co-starring in the American TV sitcom, “Frazier.”

So that makes five live theater productions in more than 20 years. The fact that I can remember them all speaks to just how little I go to the theater.

My wife and I did have tickets to see a Broadway musical in New York City in 2007 (“Jersey Boys” maybe?), because I was determined to see a Broadway musical before departing NYC for a new home and life in Charlotte. But the VERY WEEK we were supposed to see the Broadway show, the actors went on strike. And dat wuz dat.

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This is all a long prelude to the point of this blog, which is that there are some things I really enjoy that I hardly ever do. Watching live theater is one of them. I really, really enjoy it – but almost never go. That’s the case even though I have lived in three of the world’s performing arts/entertainment capitals: London, New York, and Los Angeles.

Live theatre isn’t the only thing I seem to deprive myself of. Here’s a list of four more.

Fishing

I love fishing. I love getting out the gear, baiting the hook, tossing it in the water, waiting for the hit, and reeling in the catch. As a younger lad our father took my brother and I on several deep-sea fishing trips off the coast of North Carolina. My brother and I hauled in many large fish while our Dad spent most of the trip bent over the side of the boat, emptying the contents of his stomach, chumming the waters. He was from the landlocked Midwest, so he and the ocean didn’t always get along. But he was a dedicated Dad who took his boys out on chartered vessels into the deep blue sea.

I mainly enjoy freshwater fishing along a riverbank or the edge of a pond or lake. I even bought myself a nice rod and tackle box a couple decades ago with the best of intentions. Since then, I have fished maybe a dozen times total. No excuses. Just lazy.

Hiking

Who doesn’t like to hike? What’s better than strolling through the lap of nature, getting some exercise, breathing the fresh air? The family and I do it once in a blue moon. It’s on the Jersey to-do list.

Visiting Gardens

I love visiting gardens, roaming around and seeing the flowers and plants. It’s a favorite outing of mine while on vacation — a calm, relaxing, Zen experience that puts you in touch with the earth and gives you a respite from the tourist hustle and bustle. But I hardly ever do it. Over the past 20 or so years I have visited maybe five or six formal gardens, even though we have traveled all over the USA and much of Europe. Every time we go I am happy we are there and reluctant to leave.

Why don’t I do it more?

Watching Live Tennis

Watching live tennis is one of my favorite pastimes, from the pros on down to the high school level. I love to play tennis and love to watch it. It’s the one sport I can truly get transfixed behind. I find myself breaking down the strategies within a single set, game and point, trying to guess where the next shot is going, and why, and whether it will succeed.

Over the past 25 years, I have watched live tennis maybe 10 times. I went to a couple of US Opens while in New York. In North Carolina my oldest daughter and I traveled up to Winston-Salem to see an ATP tournament. In Charlotte I caught a couple of college tennis matches near Queens University.

In London I went to see the Wimbledon Championships a few times, with varying degrees of enjoyment. I caught the ATP Finals at London’s O2 Arena a couple of times. I went to see the Fever Tree Championships in 2019 at the Queen’s Club (a great experience).

I really should do this more. My mission is to go see college and high school tennis here in New Jersey, and catch the US Open again.

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There are also some things I love doing that I haven’t done in many years for various reasons.

I love going to minor league baseball games, and used to do so about 10-12 times a year in Charlotte. But there was no minor league baseball in London. There are some options in New Jersey I might check out, though the pickings seem mighty slim considering that New Jersey played an important role in the establishment of baseball as a national pastime.

(BTW: Major League baseball has become a monumental clusterf**k of crowded trains, endless traffic, long lines, tickets that cost a fortune, food that costs a fortune, and interminably long games. I’m all about the minors these days).

I love vegetable gardening, growing tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, etc. We used to have big veggie gardens in North Carolina that provided fresh produce all summer and into the fall. I took a stab at it in London our first year there, but there wasn’t enough sunlight in our back garden. I will resume this activity this summer. We have a big back yard, just begging to grow produce.

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There are also things I feel like I should do, and always intend to do, but never do. One of them is learning how to maintain and repair my bicycles. The other is finally learning enough Spanish to speak it fluently. I have taken a couple half-assed stabs at crossing these bridges, and waved the white flag without even putting up a decent fight. I doubt I will ever succeed in either. We shall see…..

What are some of the things that might land on your list? Feel free to share.

Note: The theater photo is from “Damn Yankees,” featuring J. and S. The tennis photo is one I took at the US Open, circa 2006. The fishing photos are me in rustic Callicoon, New York, where my wife and I rented a cabin for a needed country getaway from NYC, also circa 2006. The “Tree Heart” photo was taken by my youngest daughter in 2022, during a walk in a London park (not quite a garden, or a hike, but close enough). She noticed a tree stump in the shape of a heart and took a picture of it. Very observant young lady….