Got shoes, got moves

cultural differences, exhibit a, originally uploaded by lynnith.

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent the past few days in New Plymouth playing for team Wellington in the first of three national Women’s Basketball Championship tournaments.  We ended up in seventh place (out of ten), which wasn’t a bad result considering we’d only put the team together a week before.  It took us a few games to find our feet and we lost our first three before winning the final two.  I came away from the tournament fairly pleased; five games in three days was brutal for someone as old and lazy as myself, but I pushed through and ended up having a great final game, nabbing 12 points and a few blocks.

Not many of you knew me when I was last a competitive basketball player.  I stopped playing in 2001 at age 17 after years of serious training, games, tournaments, summer camps, fall ball, ice buckets, and creaky knees.  By the end of it I was burned out, just another okay player from a string of underachieving teams.  I never really looked back.  Even at the UW, where a basketball band spot was pretty coveted, I didn’t bother to audition.

So you can imagine how strange and wonderful it is, ten years on, to be playing at a national level.  I’m not sure how long this will last – I am not the player I used to be – but it is certainly fun to get a second chance at all this.  Even if I do have to deal with an annoyingly over-sized key and things like the above photo, which I can only assume is an elaborate So D-Vine reference!

“Well give me four eight-year-olds and a ten-year-old”

For some reason this song (from the fabulous Local Hero) has been stuck in my head all week.  Including in the middle of basketball games.  So now I am passing the savings on to you!

Here are some updates on my life since I last blogged about a billion months ago…

• I’m working full-time now, doing e-learning nerdthings for a big gov’t agency.  A stable paycheck is a magical thing.
• I bought a scooter!  It is bright yellow and its name is Dr CC and it is pretty much the best thing ever, and then some.
• Some of Club IMDb flew over to visit for Easter week (yonks ago!) and we roadtripped across the South Island.  I briefly drove a car and managed not to kill anyone.
• No idea if it’s boredom, motivation, or mental illness, but I’ve been playing a bunch of basketball.  And by a bunch I mean 3 practices and 2 games each week.  I’m playing with the city team this weekend in a national tournament up in New Plymouth, which is weird and wonderful all at the same time.

There you have it – updates!  More later…