Mountains and Valleys

Basketball, which in so many ways is a microcosm of life, has its ups and downs. The downs in sports are most commonly referred to as "slumps". They happen. I've had a couple of them this season. For me, they are mostly shooting slumps, but sometimes they can just be mental fatigue when you are in a place that just doesn't have the passion or desire to go to practice or play with your absolute best effort that day. To be honest, I don't feel like writing when I'm currently in a "slump". I don't feel like it AND I know that that's not fun and interesting to read about. But this blog is about my experiences over here, and without publicly throwing out names and specific frustrations that I'm having, I'll just keep it at that I was frustrated with myself for not doing what I needed to with (what I considered) a small amount opportunities. I can never get mad and frustrated with a coach for not playing me more or at teammates for not passing the ball or something (Thanks for Coach Dallimore for reminding me that!). I can only control my attitude and how hard I work, and when those two things are where they need to be, most of the time everything falls into place.

Thankfully, my "slump" only lasted a couple of games, and the two games that my Uncle Tommy has been here to see have been good wins and good games for me! We have one more home game to play while he's here, and all has gone really well so far. I've showed him all around the city, and he's loved every bit of it. He's a great tourist buddy as well as a fine guest (he naps when I nap and even eats when I eat--pregame meals and all!). Tomorrow we are going on a little road trip to somewhere north of here because our coach actually gave us the day off tomorrow for playing well! Awesome. We'll see if we can extend the list of things Uncle Tommy has never eaten before in his life before this trip. It's pretty long already--including octopus, gnocchi, pasta with lobster, prosciutto and mozarella, red pesto pasta, tripe, and several other things that maybe share the same name, but are NOT the same as the American version (i.e. Tiramisu, italian sausage, risotto, eggplant lasagna, etc.)