"Show off."

We won our basketball game tonight, to bring us up to a 2-2 record. Whoohoo!!! The first game was really rough, because we had 9 guys and 4 girls there and we just couldn't get it together. But we've had a lot fewer guys every other game - in fact the last couple games, which we won, we only had 3-4 guys there. The women have been holding pretty steady at 3-4. And it's been the same core group showing up to every game, which really helps because we've got a sense now of who does what, how we work together, and so on.

It's been satisfying for me personally as well because for the first time ever in my entire basketball career I feel fairly satisfied with my ballhandling. In no small part that's because this is intramurals and the skill level of the defense isn't so high. And I still make mistakes, obviously. But overall I feel pretty good about it. Tonight there was one particularly sweet move, actually - one of my best passes ever. I was at the top of the key, and somehow the defense had all gotten pulled out wide, and Brian was just hanging out wide open looking for the ball under the hoop, and I dished in to him right over the shoulder of my defender (which was only possible because she was also short and didn't have her hand up in the proper defensive position . . . although I was still dribbling and picked it up quick for the pass, so theoretically she wasn't so out of position. If I'd been just standing looking for a pass she should have had her hands in my face.) Anyway, it really was a beautiful look (in basketball slang that means spotting the open person and dishing it to them) and would have been a beautiful shot, but Brian got a little crazy and tried this show off move that didn't work. That's okay though because we were well ahead at that point and he had the space to try something fun.

It's been really great playing with the basketball team - fun to play, especially now that we're really working together as a team now, nice to have the exercise, and nice to have people to talk basketball with. I don't keep up with the NBA or even the NCAA, not having a TV or time to watch it, so I can't chat up about who's making the playoffs or what not. But Brian, who's in my section and sits next to me in a few classes, used to play highschool ball too (which is not true of a lot of people on the team) and so sometimes we'll start having strategy conversations and so on. It's just fun to have people around who not only know the jargon but really know, first hand, the jargon . . . I can't think how else to say it. It's one thing to be an avid basketball fan and know a full court press when you see one, or a pick, or a back door cut, or whatever, and another thing to have been a player on a real team that knows how those are implemented, and work together, and so on. And it's cool because I'm realizing how much I actually know about the sport - not the players and the teams you see on TV, but actually playing basketball itself. I suppose that sounds stupid because I did play on school teams for seven years after all. But somehow it never really hit home to me until I found somebody at the law school to "talk the talk" about it.

Anyway, it's been a good day overall. Today was also my day to meet w/ Robert (as distinguished from Rob), my language partner. I'm feeling the Chinese come back, too, every time we talk a little bit more. And it was really an interesting conversation today - he pulled out his computer and I got all excited because the keyboard had all this Chinese characters on it, and he was explaining to me how it's used (Taiwan has a different system from the mainland - he's Taiwanese). And then I was explaining to him about QWERTY keyboards and that they're designed to slow down typers and some CS majors use a different arrangement and so on. All in chinese. So it was really a great feeling.

*sigh* unfortunately though I've been ignoring my Contracts reading, and I still have 13 pages of cases to slog through, which will take another hour and half probably, at least.
Ugg.