Up and Down

January 28, 2007 1:10pm

I don’t really know where to start when it comes to explaining the week I’ve just had, but perhaps it’d be best to mention how we were being dominated by Visby at about this time last week. Nobody on our team played very well at all, they played amazing (especially their 41-year-old guard; she couldn’t miss, plus we kept leaving her wide open!), and it was just one of those games that happens like once in five years. We only ended up losing by 16-or-so points and I think we may have won the second half, but we were down by close to 25 points in the first half and it felt even worse. It sorta was a double bummer because the game was aired on tv. I think the TV-factor may have been the root cause of our GM being SO upset about the loss. I don’t really want to get into details, but let’s just say that all is pretty good when we win, but when we lose (and it’s on tv!) some people at the club can make you feel like the world is coming to an end! That wasn’t so pleasant to deal with, but it proved to be a good challenge in making sure that I keep perspective about what’s really important. See the big picture and all. It’s just a game. Yes, it’s a bit different with bball being my job and the reason Erin and I were brought here was to win games, but still… there will be more games, there is still the playoffs, there is still time to prove our team’s will and ability (and, that chance comes later today!). Anyway, practice turned out to be more challenging, more focused, and just better attended to as business (rather than some sort of social event) by everyone there. I really hope we are ready to play today (and that it is our turn to dominate) because I don’t want to deal with another loss.

Another interesting event this week was related to Sunday’s game and practice Tuesday. On Sunday I drove into the lane and slipped on this big sponsor-decal that is stuck around the foul-line area. My feet totally went out from under me and I fell flat on my back (“like in a cartoon,” explained one of my teammates). I felt kinda dizzy after that and was slow running back down the court, but I didn’t actually hit my head and didn’t think much of it. Monday we didn’t have practice and I was in lab all day, I had a little bit of a headache, but nothing too strange. During Tuesday’s practice I was going in for a rebound when one of my teammates knocked me super hard in the mouth with her elbow. I thought I was going to lose my two front teeth (seriously, plus one is already sorta lose from last year’s season); turned out that once I removed my mouthguard, I could only wiggle them both a little. However, my head was really hurting now. I went through the rest of that practice and did all the running, but on the ride home my head kept on hurting. I had trouble reading and the next day I felt like my head was all cloudy. After talking to Aaron about this (he has a PhD and is halfway through med school), he suggested that I take that day off from practice. I took it easy on Wednesday and by Thursday night I felt much better. So, I didn’t have a concussion – don’t worry! (though that wouldn’t have been the end of the world or anything), but I just got banged up a little. Feeling better now though :) I had never experienced any real strange feelings with my head, so it was something new.

Let’s see. What else? “Losing” and “my head” were the two big events of the week for me. Lab was pretty routine and we are really starting to nail down some of our findings. Thursday I spent some time walking around downtown Stockholm… just meandered around mostly and I checked out some of the 24-hour site-seeing cruises that are offered out of here. It’s been VERY cold (at least comparable to what it has been before this week). When I walk outside now, my cheeks really burn. Someone told me you can tell the temperature by how the snow sounds under your boots. It’s totally true! Today it was between -10 and -15°C. Alrighty, well I better get my things together for the game. Hope to check in before this week is out. Bye!