Adding injury to insult.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I love winning, but not nearly as much as I despise losing. Losing more than one game in a row is the absolute worst. I won't pretend this is unfamiliar territory for me--most of you know my college background and are aware that I know what it's like to lose games consecutively. However, losing is not one of those things that becomes easier over time or with increased experience; it's quite the opposite, rather. Even worse still, is losing games to teams you should beat. Sitting in 11th place, Bamberg was exactly that, a team we should beat but instead lost to for a whole host of reasons: poor rebounding, poor defense, and terrible effort. The last one stings the most. Adding injury to insult, my teammate nearly broke my face with her elbow and sidelined me with a bloody nose in the first half. I finished with 19 points and we lost by 6. Incidentally, the loss hurt exceedingly more than the dismantled face. Perhaps the only positive from that game was that there was no permanent damage to my perfect little nose, just some temporary swelling and pain. Look, God blesses all of us--some people can type really freakishly fast, some people can multiply large numbers in their heads and others received the gift of parallel parking. Me? God gave me the most delightful little nose, without which my face would lose distinguishability from every other face with two eyes and a mouth. I can't allow that to happen.

We played Oberhausen this past weekend who hasn't lost in about 6-7 games now, but who won only 1 of their first 9. I was really anxious for this game. I wanted to erase the Bamberg disaster as well as avoid consecutive losses. This game wasn't much different though, I'm afraid. We didn't really show up till the 4th quarter and unfortunately, we don't play in the NBA and we simply aren't good enough to do that. We rebounded better and defended better, sporadically, but we turned the ball over 20 times and missed like 12 eassssssy buckets. I had 29 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals and we lost 59-74. No silver lining for this game, this one just hurt.

Last week our team had the odd experience of eating dinner in the dark at this local restaurant hosting the evening. For numerous reasons this concept both perplexed me and worried me. I think humans really got it right with the whole eating in the light. There are just a lot of valid reasons for doing it this way, namely that we can see. Still, I was mildly intrigued and the meal was free so there was really no saying no. It's really exactly what it sounds like: you show up, you sit down and then once the food is prepared, the lights go off, the eye-cover sleep wear goes on and chaos ensues. You've never heard so much silverware clamor in your life, possibly because no one dared to speak as they attempted to uncover what they're chewing on. I decreased the silverware noise problem by forgoing the use of them altogether. I mean, if we are gonna eat in the dark like animals, let's not pretend we are above eating with our hands. I will say this, the darkness definitely forced me to implement some new procedures into my eating habits: I chewed cautiously, I used my napkin and I smelled everything before electing to eat or pass. Consequently, it has never taken me longer to eat a meal which also led to me eating less. It was a weird experience, and obviously I cheated in order to take pictures. I'm a bit of a rebel, what can I say.













A few weeks back our team had a photo shoot similar to the ones I had in Chemnitz last season. The photographer asked us to stage some action poses and she flashed away. I am still not sure how these photos will be used, but here are a couple of the shots they'll potentially select. A bit better than last year I'd say, though those pictures really weren't tough to beat.


Morty celebrated her 24th birthday yesterday. Being that is was her first birthday away from home, I felt responsible for making it especially enjoyable. Monday night the team took her to the English movie showing in Braunschweig. Once it was midnight and officially her birthday, Bri and I bombarded her room and surprised her with balloons and a tasty peanut-butter oreo blondie cake. Before practice we gave her her present from the team and later that night before dinner Bri and I gave her more presents just from us. We finished the evening watching the 4th Harry Potter and hanging out. I really don't know how you beat that.

This weekend we play at Halle (hollllllllla) and despite dropping two games in a row, if we beat Halle, we reclaim 2nd place. We have been very lucky that when we lost, the other teams on top with us have lost too, and so we remained relatively even. Following the Halle game, Morty and I are taking a little road trip to Chemnitz to visit our friends for the rest of the weekend.

It's Ash Wednesday folks, anyone giving anything up for lent? Perhaps my blog? Lord knows it isn't good for any of us. I've decided I am giving up losing. I will really need God's blessing on this one cause it will not be easy. Additionally, I will be giving up sweets, as always, just in case the not losing doesn't quite pan out. I'm unreasonably optimistic though. Stay tuned... unless you are giving up the blog for lent... then go away.