Potato, Potahto?

What's this? Two posts in just about one month? Can this really be? What can I say, I clearly need a hobby. Yeah, right. I am, actually,  a changed woman this year--a woman more dedicated to fulfilling the needs of others, and who doesn't need more of my pithy prose. That, or, by my math, producing two posts in one month means I've filled my quota for the year. Sold. With that in mind, I will branch out from my predictable bullet points and attempt... paragraphs I think you call them?

I was invited to play in this basketball baptist carnival a couple weeks ago. Teams from the various states in Australia (WA, SA, Victoria, Tasmania, etc) came over and played a round robin style tournament followed by a finals series. The director of the carnival, a man I know from playing SBL over here, called me to extend my invite--that conversation went something like this:


Director Man: Hey Sam, you interested in playing in a basketball carnival for a week in January, mate?
Me: Yeah maybe, what're the details?
Director Man: You'd be playing for Victoria. They have a really inexperienced team and need some help. They are chasing a player that can carry the shooting load.
Me: I'll stop you there mate-- you had me at "shoot every time." I'm in.
Director Man: That's actually not what I said.
Me: That's not what I'll tell the team.
Director Man: ...
Me: Semantics.
Director Man: ...
Me: Potato, Potahto?
...
Me: Just gimme the address.

Maybe that conversation happened, maybe it didn't. No one's too sure. But what isn't up for debate is that it's funny. Anyways, I did in fact play for Victoria in the carnival after all and I did, just about, shoot the ball every time. That actually isn't an embellishment. They were quite young and inexperienced with competitive basketball...so I took it upon myself to mentor these young students of the game, yes that's right...demonstrate a wide variety of shots, both the bad and the good, obviously. A good teacher wouldn't skip over the bad, no no. Indeed some games I focused on only the bad shots (how else will they learn). Somehow we ended up making the championship game, though sadly we lost. I averaged 30 points for the week, though my attempts per game would surely be more impressive and I'd confidently guess far greater than my points per game.

NYE was pretty cool. I hung out with these cool cats below, went to an overpriced club after losing 20$ at the casino and walked waaaaaay too far in heels trying to hail a cab. If this is foreshadowing my 2015, I am in for an expensive, uncomfortable year. But at least I'll have my friends.

My visitor (Matt) arrives in less than a week, shockingly. I am so thrilled. We have so much planned, from Bali to sky diving, hopefully, to playing with kangaroos, naturally. It's going to be a jam packed 12 days.

Our pre-season is under way and has been going pretty well. Our captain and most experienced player retired after last season so we had some big shoes to fill. We filled those shoes with two players instead of one and then brought everyone else back, so hopefully we can pick up somewhere in the neighbourhood of where we left off last year and navigate our way back to the top. There are a couple of teams that went out and just bought heaps of players, good ones at that, so it will make winning this year even more gratifying and challenging at the same time. Our first game isn't until March 14th, so we still have plenty of time to get where we need to be for the beginning of season.

I am tan. And that's all I have to say about that. Don't argue this.

I celebrated my first proper Australia day this year and it was wonderful. There was sun (too much), pool and food... mountains o' food. And naps. Cause what's a holiday without a nap? Nothing I want to know.

Alright. Welp, catch ya next year! Kidding. But seriously, it'll probably be a while.