And the countdown begins.

As I begin my hopefully, but unrealistically weekly blogging, I also now begin my official countdown to Germany. July 30th seems remarkably distant, but somehow I think that time will race by. Regardless, I have 67 days, fast or slow, to prepare. But before I begin looking too far ahead, I figure I will review the events leading to this unnecessarily dramatic countdown.

So I started playing basketball when I was 11... just kidding. Probably don't need to go back thaaaat far, as fun as it would be to relive my glory days of VYBA; cause let's face it, Ventura had yet to see a bawler like me, shamelessly crying my way through the season. Oh how I made my parents proud. Fortunately, we can fast forward through that all the way to about 3 months ago when I made the decision to get an agent and give this playing thing one last go. And so I did--I signed with an agency, sent my best game tape from my senior year at UW and waited. And waited...and waited.  As fun as it sounds, I was getting incredibly apprehensive. So unlike me to worry, I know. All I need is one team to like me, I reassured myself. One morning, I was eagerly, if not desperately checking my email to see if there was news, (whoever said no news is good news is full of crap, by the way, cause I would have killed to hear anything) and in fact I did have an email from my agent bringing me news of my "one team". After emailing with the Coach and further discussing the offer he would make, I decided to sign. Oh, and to tell my Mom. Don't worry Jan, I told you before I signed :) Eastern Germany in the city of Chemnitz, more specifically, is where I will be--see the map below.

Germany, as it turns out, is a great fit for me really. I've studied it plenty in my history classes, it's quite cold and seeing as I've spent the past 5 years in sunless Seattle I'd say I am well prepped and I intend to marry Dirk Nowitzki anyways so it was really only a matter of time before I visited there. I am just kidding...Seattle isn't sunless. 

Okay, so now I have a team and a contract--you'd think the hard part was over. If only. I'd like to remind you that I haven't played competitive hoops in over a year. Unfortunately, my men's league and various women's leagues hardly qualify. Yes, I am active and keep in shape with random, daily workouts, so surely I should be fine, right? That turned out to be a laughable, erroneous line of thinking. I started training, or re-training as it were, on Wednesday last week and was painfully reminded of why I never took time off in college. What's that saying, use it or lose it? Seems I've lost the proverbial "it". Good thing I have 67 days to find it, huh? :)

My last day in Seattle is June 3rd, so I should be home around the 5th. I figured I should be in Ventura as much as I can until I leave. You're welcome.