Hanging curtains? What?

That was the highlight of my weekend. I’m not sure what it means, exactly, but let me explain. I moved in here about four months ago and, ever since, I’ve gone to sleep at night annoyed by how bright it is in my room. As with many apartments, there’re street lights outside and one (or two, or three) of them happens to be focused on lighting up my room. So, I’ve sort of gotten used to the light, but not completely. That’s just at night, though. In the day, it’s like God put a super nova in my room, just for me. About 6 am, when the sun comes up, I start tossing and turning because it’s just too bright to sleep well. Naps have been out of the question and “sleeping in” has meant 9 am.

So, this weekend, I went out and blew a bunch of money on stupid curtains. I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond, which I realize could have been a financial mistake. They have really nice stuff, but they’re not exactly bargain priced and that’s really what I was looking for. Next time, I’ll probably go to Target instead. Anyway, a couple hours and $130 later, I have navy curtains covering my windows and my room is dark as night whenever I want it to be. Naps are back and they’re here to stay.

Bad Basketball Blues

I played pretty poorly yesterday and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought so. There were some highlights–I hit a couple “big” shots including a game-winner–but all in all, I played pretty miserably. I knew I was in trouble when, during the first game, I missed a couple layups on fastbreaks. They weren’t the easiest finishes in the world–both were reverse layups with a defender in pursuit–but they’re layups that I’ll usually make. I just couldn’t get anything rolling and, more importantly, I couldn’t seem to synch with my team. I have that problem with a lot of the guys that play on Saturday morning. It’s not that I’m a bad player or that they’re bad players, we just don’t play well together. It seems like whatever I’m thinking, they’re thinking the opposite: if I think we should switch on a pick, they think we should stay at home; if I think they’re going to the rim on a fast break, they’re actually spotting up at the 3-point line; if I think they’re trailing me in the lane, they’re actually trailing on the block.

Anyway, I feel like I’m in pretty good shape and I’ve been playing well overall, but I just can’t seem to get on the same page as the guys that play on Saturdays. To them, I’m sure I seem like I don’t know what I’m doing, but the real problem seems to be that they play a style of basketball that involves a lot of selfish play and yelling at teammates. I figure if I can learn to play well in that environment, then there aren’t many situations in which I won’t play well in the future. Here’s to learning to play well with dudes who don’t want to learn to play well with me.