reinventing myself

As I was going through the past few months rehabbing my knee and working to be able to play again, I kept thinking that I would reinvent my playing style. My main thinking was that I wouldn't be as aggressive on offense, that I would just hang out around the 3 point line and chuck up shot after shot. What I didn't realize though, is just how hard that actually is (not the shooting, the reinventing).

The first few times on the court I was really trying to take it easy and I probably did shoot a lot of threes. However, it was like I didn't know that player. It didn't help that I wasn't making many of my shots (which I keep telling myself is to be expected after a long layoff) but I really was missing taking it to the hoop. Which in my opinion is probably the best part of my game. I still need this, even if it possibly means more injuries.

The first time I drove in felt really awkward, like my knee had no idea what I was doing, so I kind of just threw up an off balance shot. Slowly over time though I'm getting it back. One of the harder parts has been that my body hasn't been as fast as my brain. I know what I want to do but my body hasn't reacted as quickly as I'd like. But now I'm starting to be able to go by people again and react defensively to get a loose ball or errant pass. Just last night one of the refs told me he could see it coming back (he refs just about every game in this league), which made me feel better. I'm not jumping like I used to but that's okay for now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I haven't reinvented myself at all, but I'm trying to recover my abilities. Maybe in a few more years I'll be ready to just camp outside the arc but for now I'm still going to take it to the hoop.

I actually wrote this a week ago and just didn't post it. Anyway, last night I had by far my best game in a really long time. I scored 41 points in about 31 minutes. We play two 20 minute halves with running clock and I sat for about 7 minutes and the refs called the game with 2 minutes left. The final score was 114-52. It was the top division but that team should definitely be playing in a lower division. I also had my first dunk since coming back, it wasn't clean but it was a dunk and I feel pretty good.

i think my feet shrunk

For the longest time I have been buying and wearing size 14 shoes. I've noticed that there seems to be more room in my shoes recently. I think the first time I really noticed was about a year ago. I didn't think too much of it, thought maybe nike changed sizes, so I started buying 13.5 shoes (at least for basketball). For some reason nike doesn't seem to sell half sizes in running shoes so I still bought size 14. I know, it's weird.

Once I was allowed to start running again though, the space between the end of my shoes and my toes was really starting to bother me. So about 2 weeks ago I decided to make a trip up north to the outlets and do some hands on (or foot in) research. I found that shoe making must not be an exact science because I fit in a lot of size 13 shoes but there were some size 13 shoes that seemed too small and almost all size 14 shoes are too big. I came to the conclusion that my feet must have somehow shrunk and so I bought a pair of discounted size 13 shoes to run in (by the way, this is the first pair of shoes I've bought since being laid off). I'm not quite sure what to think of this whole feet shrinking thing, but I suppose I should be buying size 13 shoes now. Oh well... I guess as long as I don't shrink anything else and don't look like this guy , I should be fine.

the bee's knees

I have no idea what the title means... do bees even have knees? I don't know. I do know that I have two knees and I'm not happy with one of them. This week I decided that I've had enough of repetitive leg exercises and that it was time for me to run. So, while out on what has come to be a near daily stroll around the lake, I decided to start running. In my estimation I ran just over a mile. My knee did swell up a little bit and it hurt a bit too, so I figured it might actually be a good idea to call my trainer/physical therapist and get his permission to run.

Somewhat to my surprise, he said if I've been doing my exercises it would probably be okay to run straight ahead as long as there is no cutting involved. He also warned me that my knee will probably hurt after the first run, and hurt a little less each time for the next few times. Just to be sure about the swelling, I asked hypothetically if there would be any after my first run. He said no. Of course the next question... hypothetically speaking, what if there is swelling? The answer: ice it and don't run so far next time.

It is a relief to get the clearance to run, even if it was after the fact. I ran a second time yesterday and my knee is still hurting tonight. I'm so ready for my knee to be fully functional. I really want to be able to play basketball and other "cutting" sports like right now! Also... I may be crazy but I really want to try the Insanity workout program. It's apparently a set of super intense cardio workouts but I'm pretty sure my knee is not ready for them yet. Here's the short promo commercial for the program. I'll definitely need to do this so I can get back into basketball playing shape quickly. Anyway, that's all I got.

AFV

I love America's Funniest Videos. It just might be my favorite hour of the week, or favorite 40 some odd minutes when I use the DVR. No matter how you're feeling, how your week has been, this show will make you forget it by making you laugh. I mean a kid trying to make a baking soda and vinegar bomb and having it explode in his hands... hilarious! An Asian grandma riding on a razor scooter and falling off... ridiculously funny.

Just heard this song today and really like it... chamillionaire set to tom petty's free fallin. and for the kris allen lovers... his new single is pretty good.

car

I had to turn in the cayenne yesterday :(

Which means I needed to get a new car. I found a Honda Accord. It's a 2006 and I bought it as a certified pre-owned, which extends the powertrain to a 7-year 100,000 miles warranty (from the original purchase date) and gives a 1 year, 12,000 miles bumper-to-bumper warranty. But since I used to work for Porsche, the dealership group (which also owns a Porsche franchise) gave me a huge discount on making the bumper-to-bumper warranty the same length as the powertrain warranty. That was pretty cool. I could've spent less money on a car but since this is my first buying experience I wanted the reassurance of a warranty so I paid a little bit more for that. The accord is not enough to make me forget about the Porsche, but I do think it looks great and it runs well. Hopefully it will last me many, many years. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for helping me out.

Also... I am still jobless and surgery to replace my ACL is scheduled for August 17th.

my time

F-A

B-O

L-O

U-S

love this new song... my time
or here in case that other link requires login.

a little bit of fun

This past week the Yankees and Red Sox came to town to play the braves. The results?? The first sellouts of the year... and a bunch of losses. There was some good that came out of it though. Nate Thomas was able to come visit. He drove down from Memphis and stayed with me Friday night. Saturday morning we got up, watched some Wimbledon and then headed to downtown Atlanta to do a few tourist things that I have never actually gotten around to doing since moving here. We went to the World of Coke and took the self tour there. One of the most interesting attractions (of the six attractions) was watching the bottling process. But the best was the tasting room. They have sodas that coke sells from all over the world and you can try all of them. Very cool.

So after all the coke we headed over to The Varsity for lunch. Apparently everyone else in Atlanta was doing the same. It was packed and there was hardly any air flow. Which was not good on a 95 degree day, considering once you factor in the humidity it was probably over 100. I'm thinking the food is good if you're hungry (which we were) but I seriously doubt it's that great when you're not hungry. Anyway for those of you interested in knowing more about this restaurant their website says, "The World's Largest Drive-in sits on more than two acres and can accommodate 600 cars and over eight hundred people inside. On days of Georgia Tech football games up to 30,000 people visit The Varsity. It sells more than two miles of hotdogs daily, a ton of onion rings, 2500 pounds of fresh cut potatoes, 5000 homemade fried pies, and 300 gallons of chili, all of which are made from scratch daily. The downtown Varsity is also the world's largest single outlet for Coca-Cola."

After lunch we decided to try to go find parking for the Braves vs. Red Sox baseball game. We found a good spot for an extreme price (all the prices were higher for these sellouts). We got there about an hour before gametime (the game was starting at 4) and were able to see the last of the Red Sox batting practice in the hot sun. The game was a pitcher's duel. The Braves never got past second base and the Red Sox took the game 1-0. I had a good time and got a little red, but not as bad as Nathan... he hadn't seen the sun much yet this summer. Unfortunately, neither of us brought a camera to any of the events so there's no real proof any of this ever happened. I guess you'll just have to take my word on it.