Shoyo: 8-2-1

At work today, I was looking forward to her messages telling me what time we should meet tomorrow. I kept checking my work calendar to make sure I had everything done to enable me to take tomorrow off.

Then at 1:19pm today, she sends me the following messages:

"tomorrow rain"

"Beach, I can not go"

"Next time"

"sorry...."

......................................................................

My immediate reaction was anger. Then disappointment. I felt blank for the next hour or so. I couldn't concentrate on work. I went to Helen and told her I wasn't taking tomorrow off anymore, and cancelled my request for leave. Half an hour later, I replied with "ok".

But to me, and I was hoping to her, it wasn't just any normal "ok". It was an angry "ok". It was a disappointment "ok". It was a "you better say something more 'ok'".

But she didn't.

I then kept myself busy with some drone work, transcribing an audio CD.

I wanted to leave work at 5pm and go for a walk to the water. Instead, I messaged Jim and organised to meet up with him. We went to the new Macca's on Parramatta Road. I ate a lot because I was hungry.

We went to his house for him to get his gear and then went to the courts. We sat around and watched a few games.

I swear, I had one of my best games recently. I didn't score in the first half, and at half time we were leading by a bit.

Then in the second half, I took the ball down, held my dribble and looked for a pass. My defender had laid off me to try to get the intercept, so I shot it.

Swish.

Next time down, I caught the ball near the elbow and shot it.

Swish.

Then Mike was bringing the ball down after a turnover. Gus on the bench asked "where are the guards?"

I was in front of Gus and said "I'm here". Mike passed me the ball, and I swished it.

Wow. That is like...SO cool!!!

I sparked a 10-0 run, and pretty soon we were up by 15. Then they started to full court press us and play man to man. We panicked, and they caught up.

We were up by three, and Gus took some ill-advised shots. Bo and Mike both missed lay ups. Then their big guy hit a three.

With four seconds to go, they inbounded, and Mike's guy got passed him and drove towards the basket. Alex Y fouled him.

I went to line up, and after he missed the first shot, I started trash talking. I was like "you gotta hit this man, you can't miss, you're gonna dream about this tonight" and kept going until the referee told me it was enough.

He missed, got his own rebound, and missed again.

Game tied.

I think I salvaged a game tonight with my big mouth.