bball in da park

today i got a bit bored and being that no-one else was interested i would go to the
park by myself to play some basketball. after all i needed to stretch my legs a
bit and i didnt fancy sitting in the dorm all of lunch. the park was empty when
i arrived and spent time putting myself through a bunch of different drills etc.

before i get to the main part of the story let me give you some background.
pointsettia park is like the hang out for homeless and stoned people
- which explains why i go there i just totally fit in ;).

after about 20 mins of playing these stoned/ drunk black guys came along - for
clarity sake we shall call them red: he was the most stoned. black: didnt say much
but was pretty physical. and the tall guy: he was the most coherent and least
stoned - and asked to join in. so i shrugged and said sure - in the park we
do something called pickup, where you just show up and join a game - and the
main guy is this really tall (about 6'3" im like barely 5'9". the others didnt
join in until later as they had to 'find' their way to the court :D and set up a
crappy radio so we could all 'enjoy' the rap lyrics that came out of the little
speaker turned way too high) and looks totally stoned. he slurrs something saying
he's gonna teach me how to play ball "like back in the day".

needless to say i took up the challenge with gusto. we starte playing and i have
to say he has an amazing shot - i had always thought that being drunk makes it
harder to shoot straight, well it appears as if i am very wrong ;)-
after a couple of shots he mumbles "wanna be in a good mood bc im doing shrooms
tonight". - right i kinda let him shoot wide open after that...

anyhow his friends end up joining in. these guys are like 35+ and im like 21, so i
think "might as well give them a chance bc they are so stoned they cant find their
feet lit.", so i didnt really end up playing as hard as i should have (no excuses).

but... let me tell you it is tough to guard guys who you can't get close
to bc of the sweat, sickly stench of bad whisky and cheap beer that seemed to seep
from their skin. - yeah pretty sick...

this one guys limped along the whole court and mumbled completely incoherent taunts
and every time he lined he was behind the 3 point line. he would start gurgling
about how this shot was gona be perfect... air ball! man he was even playing against
unseen players, he would fake even when no one was guarding him :)

he soon decided that the game was a bit too tough for him - too much control
was involved and he couldnt even stand straight. so red (thats the color shirt
he was wearing) goes off to the side to be chairleader. he would keep laughing to
himself and calling out taunts - i have no idea what he was saying - but apparently
they were quite funny as he was laughing/ gurgling the whole time.

ends up being i had the chance to win about 3 times but for some reason i couldnt
put the final shot through the basket and ended up losing to the big guy - did
i mention that he has an awsome shot.
::shrug:: oh well such i life - that was for you footch ;)

obviusly when i got back to yeshivah i went straight to the shower and turned
the heat up as high as possible. overheard the other day that 160 f kills most
bacteria and jerms. what i had failed to hear was how it will also burn off
your outer layers of skin. :)

well was much fun and am definetely heading back to the park as soon as i get an
industrial grade cleanser for after the games :)

till tomz (when i will do update of our visit to the cheese factory and egg plant
as well as upload pics im'h)

me - i mean who else could it be...?