I want to start out by saying that Connie is CRAZY!! She's actually awesome, but I've just felt like saying this all day, and figured I should commemorate it on the blog. Connie organized this big basketball lovefest this morning, which forced me to get up at the horrendously early hour of 9 a.m. :D I'm so pathetic... though in my defense, I only got like five hours of sleep! I had this incontrollable desire to play piano at midnight last night and ended up staying up really late. But anyway, I dragged myself out of bed and made my way to Crossroads Park to meet nine other people who are crazy enough to listen to Connie and go play out in the BURNING HOT SUN. Kathleen and Yogin both came, as did Stella, Lauren, and Simon (the usual basketball crew), Connie's friend Sam, who plays college basketball and is really intense, and Stella's sister's boyfriend, David, and his friend, Jack. Kathleen and I decided that we were going to guard each other, which was really fun because we spent the whole time talking and probably not concentrating enough on the game. Whoops. After being destroyed the first game, we decided that we shouldn't split up teams in such an unfair way, and Jack came up with an ingenious method. Everyone pairs up, plays rock-paper-scissors, and all the winners are on one team and the losers on another. After each game, everyone collapsed in the shade and drank lots of water. There was a big pile of dog poo right near us, and Simon decided that he was going to throw it at his sister, Lauren. It was really gross. It made finding a clean, fragrant place to sit very difficult. We tried playing one game full court and it was just too painful, so we squished in the tiny half court. While we were resting in between two games, this Indian man brought his toddler son over to shoot hoops. It was so adorable. The dad was dressed really formally, nice pants and a collared shirt, and was the one actually playing ball, while the kid was decked out in full basketball attire, didn't seem to understand what was going on. We all sat there and "aww"-ed at the little kid.

Kathleen hurt her foot rather early on, which was saddening, but also good because that meant that she couldn't move as quickly, which meant that I didn't have to move quickly to guard her. Yay! But Kathleen's foot should get better! Yogin also decided to tackle me at one point. I somehow got away from Kathleen's defense and was driving baseline to shoot. Playing defense, Yogin charged at me and we both went tumbling to the floor, with Yogin landing on my ankle (which just started hurting again..) But it's okay because Connie just told me I made the shot! And that meant both Kathleen and I were injured, so we were even more compatible! Though Kathleen is intense... and aggressive.. and made me run around. Grr. But it was lots of fun. David decided that since he didn't know any of us, he was going to nickname everyone. So I was christened Giggles, which confused me a lot because I hadn't even laughed that much at that point in the game!! I don't think I actually laugh that much. Grr. But oh well. It was worth it, because Kathleen was dubbed "Blue's Clues" due to her bright blue shirt. Tehehe. Simon was "Vans" due to his shirt, Sam was "yellow" because of hers, and I think Yogin was "the other Indian guy."

After we'd played about four games and were BURNING and relaxing in the shade, Connie got up and said, "Another one, guys? Full court? Come on!!" with this really cute, pleading tone. Bah. That woman is crazy. So we played another one. I informed Connie that if I contracted skin cancer, she had to pay for my medical expenses. (By the way: DRUGS ARE SO EXPENSIVE!! I got FOUR LITTLE TABLETS of antibiotics for $60!! WTF! HEALTH CARE REFORM PLEASE!) Back to the subject. We all finally gave up (not before we changed it to playing to 11 to playing to 15 to keep it going longer), and lounged in the grass. Sam, crazy athlete, went running up the huge hill with her adorable puppy. Sigh. People who are in shape. So jealous. So ridiculous. Simon found an abandoned tricycle for toddlers and started riding it around. He looked SO ridiculous... everyone was laughing so hard. He couldn't really ride it, so he kept half falling off, only that he couldn't because it was so small and close to the ground already. And he kept scooting himself forward to try to make it move. He finally gave up, and David, who is even bigger than Simon, commandeered it to great effect, riding all over the basketball court in the most ridiculous, but actually effective way. "Clown school," Jack called it. David rode to the basketball pole, where he put his keys and wallet, to fetch them. He went to put them in his pocket, but Jack pointed out that the tricycle actually had a trunk! Specially designed for his keys and wallet. Then Jack asked him to ride backwards, and he almost succeeded... until the tricycle wheel snapped off. :) Whoops. Simon then found some sort of recording device in the "trunk" of the tricycle, and started playing with it.

I drove home (which is across the street), waited for Kathleen to stop talking to Yogin so she could come get me, and then we set off for the Shoppes. Connie, Lauren, Simon, and Sam were all there already with their smoothies, and we got some too. Then, Connie, Kathleen, and I went to Chipotle, which I haven't had in a while. While we were getting smoothies, Kathleen and I had decided that we were going to split a burrito bowl because we probably couldn't finish a whole one by ourselves after the smoothies. But while we were standing in line, Kathleen decided that she "wanted the WHOLE SHABANG!" and got her OWN burrito bowl. WHATEVER. And she also got chips and salsa. I'd like it known that Kathleen and I each ate half of our OWN burrito bowls and the chips went untouched. HAH. I TOLD you we should have split! But NO. "The Whole Shabang!!" What does that even mean? Connie's burrito bowl looked so much healthier... and more colourful.. than ours. No fair.

I leave for China next Sunday. I'm kind of torn between excitement and dread. I'm going to a lot of places this time, being more of a tourist than usual, since I realized that I've never really been to places in China, even though I've been to Beijing about 11 times. And I've been to Lanzhou once. So this time we're going to Shanghai and Xian in addition to Beijing and Lanzhou (different sides of the family at each). And I'm also going to Inner Mongolia, which is going to be really interesting!

I really need to watch HP6 before I leave though. But everyone's so busy or away!! Grr!!