Lagging

The intent to maintain this blog regularly has me already falling behind in accomplishing just that. The last few days has been busy and packed with things to do.

Friday night marked the end of intramural basketball league for the school. Only four teams. End result 1-5 on the season, with a heartbreaking, 3-point loss that came down to the buzzer. I mean like it seriously did. My boy Shaikh caught the inbound with less than two seconds to go and throws up a leaner from three. Nothing but air, but he was fouled. Takes it to the line, first charity shot bounces around and out, game.

No hard feelings though. Shaikh was the man in game 2 or 3 of the season when he hit the game winner, an iso, semi-fadeaway around the free throw lane at the buzzer. That was insanity.

So in the final game, there wasn't much garbage time, and it was too close throughout for me to put myself in (I'm the "player coach"). Final state line: 0 pts, 0 boards, 0 assists, and 1 or 2 fouls, I forget. I also tried to step in and take a charge which resulted in a blatant no-call (even though the guy was going full speed in the lane and lowered his shoulder). It also resulted in me becoming known as the flying panda because I flew back (and no I didn't flop) about 5-7 feet. That night and the next day my jaw was killing me. It was like getting into a car wreck where you clench your jaw so hard you get that TMJ thing (that boxers get). Anyway, we finished third place in the league. But the team played well. Better than we had all season. The chemistry finally occurred. Just far too late in the season. Big ups to Mani for slowing the game down to a half court set (he claims he is taking all of the credit for that since it came to him a few hours before the game while he was drinking a few beers).

Saturday was the Rodeo and Barbecue Cook-Off outside of Reliant Stadium. RIDICULOUS is the word of the week. $7 to get in, and my friend Cira's boyfriend had the super connect. Tickets to a tent that had all you can eat barbecue, AND all you can drink margaritas and beer. Off the chain mang. So as Shaikh says, we all got too crunk, rolling bout a dozen or so people deep. Thankfully there is a light rail, so we took the train to and from the stadium. It was a blast. Looking for an upgrade on tickets next year. Maybe a Patron or Crown tent. That would be nuts. Maybe too nuts.

Tonight was Obama at the George R. Brown Convention center. That was amazing. I was about 10-20 feet away from him and his speech was superb. Very captivating, and he's added some serious substance to his speeches (not that it was exactly lacking before, but tonight was an improvement). Pictures (off the camera phone) will soon follow.

I'm also sick, so I'm about to pass out and get some shut eye.

Tomorrow: skipping school to volunteer with a school to take some elementary school kids to the Rodeo. Although I'm not great with kids, I'm excited to hang out with some, and show them some love and try and be a positive influence. They're from the 3rd Ward if I recall, so it might not be an easy task, but I'm going to put forth some serious effort.


Also, the big Texas Primary is tomorrow, so I need to vote, and caucus in order to rep my candidate hard. It's going to be tough. Also, before that, I have to help out my friend Zach. He's a precinct captain (long story what that is) and he's gotta do some serious canvasing putting up some pro-Obama stuff. So it's going to be another long day, but both for a good cause. Now, let's just hope my voter registration paperwork went through. Or I'll be seriously pissed.