Summer Bummer

So to start back in the beginning, I need to go back to when I first got back to America from Italy in April. My season was over, and the first thing I wanted to do was come back and get started on buying a house. I flew home to stay with my parents while I talked to banks and tried to figure out how to make my dream a reality. WELL.... one day, before I was going to meet my mom for lunch I was shopping at TJMaxx. And if you know me at all, you know that I LOVE TJMaxx. Well, to be fair, I love TJMaxx, Marshalls and Ross, but thats not the point of this story. So as I was digging through all the good stuff, I realized that I was about to be late to meet my mom. So I put away what I had in my cart, and decided I'd put a pin in that trip and come back later. I was driving down the road and turned on a street that would eventually lead me to my moms office, when BAM!!!!!

A girl pulled out of a restaurant and slammed into the side of my car :( This was my first real accident and I was a little shaken. My horn was going off, both airbags deployed, and smoke was getting into my car.... I was fine, but I guess from the impact I hit the window with my hand and didnt realize until later that it was quite swollen. I grabbed my phone from the floor board and tried to call my mom, but as soon as someone picked up, I just crying and blabbing about what just happened. Turns out, it wasn't my mom. And again, if you know me, you know I am first, an ugly crier... and second, if I try to talk while I'm crying, you won't understand a word I say. And seeing as this accident wasn't really that bad, it made it worse with my reaction. Anyway, I was now out of the car and staring at the 16 year old girl that was driving her dads minivan that rammed into the side of me. She had a bloody nose from the airbag and was hysterical. So I tried to compose myself, as people that had seen the accident came to see if I was OK. I kept saying I was fine, but apparently I was holding my left hand straight up in the air like a surgeon who just washed his hands and didnt want them getting dirty. When the medic saw it, she said, "your hands broken, you're going to have to go to the hospital". Then my hand really started to hurt. I couldnt move it, and I felt like my finger was the size of a large banana. (I say large, because my fingers are normally the size of normal sized bananas).

Fast forwarding a bit, my mom and dad eventually got there, everything was sorted out, but my beloved 96 Cam Cam had died. :( I had her for about 6 years, and she was the perfect car to get me from point A to point B only 4 months out of the year while the other 8 months she rested and didnt worry her mother when there was hurricanes, hail, or tree branches. She truly served her purpose, and it was sad saying goodbye.

You see since I play overseas, I never wanted to buy a new car that I would only get to drive for a few months, leave, and then when I came home, she was already last years model. Plus who wants to pay insurance on a car that you're not even driving?!??!? So now I needed to find a new, used, more reliable car. Not the thing I wanted to worry about while my main priority this summer was buying a house.

Now rewind it back a little.... My mom and I went to the hospital to get my hand looked at. At this point I still hadn't brought it down, and couldnt move it. They did a couple x-rays and then had me wait, while I iced it and took some medicine for the pain. Finally the doctor came in and told me that I had messed some ligaments up in my pinky, but nothing was broken. Fortunately, the ligaments in my pinky have been messed up for years after being dislocated back in high school, and thats not what had gotten hurt in the accident. And amazingly as soon as he said nothing was broken, my hand felt fine, and I was ready to get back to pushing my shopping cart around TJMaxx! The mind is a powerful thing!

Luckily, my father is somewhat in the "car biz" so he was able to help me find another car to replace Cam Cam. It was a bit of an upgrade for me, going from a '96 to an '02. I almost thought the inside would have the new car smell (It didn't). So only a couple of weeks after my accident I brought home my brand new, used '02 Honda, Rhonda.

Out of my Summer Hibernation....

Welcome Back!

I always take the summer off from blogging, because when I am in Italy I seem to have plenty of down time to play on the computer and blog every week or so. The problem is when I get back overseas, I have TONS to catch up on and I had a VERY busy summer! I have alot to share, and tons of pictures, and I am almost 86% sure that I will post them out of order and miss more then a few things because I have self diagnosed myself with ADD and have a tendency stray away from the topic or get distracted by colorful, shiny objects, or any type of fried food or potato chips. Speaking of which, this summer I was introduced to a new snack called Munchies which is a bag mixed with doritos, cheetos, sun chips and pretzels, and I am a HUGE, HUGE fan! But like I was saying.... I had a GREAT summer, and hopefully this week I will start posting some pictures once my body gets adjusted to this time change!

Whooooopsie Daisies!!!

Holy Macaroni, has it been over a month since I blogged?? Yowzers. I have alot of making up to do, so I'll try to give it all to you in a nutshell. I will also try to make up for lost Blog time

with lots and lots of pictures to make you all feel more fulfilled once you leave

my page. You are welcome.

Here goes:

1.I got the flu and was in bed for a few days rocking a 102 fever :( luckily I had a great Doctor there to take care of me and make sure I was drinking my fluids and taking my cough drops ;)

2.. We had a game in Milan while I was still under the weather.... we lost :(

4. The next day I left for Parma for 2 days to participate in the All-Star game here in Italy. It was cool getting to hang out with girls I normally catch elbows from AND get 2 days off of my regular routine here in Lucca. The game was the All-Stars against the Italian National Team, and we ended up winning. But it was more for fun then anything else.

5. We went to Priolo (Sicily) to play last weekend. We were neck and neck with this team in the standings and we really needed to win to move up into playoff position. We beat them the first time we played them here in our gym by 4. Which meant, IF we did lose to them, we needed to only lose by 3, so if we were tied at the end of the season, we would have beaten them by more points and would have the advantage. (did you follow all of that??) We ended up losing by 5 :( Talk about heartbreak. Luckily Sicily is known for their Cannoli's and Mandorla's (Im americanizing these words). Mandorlas might be my new favorite dessert, I can sum them up in 2 words: Little Drops Of HEAVEN!!!!! ehh, you get the idea. Cookies with almond filling? Covered in powdered sugar? Yes please. I bought a box and it only survived 2 days in my house. R.I.P.

6.. That same weekend I was in Sicily, the NBA held THEIR All-Star weekend. I followed most of it online and had recorded each nights festivities on my TV back in my apartment so I was able to watch all the excitement. I have to say that the dunk contest was SPECTACULAR! I know there's some question as to whether or not Blake should have won for only jumping over a car to dunk while McGee was out there dunking on 2 goals AND 3 balls on one goal. BANANAS! But I know if I went outside right now and tried to jump over my Smart car, I probably wouldn't even clear the hubcaps..... and I know what you're thinking, "But Court, you just walked outside and you haven't properly stretched or warmed up." And yes that is all true, but even with a good 15 minute stretch, I might only leave a shin dent above the headlight. And it is all about presentation! I am also a big Blake Griffin fan, so I'm glad he won.

And this was just an extra picture I had of me and Kobe clowning around at the All-Star game, hes a good guy, but can get a little handsy.

So that's my past month in a nutshell! Hope all of you have had a great February and are all ready for a Marvelous March!!!!

Mini Me.

Last summer I came home and went to see a friend of mine while she was assistant coaching a girls AAU game. I played AAU a few years when I was in high school, but I always love getting the opportunity to watch young girls play because each year they get younger and each year they get so much better! Hard to believe I was a "cow on ice" up until my sophomore year in High School!

Anyway, at this game last summer I got the opportunity to meet one of my friends post players and her family. One thing led to another and I ended up coaching this little girl once a week throughout the summer, and I saw her improve SO MUCH in such little time! I was teaching her things that I am still learning out there on the court and she was soaking it all up like a sponge. I think I was as proud as her parents! This Christmas I sent her family a few things from Lucca, Italy, including one of my jerseys and once they received everything they showed me how appreciative they were. (Hopefully they dont mind me sharing.)

The first picture is my individual picture from my teams website, and the second one is a picture of my Mini me (I say mini, but she is almost my height) in the jersery that I sent her:

I love this!!

Now she is playing for her middle school team and her mom has sent me a few updates on how shes doing including highlights and I can that she learned alot this summer! And to top it off her younger brother who was always in the gym while we worked out has played in a few games, and all that time on the sidelines watching his sister workout has paid off for him as well. Looks like we might have to get Clint to coach him this summer on the other end of the court!

I am so glad I got the opportunity to help her out this summer and now I get to see her improve as she gets older!

Recap....

I have to back up a little because there's alot that has happened since the last time I blogged

(sorta, not really).

First of all, Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR! I know, I know, a little late, but thats why this is titled recap!

On the court, my team won 3 out of our last 4 games before our break! Losing the one game by only 1 point! It was sad because the game was in our control the whole time and at the end we were up by 2, and the other team made the basket and got fouled, then made the free throw to put them by 1 and leave our gym with the win. The good news was that they were a good team and that we actually competed! After the game, I was one of the lucky ones chosen for a drug test! Let me tell you, its not as fun as it sounds. For some reason I can never go to the bathroom right after a game, but I can wake up 3 times in the middle of the night to go NO PROBLEM. They chose 4 girls, 2 from each team, and since the other team was taking the bus 4 hours back to their city their girls went first. I ended up leaving 2 hours AFTER the game was over. Not the thing I wanted to do after a loss. For those of you who don't know me, I am a very sore loser!

Before that game we had a game down in Napoli. From Lucca, it is a good 7 hour bus ride, so we left the night before. On the day of the game we get to the gym and start warming up but we keep slipping. We tried wiping our feet, they tried sweeping the floor but it was something to do with the humidity. We warmed up for 20 minutes and then started the game. The first quarter was filled with turnovers and fouls because people kept falling! Finally in the beginning of the second quarter the refs called the game. (Only because one of my teammates slipped and pulled a muscle in her leg!)

So now we had to wait to see if the other team could find a new gym for us to play THAT SAME NIGHT, or leave (7 hour bus ride) and come back at another date. HMMM. Both sounded bad to me. I couldnt imagine packing up our bags, moving to another gym and warming back up and then trying to get mentally ready to play AGAIN. And on the other hand, I couldn't imagine leaving there and having to make the exact same trip again later to make up this game. We ended up rescheduling the game during the middle of the week, 2 weeks later. Good news was that we WON!!!! Making the 7 hour ride a little more pleasurable!

One more fun fact about Napoli, there is a garbage strike going on down there. Or there has been one for the past few years. Im not quite sure about the story, but I know that driving down the streets, they are all lined with bags of trash piled up on the side. It's really sad, because there are really NICE parts of Napoli, but the part most people get to see is this:

The final game before the break we won by about 20 to another team that is good, but they have alot of players with injuries. Either way, it really gave us some confidence and made our break THAT much better!

That's it for this short basketball recap! Next I'll update about my Christmas break!

HAPPY 2011 everyone!!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

I know i'm behind on my blogging. I'll catch up on the games later, but today I woke up to snow here in Lucca, Italy!

We normally get Friday mornings off and have a practice at night, but because the snow hasn't stopped all day and our coaches travel from outside our city, practice tonight was cancelled. We have one more game on Sunday until we get a short break for Christmas, so although I love a good snow, I sure hope its gone by my flight Monday morning to Egypt!

I love how in Italy, no matter, rain, snow or sleet, people still travel by bike!

I spent my time off by taking a bath and watching A Christmas Carol. I really have been wanting to see this movie since it came out last year, and I was kind of disappointed. It turned out more scary and dark then happy and Christmasy. (And yes I knew the plot before I watched the movie.) Still I thought with Jim Carey, it would have more funny uplifting moments!

Now for some sad news......

After 16 years with the Willis family, our chunky, and loving cat, Forrest "Fatty" Willis has passed away. I still remember when Dad (of all people) brought her into our home back in Fayetteville. She always had something to say and never met a cat toy that she LIKED or a bowl of cat food she didn't. The vet told mom that she was not overweight, but grossly obese weighing in at 17lbs. But she wore the weight well and proudly answered to the name Fatty or Fat Ass. She loved a good back scratch and was often terrorized by my sister or I by making her walk like an armadillo (or raccoon) while scratching her rear. (We both know she secretly enjoyed this, because she always came back for more!) She has been through lots of moves and lots of holidays and now it is finally her time to rest with her other siblings, Morgan and Sneakers. We will miss you Fatty!!! You always put a smile on my face!!!

Hope everyone is keeping warm!! Only 8 more days 'til Christmas!

Gobble 'til you wobble!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a great day with friends and families, save a slice of Pumpkin pie for me!

(the only thing with pumpkin in the name that I will eat Cam!)

On the court....we lost Sunday by 15 :( The game was a lot closer then the score shows, but right now we are tied for last with the team that we will play this sunday, so today I'd be thankful for a win this Sunday!!!!!