Inter-generational B-Ball

After taking stock of yesterday's basketball games, I can't help but feel old. Kind of. Not really.

Thierry, Farid and I were playing basketball for about an hour when we suddenly decided to ask two kids who were on another court to join us. So the kids and I teamed up against Thierry and Farid. Despite being 3 vs. 2 we still got our butts kicked.

The kids left and then another group of kids who were probably 13 or 14ish came over and asked if they could play. (They were just hanging around the park, waiting for their football game to start.) Of course we said yes and then proceeded to get our butts kicked.

Now, to save my pride I should first mention that with the first 2 kids, I was paired up with 2 scrawny Asian kids. I mean, come on. Me with 2 short kids vs. Thierry and Farid who have long mutant arms and springs in their calves? Not a hope in hell. With the second group, I attribute our loss to the fact that we had been playing for an hour and a half while they were still fresh. And we later realized that they were subbing new players in randomly. So they were literally running circles around us.

I'd feel older but the kids were so immature that it's not so bad. But this is also the first time I've interacted with high school kids (my niece excepted) since well, high school! It wasn't until after the games were over that I realized just how much younger they probably were. And I think part of the difficulty of pegging down their age stemmed from their looks and behaviour.

One kid had his head shaved with little designs in the stubble. To me, I've always pictured that style as being older or belonging on a gang member of something (forgive my stereotyping). So seeing it on a kid (he also had a stud in one ear) was disconcerting. It was the same with the way they talked. They were cursing and swearing a streak on the court, razzing each other and us. It was funny to listen to, but it's certainly not how I remember talking when I was that age.

Their attitude was also funny. When they first asked to join we were trying to figure out how to even up the teams (since we only had 3 members on our team we needed to draft some of their friends but it was going to be an uneven number no matter what). I didn't catch the full remark but I overheard the one kid telling his friends, "... Well we can't kick the girl out!" I was taken aback by that. I haven't dealth with the whole school-yard "girls vs. boys" issues since the school yard! I was amused to realize that it was even an issue for them.

I did get my revenge later though when I surprised the one kid with some crazy defence skills of my own. Of course, keeping up and blocking him used up the last of my energy and left me gasping my way back and forth on the court.

Overall though it was a great day on the courts. I had a good workout. And it made me feel even better to later realize that I've lost 5 pounds without realizing it! Yay me!