Christensen Chronicles - Entry #2
I’ve never been very good at writing about basketball in the journals I’ve done in the past. I figure that you all see me on the court and can learn a bit about me from that but it gives you no inclination of who I am off the court. I think that balance in life is so important I figured it is a good thing for me to focus on something other than what is now my job, basketball. Wow, it still is kind of strange referring to basketball as my job but enjoy it while you’re young right!!!
This week is been nothing but chaotic for me. For all of you who don’t know I am still fully enrolled in all of my classes at UCSB. My finals are this week. Being in school, going through training camp, and starting the regular season has shown me exactly why all of a sudden I can’t stay up past 9:30 p.m. and why I can’t make it to 9:30 p.m. without a nap in between. My five-year-old nephew can stay up longer than I can.
Anyhow, I finish my finals this week and have two back-to-back games at the same time. Not to mention that on Saturday morning I fly back to Santa Barbara to participate in my commencement ceremony on Sunday afternoon. The best part about it is that I was chosen a while a go to be the commencement speaker for my ceremony. Now, I consider myself a shy person; those of you who know me only from what you have seen on the court may have a hard time believing that but it’s true. That would explain the reason why I date a man that speaks enough for the both of us.
With this in mind you probably are all wondering how someone in there right mind could agree to stand up in front of a couple thousand people and their families and attempt to make some kind of an impression on them when all they are thinking about is finding out what their parents got them for graduation. Well, I can answer that question plain and simple. I was not in my right mind when I agreed to do it. I think it is called duress. However, I think the fact that I have been dealing with worrying about getting a job, getting paid, paying car insurance and all the other joys that come with being an adult for the past couple months getting up in front of my peers and giving them my speech all of a sudden doesn’t seem all that bad.
As you all can imagine, with all of the excitement in my life lately, I haven’t necessarily had a lot of time to become acquainted with my new city. I have managed to find the AMC theatres down the way but I have to admit other than that I have basically found the grocery store and the video store. I did manage to make it down to see the Titanic exhibit downtown. Boy was that an experience. Shea (Mahoney) and I went on the last day it was in town. We had to stand in line for about an hour, outside, in the heat. Standing in line for that long, in those conditions, surrounded by complete strangers is no walk in the park. After our experience with the man behind us in line I decided I would rather hear those dreadful words every basketball player has nightmares about: “Get on the line.” The man standing behind us in line might as well have been surgically attached to our backsides. Not only was he standing in my bubble but he was participating in our conversation. We were talking about this and that and every once in a while he would ask us questions about what we were discussing.
The day only got worse, at the grocery store afterwards, I was on my way into the store when a man stops his car in the middle of the parking lot, steps out and says to me with a straight face, “I am the fashion police and you get an A!” I kind of looked at him like what do you expect me to do, throw my arms around you and ask you to make all my dreams come true. What are men thinking when they do something like that? Do they think they are going to get lucky? Do they think they are going to find the woman of their dreams? Or are they expecting you to take your purse and whack them in the head with it? It’s no wonder I stay in the comforts of my apartment with my best friend…my air conditioning!!!
