New Years Resolution #1

2011 is right around the corner and I think I've got a goal I want to work towards in the new year. Normally I'm not one for resolutions or these forced changes because I don't believe that people (me in particular) can change so quickly, but I guess we'll really get to test out my beliefs with this personal endeavor.

I want to learn how to play basketball. There, I said it.

It's not that I don't know basketball or have ever played it or don't understand it. I do, mostly. I've just never been good at it. From a young age, I assumed one had to this tall and this strong and this whatever to be skilled at basketball. Since I didn't perceive myself as having any of those qualities, I gave up on the game because I didn't see the point in doing something I wasn't going to be able to do well. Defeatist, maybe, but at least I didn't have some warped aspiration to one day go up against Michael Jordan. I'd probably keep butting my head accidentally into his butt.

So I don't know where this recent desire has come from. Maybe it was the phone conversation I had with Kara a few weeks ago when we reminisced about the summer days when we'd play ball at her dad's and she would always be able to pull NBA moves on me. Or maybe it was watching Brendan zone out to a basketball game and occasionally holler out words of encouragement or criticism to the little guys running around on the screen and wondering how he could be so passionate about something that he doesn't share with me. Or maybe it's just because I want to do something that I've really cared to do before because I've been too scared of failing at it.

Well, I'm ready to change it all. In 2011, get ready to be amazed at the 4'11" Dunking Wonder!

Remember This

"Hi love,

And I do mean love. I know I've never felt this way before and I am
sure I won't feel this way ever again. You're the best thing that's
ever happened to me, Judy. I love you, I love you with every pound of
my body and I'll keep loving you until you won't let me anymore.

What you are is so special. I owe so much of the happiness in my life
to having met you. You made California home. I can't imagine walking
so many paths, meeting so many faces and feeling just as comfortable
as I do when I am with you. I never feel shy, never feel embarrassed
to dream and to laugh, to fail and to fall; I don't mind you watching
because I can feel you just loving. Your family made me remember
what I missed about home isn't tied in one place, it's tied to love, a
love that I needed and wouldn't find without you. I need you.

My eyes scan for you, my arms search for you, reach for you, my body
pleads with me to find a way to be next to you."