One day in college it snowed enough to cancel classes. However, nothing is possible to cancel basketball practice. So there I was waking up at 9:00 to go to practice at 10 when my first class for the day wouldn't have been until 11:30 anyway. I began my short trek to the dining hall to grab breakfast. Obviously it was closed. With no food in my dorm, or in my belly, I just headed towards the gym hoping I could grab something for practice.
When I say it snowed enough to cancel school, I lied. It snowed about a quarter of an inch. Unfortunately that snow sat upon an inch thick sheet of ice. Hence no school. Hence my walk to practice being a tad bit ridiculous.
Most of the walk was fairly flat and was not too exciting. However there was one down hill and one up will to deal with. The downhill was first. Things were slow, but going fine until I inevitably slipped. Being that I have cat like reflexes I maintained my balance. Nothing like spastically twisting around to stay on your feet to wake up your frozen back muscles. I slid/hobbled down the rest of the hill only to find myself ready to go up the big hill. Well, a hill with steps.
Besides being careful where you put your foot down, it was cake. Well ... other than my back being lit on fire with pain. As Ms. Lincoln said "I still rather enjoyed the play."
So I finally get to practice at 9:45. The walk should have been ten minutes. Everyone else on my team had cars and drove, but I did not and was the only one who lived on campus so I felt bad asking for a ride. They had either eaten the food or there was no food that morning (more likely). I had no time to get my back treated so I just got dressed and went to practice.
Naturally, I did not practice all day. I got to watch. Not because of injury, more of a DNP-CD. I was lucky enough to be assigned to the losing team in every drill so I got to do every sprint. My back loved me. The day was capped off by getting treatment for my back and having to walk back home on the ice because everyone had left by the time my treatment was finished. Good day in all.
(Side story not about me: Someone at Yahoo Sports must have hated Robert Horry because there was a stretch of time early one year that he was not playing in games and in the box score they listed him as "DNP-old age". It was amazing. I just pictured him sitting in a white t-shirt, boxers, slippers, and a robe that was a little too open and yelling "Huh?" and calling the players "whippersnappers".)
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I remember that day well. I too was a car-free, campus-living freshman taking the same two hills (my first class was at 805 so I was well in the positive for sleep, though I was at practice by nine). I tackled the down-hill portion using a large piece of cardboard that just happened to be there as a sled, it was quite enjoyable. I treaded carefully up the large steps quite successfully. But, on the return trip I was much less so. I slipped on the first step and landed square on my bottom. It was the classic slip and fall that you only dream of seeing, and movies require several takes to capture. Evan Sietz was there. He told me not to move. He rushed back to the locker room to get as many people as possible to come out and laugh as I sat in the snow shaking my head.
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