I'm No Dance Mom, But...

I'm not the type of mom that feels like she needs to live vicariously through her kids.  My parents gave me lots of opportunities growing up, so I had my own time on the court, field, stage, etc.  However,  when my girls (led by Coach Spicy Chicken) earned the opportunity to play in the Virginia Basketball Academy 5/6 Grade Girls Championship game on the University Hall court this weekend, I may have gone a little 'Dance Moms' about it. In all of my years of competition, I never played in a championship, let alone one on a big court like that.

I'm writing about this not to brag about my girls (while I am extremely proud of their efforts, there were only 4 teams in their league so they had a 50% chance of making it...) but rather because I thought the whole experience was so cool.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I thought it was cooler than the girls did, but they're young, what do they know?

I say that sarcastically, of course, but the truth of the matter is that they really don't know how lucky they are.  Most young players never get the chance to play on the floor of the University Hall court with the blue and orange under their feet, lights shining all around them, a real announcer calling their names, Eminem playing at timeouts, complete strangers cheering them on, a former hoopster placing ribbons around their necks.... 

I never did. Until today.  It was awesome.  Oh wait, I didn't actually play, did I? 

Don't worry - I didn't do anything too idiotic (unless you count yelling "Come on ref, you gotta call that - she's hacking my baby!" that one time...).  I did, however, Tweet and post on Facebook about how proud I was of them a little more than they would have liked.  Oh well, there's nothing wrong with being proud, is there?

They ended up losing the game by 4 points, but in my mind the experience itself was worth it.  While the odds that either will find herself playing across the street at John Paul Jones Area some day are pretty slim, it's fun for them to get a little taste of it and dream that it might happen some day.  And in the event that it doesn't, at least she has the memory of playing under the lights that one day in 2013...

Walking Tour

When the Spicy Chicken and I set out on for our 10 mile training walk last Saturday morning I was not intending on creating a photographic pictorial of our journey.  After the first mile, however, I realized it would be a great opportunity to photograph the town we live in that I love so much and document our morning together (these days those seem to be few and far between).  I am not a photographer nor do I pretend to be.  I do, however, love taking photos and playing around with Instagram. So, despite the fact that it slowed us down a little and it might have started to drive SC crazy after awhile, I, at least, had a ton of fun.  

Below are a few of the pics I took throughout Cville and UVA Grounds.  You can find me on Instagram under  amyeastlack if you want to see the rest.