Practices have been going well and with each session we have we get better. We have a scrimmage game tomorrow against the Mandurah Magic and my good buddy Casey Crevelone. I first met Casey on the AIA tour in Perth back in November of 2009. So it should be a fun game and a good measuring point to see where we need to improve as a team. The first weekend of March there is a pre-season tournament called "the blitz" that takes place in Perth every year. All the teams from the league will be there and playing twice a day both Saturday and Sunday. It's a time for scouting other teams as well as seeing where exactly your club is at compared to others in the league. It's also a nice little road trip to further bond as a team, so it should be a good time.
Last weekend I went up to Mandurah (which is just 1 hr north and only 40 mins south of Perth) to visit with Casey Crevelone and Ben Beran (he plays at Lakeside Lightning and also is an AIA guy). I went up Friday night and stayed until Monday morning. Ben came down from Perth Saturday morning and we all headed to the beach to do some boogie boarding. As we were enjoying the water and waves we all of a sudden noticed people from shore waiving at us to come in, so we hurringly scurried out of the water. As Casey and I were making our way in we both took a look back to see why exactly we were getting out. We both saw what WE believed to be a dolphin swimming through one of the waves, BUT supposedly there was an 8ft shark "chasing" the dolphin that we didn't see. SOOOO once everyone was out of the water we then learned that they were shutting down the beach for at least 1 hour to make sure that it would be safe to get back in the water or not. We then decided to play some good old American grid-iron in the sand, which turned out to be a lot of fun since we couldn't be in the water. We ended up leaving after about an hour anyways, but it was a nice beach and boogie boarding was fun while we had the chance to do it.
Ben was albe to stay Saturday night which was awesome because we were able to cook up a nice big meal and get some good "sharing time" in since I haven't really been able to catch up with those guys for a while. I learned quickly that all the AIA play the most ultimate game of 2011, Settlers of Catan!
So of course we started a few games and ended up having to play 4 because we each took a victory as the games progressed, leading right into an epic championship game that ended with Casey winning (but only because of home court advantage really! haha).
Sunday morning Ben had to leave back to Perth because he had practice with his team, but Casey and I didn't so we decided to head off to his church he attends while in Mandurah called Eastlake. It was a nice service with a pretty young feel to it, I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to finding a good church here in Bunbury I can get plugged into while I'm here, there's plenty of options and I'll probably try a few out to see which best suits me.
As far as for the rest of Sunday, Casey invited me to go to Perth with him and a group of friends to a music festival called "good vibrations". There was going to be around 20-25 artists there performing on 4 different stages!! It sounded like a great time and since I love music so much I said "WHY NOT!?". It was a long day of walking/standing and music but man it was great. I got to see Erykah badu, Mike Posner, Nas, Damien Marley, Phoenix, Yolanda Be Cool, Ludacris, The ting tings and Kelis!! All the acts were great and live music is always fun to be around, so it was an awesome day!
It ended up finishing around 10:30pm and me and Casey were so poooped that we just grabbed about $30 worth of Mackers (Australian for McDonald's) and drove back home to Mandurah for the night. It was a great day to hang with Casey and also meet some new people and obviously get to see so many artists perform that I grew up on!
There are a total of 10 AIA guys in the leauge this season and we're all within about an hour of eachother, so it should be pretty easy to get together to hang out and also keep eachother accountable for our actions over the course of the long season. I know I'm looking forward to having some good solid Christian blokes around to be able to meet up with and grow in my faith. It's really the ulitmate experience as a professional basketball player away from home, family and friends...
There's been some exciting news going on back home in Seattle Washington of course. My family has recently sold our house of 16 years!!! ANDDDDD already found a new one in Lynnwood to move into, which is perfect timing! So that's exciting to hear, I'm just bummed that I'll miss the whole moving process and what not. It'll be pretty cool to come home to a new house though, that will be a first for me. ALSO my cousin Robby and his beautiful wife Katie had their twin girls just about a week or two ago and that was amazing news for the family! I want to give a big shout out to them! Every time I leave I feel like soooooo much happens, its crazy.
I think that's about it for right now. Not tooooooooo much else is going on really. We'll just continue with practices and what not until the official season begins March 18th!! I'm enjoying my time so far and think it will be a great season. Hopefully a few of my friends and family will be able to make the journey out here to visit at some point! That would really be awesome! There's so much to do here on the Westcoast of Australia and some absolutely beautiful beaches. We'll see as time goes on. Much Love to everyone and many blessings.
Remember life is good, but God is great!
Until tomorrow...
"Make it Happen"
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