Free-For-All Friday -- Back to Basketball!

It's the most wonderful time of the year ...

No ... not Thanksgiving ... or Christmas.  It's basketball season!  :)

OK, so that's a little tongue-in-cheek.  Basketball season is not really the most wonderful time of the year ... but it is pretty awesome.  Especially since Bethany is a senior this year, and I absolutely love to watch her play.  Her team made it to the Elite Eight in last year's state tournament, and I foresee another trip to state this year.  They have four returning starters, all seniors, a crackerjack junior starter, and a talented bench.

During basketball season, life in the Sullivan household gets a little crazy.  But it's a good kind of crazy.  We're busy, busy, busy ... running from one gym to another sometimes two or three nights a week ... and generally spending the entire evening there once we arrive.  But we have the best conversations on the way home ... about the referees, the other team's post player, the people in the crowd, and how many times Bethany got fouled.  And Bethany gets fouled a lot, at six feet tall and playing under the basket.  Last night, she was 8 for 8 on free throws, and finished the night with sixteen points.  Oh, sorry ... was that shameless parental bragging?  Of course, that was purely unintentional.  Please forgive me.  ;)

The other nice thing about the busy-ness of basketball season is how much it makes me appreciate a quiet evening at home.  Like tonight ... just me and Lacee (our Westie), a warm blanket on the couch, and "You've Got Mail" on TV.  Seriously ... Is there any better movie to watch on an evening at home alone?  Never mind that I can nearly quote it word for word ... I never get tired of it.  "Bouquets of sharpened pencils" ... ahhhhh.

I wonder sometimes what life will be like when Bethany is gone to college next year.  What will we do with ourselves when it's just the two of us?  I have a feeling my love for basketball will wane when my girl is no longer out on the floor in her bright orange high-tops.  We keep teasing Bethany that we're going to get an apartment in Fayetteville so we can come up and spend every weekend with her.  She always laughs kind of nervously whenever I say that, like she's half afraid we're actually going to do it!

Guess that's enough for tonight ... Joe's about to go to the Shop Around the Corner and meet Kathleen for the first time, and I think I'll go check the classifieds for apartments in Fayetteville ...