bird hole: basketball

i haven’t posted in a bit and want to explain before pivoting back to shoot for the #stonehousestory …

every post is a burst in my brain that spends days spinning. they rarely roll right off-the-rim. i spend days improving every post(-up), and afterwards, i’m still re-reading for mistakes. i like to let my thoughts bounce around before committing.

this hesitation (aka doubt) is tied to my anxiety. it’s not always indecision but it is often a stutter step. these are moments of “falling down a rabbit hole” but let’s start calling them bird holes…

here’s the latest bird hole, and the full court press of thoughts that block my progress.

below is a normal chain of events for writing a simple post about basketball — a.k.a. one of my most favorite things:

the hubby’s favorite team in the world is the bulls
i love [and played] basketball, lived in chicago and am 100% game for anything bulls-related
we start watching the michael jordan documentary “The Last Dance” [Please note: it’s fantastic (!) and i want to rewatch immediately]
i have the idea to write about the first project i worked on to decorate casey’s apartment in st. louis in 2010
the easy shot should be to find or take the pictures i need to make my point and write the blog post
done

bird hole reality when writing a post about basketball:

casey’s favorite team is the bulls
we start watching the documentary
i have the idea to write about my bulls-related project
i run downstairs [a few days later] and take pictures of the artwork hanging in the basement

[a promising start]

[cool, right? i was such a good girlfriend and made a decoupage collage from the michael jordan special edition chicago tribune — saved by casey and rescued by me while packing his stuff to move to st. louis.]

but then…

i remember the pictures i took making these canvases in the kitchen of casey’s downtown stl apartment [and i start dribbling out of bounds]
i look for the pics on my phone [nope, my phone doesn’t go back that far]
maybe the pics are in google images? [close, but still an air ball]
ok, they have got to be on my computer where i’ve been categorizing old shots [ugh … missed the lay-up … i’ve been organizing my art on my hard drive]
meanwhile, my high school friend randomly texts me a picture from jv basketball
[hard fake]
now i’m questioning how to incorporate my free throw into this already random basketball post …
while i’m searching the hard drive, i immediately find a picture of me shooting a hook shot in my favorite bar in chicago [she-nannigans]
ooo! i should text caroline and ask her if she made it to shenannigans when she visited chicago
oh wait, wasn’t that trip canceled because of COVID?
i digress [obviously]
get back on task robin (!)
i briefly forgot where i saw that hook shot photo and go dig around for it …
found it!
btw —- here’s both:

ok, back to the original image search
you’ll never guess what was in the same spot as the hook shot … the progress pictures i’ve now been chasing down like a loose ball for nearly two weeks: saved and organized with other “work-in-progress” pictures for this exact moment

just when i was about to blow the whistle on the whole idea to write the post, instead, i wrote a message on a post-it and placed it on my whiteboard
and finally, the best bird hole of all around mid-court was trying to braid casey’s hair and ultimately, put it in ponytails [how does this relate? it doesn’t. but it was hilarious and kinda like my jv days hairstyle in the free throw show above. just roll with it.]

here’s the buzzer beater: all of those sprint drills were worth the pivot [so was the hair style] because i learn from every project i complete and every bird hole i fall into.

my final take-away:

i want to be like mike:
he never stopped fighting and
always had confidence in his shot
good ideas are worth it
i sure love sports and chicago