My friend and I

So late last night I decided to go out and play some basketball. I just wanted to shoot around a little bit, so I went to this church that is really close to my house. Gates of Praise is where I went, for those of you who know what I'm talking about, which I like to call the fortune cookie church because they always have these sayings on their billboard that sound like fortune cookies, which is sad; not so much because a church nowadays would sound like something a fortune cookie would say, but more because a fortune cookie nowadays would sound like something a church would say. But anyways, I went to play basketball.

I really like playing basketball at night when I'm outside. Just the mixture of the "cool" summer air and playing under the lights with everything else dark around me. Kind of like being in a boxing ring, I would suspect. The only bad thing about playing at night though is that there are so many bugs, all because of the lights. They were everywhere. It's actually a good thing I was sweating because I'm sure I would have been attacked otherwise. But if it hadn't been for all the bugs, I would not have been able to meet my little friend. When I started playing, I noticed that there was a huge grasshopper right in the middle of the backboard, up near the top. I tried to get him off by throwing my basketball up against the backboard, sometimes coming within inches, but he wouldn't budge. I don't know what would posses a bug to stay put with something at least 20 times its size nearly crushing it multiple times, but I figured I'd let him stay if he was that set on being there. I most definitely did not want to have grasshopper juice on my basketball, and he was high enough up the backboard that he wouldn't get in the way, so I figured he'd be alright. Well he did stay there the whole time I was there. I played for at least 45 minutes, and he just hung out up there while I took shot after shot. That little guy was fearless. I really don't know why he liked it up there so much, but he did. So I had at least one little friend that watched me play last night. But I still can't get over why this grasshopper wouldn't move. Did he not realize the peril he was in? Was that just a very special part of the backboard that he was willing to die for? I don't know, but I guess he got to be written about, so that's some sort of accomplishment.

I actually thought I had another onlooker because a stretch limo pulled up right next to where I was playing. I thought it was going to be some famous basketball player or coach who would watch my mad skills and then ask me to play for their team, but it turned out to be just a guy parking his limo for the night. So I guess I'll have to wait on all my NBA dreams for now. Well that's all for today...