"Glass"

Sometimes you have to bank one in

Ben McLemore was the best player on the court all night tonight.  On the
way to scoring 33 points, he missed only 2 shots.  He took advantage of
screens by his teammates, and also created  when the rest of the team fell
apart.  Perfect from 3 point land, opportunistic transition play, and pull
up jumpers.  Fucking masterpiece.  He did all of the right things.

But doing all the right things wasn't enough.  Even though he played the
best game of his young career, his team was going to lose.

But then he banked one in.

With .01 second(s) left and the team down by three, Ben put up a three
pointer. This time, his teammates did do all the right things.  They all
executed.   Coach drew up a play to get Ben the last shot of the game.  Why
not?  Ben had been perfect the whole night.

Ben then  put up his worst shot of the night.

His worst shot of the night saved the game because it banked off the
backboard and fell right through the net.  Tie game.  ( team won easy in
overtime)

Sometimes you have to bank one in.

About an hour after the game I got  a phone call from my wife.  I' m
traveling on business tonight, and was just falling asleep.  I have worked
my ass off this week, and today was especially  exhausting.  I almost
didn't pick up her call.

My wife and I are expecting our first child.  We are thrilled, but we are
secretly afraid.

Apparently, she got pregnant shortly before badly injuring her back this
Summer.  Her back's injury and all of the prescriptions and treatments
masked the fact that she had 1st Trimester symptoms.

So we just kept trying, and kept trying, and then got a positive test.

We went to her doctor, thrilled for what we thought was a 7 week sonogram.
Less than a minute into the sonogram, we were told the baby was at least 18
weeks old.

I was Scared and Mad.

Kate had taken pregnancy tests ever since we got off the pill to avoid any
risks.   She took prenatal vitamins for a year.  She went to her doctor for
advice and was told, quite directly, she would not get pregnant the old
fashioned way.   She did all the right things.

The news of our 18 week old pregnancy  didn't feel like a win.

What might we had done to our child?  Pain Killers, MRI, epidermal, a boozy
weekend.

Then we got a call from the doctor saying our blood work indicated a higher
risk than normal for Downs Syndrome.  We had such a  wonderful plan drawn
up, executed it so well, but it all seemed off.

I'm glad she called and woke me up.

All tests indicate our child is healthy.  The odds were always in our
favor, but Kate and I had been quietly afraid, even keeping our fear from
each other.  Noble, but kind of lonely and sad.

We had planned so diligently, and then it all went sideways.  Our plan
went wrong, so something had to go wrong right?

Sometimes you have to bank one in.

We weren't really  trying to get pregnant late August, but it happened.
The shot was off, but it went through the hoop..and it counted. ( Yeah,  I
just wrote that shit)

You can prepare.  You can do all the right things, or at least all of the
things you think are right, but it still might not get you what you want.

Other times, you  can just let it fly.  Put yourself in the right place,
keep trying, completely miss-fire, but still somehow win.

Fair has nothing to do with it.

Fair has nothing to do with anything.

Sometimes you bank one in and win.

Sometimes you prepare with perfect execution, but fall short.

Life is a tough and wonderful game.

I love it so much.