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It’s been a week since I returned to my current home, and I barely feel like I’m caught up on sleep. Six games, two practices and several team meetings in three days combined with a sleep average of six hours took tiredness to another level. Luckily, I had a nine hour flight from London to Chicago to sleep… At least that was the plan. Did you ever try to sleep on a plane though? To me, that is impossible! Either there is babies crying, or the person next to you steals the armrest, or the neck starts hurting from being in the same position for so long, or, or, or.. I could go on and on but in other words: Once I finally arrived at home, 22 hours later, I really needed a bed to recover.

The next morning, I woke up at 5AM. Oh, how I love jet lag! Then, I was wide awake, but later that night, when I had to go to a night lecture for two and a half hours, the only way to stay awake was thinking: “I have to get through this, it’s for Paralympics! I can do this! Only a few hours!” I still had trouble fighting my eyes wanting to shut, but I made it. I even got through two exams the next day. And now here I am, three weeks away from completing another semester, the last one before London, and all caught up on sleep.

The games over Easter in Sheffield were fun. We tested some new lineups and I enjoyed being back with my team playing high quality international basketball. I also got some great minutes, started about half of the games and scored the second most points for our team (I actually didn’t know this until I read the article about our wins afterwards, but it’s an easy way of describing I did a decent job without any self-praise.).

What excited me most throughout the games was that I got to play in our press lineup! I really like playing at a fast pace, and being able to use my chair and have to defend across the entire court. I enjoy the feeling of putting pressure on other teams by using my quickness to make them insecure. Of course, this doesn’t always work, and it certainly wasn’t always great when we did it. But we are working on it and it is fun to me. I especially love it because I can really feel I got something done on the court even if I play for only a few minutes. It’s not just a shot and some movement on a square meter; it’s actual hustling at the limit the entire time! Like I said, I love it!

I wish we could have games all the time, but unfortunately that fun was only to be enjoyed over Easter. Now we are taking a little game break and won’t return until May 19. That day, we will play in Frankfurt, Germany. The competition will be even better and tougher but that only makes it more exciting! Until then, it is time to train, train and train… And I guess I shouldn’t forget to take my exams to complete my courses this semester… Oh well, 2012 is a Paralympic year, the next one won’t be for another four years, so I have my priorities straight! How about you?