O: Old?? Oh no you DI'INT!

Three months ago I was sitting in church, minding my own business, when I glanced down at the announcements and read, "If you are interested in playing on the Relief Society Basketball team at the Region Tournament please call...". Wait, what?? Relief Society? Basketball? Since when did they let the women play basketball?? I read it again three times to make sure that I had really read it correctly. I was so excited!! Nearly bouncing on the pew, I leaned over to Matt and pointed at the words on the paper. He read it, looked up at me in what seemed to be something like disbelief/mockery and said, "It's been a LONG time since you played basketball." Then looked away as if to say, "end of discussion." Wet blanket, bubble burster, you pick your metaphor. However, because I was in church I couldn't give voice to the response that was quickly forming in my mind, so I placed a few more kids between us and fumed.

In all fairness to Matt, he WAS right. It had been a LONG time since I played basketball. There was nothing but truth in his words. But COME ON, Baby!! Have you not learned yet how and when to lie to a woman??

No matter how indignant I felt, the seeds of doubt had been planted. By the end of the meeting I had convinced myself. He's right. I'm too old. What am I thinking?? But I really WANTED to play. So a week later in Primary, when they read the same announcement out loud and even had little handouts to go with it, I timidly raised my hand. GAH! What if the other women look at me and wonder what's wrong with me? I have 5 kids! I'm too OLD to play basketball. But I squashed those feelings aside and showed up at the meeting two days later. Are you dying yet to know the end of this story? (Or just dying to be at the end of this story?) Well, turns out, there were 8 other women at this meeting, ALL within a couple of years of my age. Some older! I'll skip some of the gory details. Yes, we played at Region. And yes, those younger girls from Logan wiped the gym floor with our sorry hides. But we had fun! And no one needed oxygen.

So fast forward to now. The gals and I decided we liked it and started playing regularly every Thursday A.M. We run hard and trash talk and make fun of ourselves and it's so fun. Given that we all have too many kids to count, we bring them all and try to play around them. It works best when we play full court because then when they come to us wanting something we just run away. It's pathetic! But have I mentioned we LOVE it?

Matt has come around now and seems to think it's great. But last week, one of the gals shared with us that her husband had asked her if maybe she didn't think she was too old to be playing basketball. Well, that just opened the floodgates! In my naivety I really thought Matt was an exception. I pictured all of these other supportive hubbies, but NO! Every single one of us at one time or another has been asked/told in one way or another that perhaps we're too far on in years to dribble anything but saliva. I seriously don't understand it. They want us to exercise and be fit and healthy. But we're too old for basketball? Are they embarrassed? Or just protective cavemen? Granted, we're not Spring chickens. Between Kelly's back, Laura's ankle, Valerie's knee, my shoulder, and Julie's feet we're kind of falling apart. But OLD?? Never!!