I felt a little fuzzy today, as if I weren’t quite connecting the dots. (This is unusual, because I’m usually so much in control, don’t you know.) I’m not going to blame the lack of sleep, because that’s a constant in my life. I could blame the weather, but it wasn’t much worse than it was yesterday. In fact, today was yesterday, with added drizzle.

It might have been a good day to bundle up and stay indoors, but I didn’t manage to do that. D.J. had one of his basketball games in the middle of the afternoon, and I had some mail I needed to get to the post office. So instead of bundling up and staying in, I bundled up more and went out. It was definitely worth the effort, especially since D.J. wasn’t feeling great himself, and yet he not only showed up for his game but played a whole quarter.

The game, by the way, was pretty much a replay of last week’s fiasco (which was only a fiasco from the perspective of a basketball purist, and if you’re one of those you’re better off not watching six-year-olds play). The opposition was about the same caliber, maybe even a little better than the team that beat our guys (who are apparently now officially known as “the Bulls”) last time. They were definitely taller, and they were better shooters.

But the Bulls managed to score a few points of their own this week. They still lost (something like 24-14, I lost count), and they still dribbled in circles instead of toward the basket, but they looked better doing it. And they got their hands up on defense, when they remembered. And they spread out on offense, at least once or twice each quarter. So there are definite signs of improvement, not that the kids themselves care all that much. Most of them. Some of them obviously care, and good for them.

Although I was happy to be there and glad to see everybody (Kylie was again mesmerized by the game, and Dakota was downright chatty today), I started feeling as if I were wearing a helmet made of Jell-o. I don’t know if it was all me or just poor acoustics inside the gym at the Y, but I had to look people directly in the face to have a clue what they were saying to me. I was okay to drive home afterward, but not worth much once I got there.

Anyway, I spent the day in a pretty dense fog, and I’m just a little wobbly still tonight. I’m thinking this could be the night when I get that extra four or five hours of sleep that I’ve been missing. You know, the four or five hours on the top half of the night, when it counts.