stevesbets

The time is 630 am and I’m sitting in JFK airport on my first trip out of New York since I moved in. I am on my way to Aruba to play in the big UB tourney for the first time even though it has been happening annually for 5-6 years now. I have heard great things about Aruba and am really looking forward to the trip but right now it feels a long way off.

For my whole life I have suffered from insomnia and it has definitely played it’s standard role in how I’m feeling at this odd hour of the day. I did not get much sleep on Friday night which I thought would work out ok since I could get to bed early on Saturday to wake up in time for my 830 am flight. I’ve always been warned about the best laid plans and like many others this was doomed to failure. Even though I was so tired last night I could barely move, I was unable to get to sleep around 11 when I tried. After tossing around for almost 3 hours, I realized that I had to get moving in about 3 more hours and I didn’t want to risk sleeping through my flight time. I woke up and did the things that I do in the middle of the night when the rest of the world is asleep.

I played poker, watched law and order, showered twice, watched a profile of Charles Manson (the images of the pert, peppy girls that assisted in his killings sent a chill down my spine in a way that most shows about murderers don’t),  checked my bags about 3 times to make sure I had everything including my passport, looked up the most efficient way to get to JFK, flossed, sent some random emails, walked to europan for a black and white cookie and wasted about an hour on facebook looking at pictures of people I hardly know. During this time I had a funny thought.

I played my second week of Zog basketball yesterday, Zog sports are new yorks answer to intermurals and are billed as coed, social, casual sports leagues. So far it has been fun playing semi organized basketball again (thanks to my cousin Lauren for introducing me). But I realized something funny about “social basketball”. You talk to teammates and opponents in a friendly way, and the games are casual, but nevertheless I have trouble seeing people as “people” on the court. When I’m playing, everyone just becomes a sum of their basketball strengths and weaknesses. My mind dehumanizes them and puts them in a group of someone I don’t need to try against, someone I do need to try against, or someone I can’t compete with even if I do try. Somehow I expect their personalities to mirror their intermural basketball abilities. If someone is uncoordinated and hapless on the court I expect them to be a wreck when I talk to them but often times in just the short 2 weeks the people have thwarted my on court characterizations.

This led my awake mind and asleep body to consider why I don’t do this at the poker table. I think that poker is really a great equalizer since there are no objective characteristics that really matter. Height, weight, gender and ethnicity may play some minor role in guessing someons style, but for the most part when you sit at a new table everyone is just a person, and at least to me seems that way for the duration of play there. I think the idea that a borderline inept poker player can hide under a shroud of normal humanity while a borderline inept basketball player will be instantly outed on their first dribble is one of the reasons I both love and hate poker.

This blog may not have made a whole lot of sense, after all I have been up for 33 of the last 36 hours. I hope my idea of ppl just becoming part of the bball matrix is a bit clear becuase I think it’s really weird. Wish me luck in Aruba.