Double whammy

25. So let it be written, So let it be done
I’m sent here by the chosen one
So let it be written, So let it be done
To kill the first born pharaoh son
I’m creeping death…

Metallica, Creeping Death

Twelve years ago Thursday was the first godawful, agility-ridden, seven-hour, blistering-hot football practice of my last year of organized football (though, technically, today would have been the first in full pads). It was hot. It was miserable, and it lasted approximately 17 hours. To top it off, we were a highly touted team that foundered most of the year. Great times.

I often chastise myself – during high school I actually detested football, never realizing that if I actually would have focused on maximizing practice time or enjoying it even a little, I might have been somewhat good. Instead I just killed time, anxiously awaiting basketball season. Creeping Death, however, was a favorite motivational song of mine before most games, a rousing anthem from Metallica‘s heyday. It stuck with my athletic career for a while, even becoming the name of my champion 3-on-3 basketball team during freshman year of college. Yes, I’m so totally sure we were cool….

24. Tell your children not to walk my way. Tell your children not to hear my words…
What they mean, What they say …

Danzig, Mother

But not as cool as my 3-on-3 high school basketball team, who entered the Gus Macker tournament in Waterloo, Iowa, under the ferocious nom de plume Danzig. Even worse, we all paid for Danzig-emblazoned jerseys. (I still own mine.) Even worse, all of us wore, of course, No. 6.(Hee.) In case you’re wondering, we won two and lost one, and then skipped out of losers’ bracket play on the final day.