In the 11th grade I joined the JV basketball team. Basketball didn't really fit into my plans to conquer the world (or get into college). At 16, I was over the hill, not to mention too short, to ever become a Super Kick Ass Hoops Star. But I wanted to play sooooo bad. Like most anything I have ever loved (including men), it didn't make sense. But I could no longer deny that x-country running was getting a little boring and masochistic (sorry runners). I felt hoops in my soul.

The Varsity team consisted of Goddesses. Big Black Girls and a few token White Girls. They had the skee-els, but I'm sure they intimidated most suburban white teams before they stepped on the court. Berkeley was scary. That's another blog. But they eventually won California's Division I championship.

Our five person JV team was another story. We regularly got reduced to four because someone either fouled out or called the ref an expletive, and we got routinely creamed in humiliating double digit defeats. Fun! I never wanted it to end. Screw volleyball and softball! (where's the contact?). Basketball felt free and passionate.

One time we drove to an away game in a tiny suburb in Marin. The town was decorated for Christmas and covered in lights.

"It looks so pretty," I told Jualeah.

"I hate to say it. But it looks very white."

That was the first time I really understood that Black People could see the world differently than White People. Which doesn't mean that a Black person can't think Christmas lights are pretty. (I'm sure Obama has a field day with Christmas lights).

Basketball is also where I first realized that physical movement says more than words, or any other form of communication. That's why athletes are closer to God.

Just for today, I'm going to see the Lakers.

I'm helping my co-worker disepense of his children's extraneous Halloween candy (fine, he stole it). He stashed away the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and Almond Joys per my request. All the other scavengers are left to sift through the M&M's, Snickers and Milky Way, which have somehow fallen upon hard times on the candy hierarchy. I remember when Snicker's was still cool. In fact, I think I remember when Snickers came on the scene and my friends and I used to say, "Snickers really is satisfying!" Advertising worked on me like a charm.

Somehow we began talking about Stix by Jolly Rancher, a hard candy which consisted of a large flattened jolly roger, sort of like a rectangular tongue depressor. I used to buy the "Fire" flavor, which I thought made me cool because it was too hot for my friends who always got "Watermelon" or "Green Apple." I figured since I was Mexican I knew how to eat hot things. But no matter the flavor, that thing lasted all day. The problem came when the tip got too thin and the experience was like sucking on a shard of glass. Eventually, I would stab my tongue or mouth, but by that point I was pretty much drunk from sucking on pure sugar and couldn't feel the pain anyway. I'm pretty sure that's why it's no longer on the market. It wouldn't surprise me if some kids figured out how to use their sucked on Stix as weapons.

I couldn't find it anywhere on the Internet (though, the Internet stopped working for searches last year).

Just for today, I'm nostalgic for random things.