GROVE CITY - There are wild weeks, then there ones like that turned in by Abby Moose.

Even the Grove City College senior guard has trouble wrapping her mind around it.

In the course of five days - well, six in Moose's frame of reference - she won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. Deaflympic women's basketball team, spent two days on a plane from Australia, experienced two Mondays because of the International Date Line and was stuck at the Los Angeles airport for nearly 12 more hours.

When she finally returned to Grove City, she had just two hours to sleep before heading to practice.

The next night, still jetlagged, Moose became just the eighth woman in school history to score 1,000 points in a career.

"It was very memorable and eventful," Moose said. "It's definitely something I will never forget."

Moose, who played in high school for Portersville Christian School before transferring to Mercer for her senior season, was selected to play on the U.S. team last summer.

To be eligible, a player must have a hearing loss of at least 55 decibels. Moose has a hearing loss of 60 to 90 decibels, which is considered moderate to severe.

Many on the team had much more pronounced hearing losses.

"The biggest thing that I learned was there's a big difference between hard of hearing and deaf," Moose said. "Some of the athletes I met have no idea what someone's voice sounds like."

It was a different world for Moose, who knows a limited amount of sign language.

"I ended up hanging around more with the girls who could do both sign and talk," Moose said. "Some of them have grown up their whole life signing."

The only play restriction was that athletes could not wear hearing aids.

That was also different for Moose, who wears a hearing aid in everyday life and on the court."It's a different style of play," Moose said. "You don't get much help on defense. I'm so used to calling out for help, calling 'switch.' You couldn't do that. If you could see it, you could do it. If someone was on a fast break and they weren't in front of you, forget it."Moose had no expectations on playing time or of what kind of success she and her team would enjoy at the Games.Once the Games started, everything fell into place for the U.S.The team beat New Zealand 99-36 in the first game, then beat Lithuania (92-61), Japan (98-41) and the Ukraine (83-57) to get to the gold medal game against Sweden.In that game, Moose scored 19 points to help the U.S. post an 89-75 victory. She averaged 10.6 points per game at the Deaflympics, good for fourth on the team.For the first time in the Deaflympic Games, which was started 80 years ago, the national anthem of the winning country was played.Moose found herself unable to resist the urge to sing the national anthem aloud."It was a special moment," Moose said. "Standing on the podium and leaning down to get the medal, then to have the national anthem played. I, of course, sang it."Then came the journey home, an arduous one at best.Because her flight out of New Zealand was delayed, Moose arrived in Los Angeles 10 minutes late, which was late enough to miss her connecting flight.So, Moose had to rough it in the LAX terminal for 11½ hours before boarding a flight back to Pittsburgh.When she arrived home, she had little time before she was to report to practice."I took a two-hour nap," Moose said. "That was it. Needless to say, shooting a basketball with jetlag is not easy."By the time her first game back rolled around Jan. 19, Moose was still feeling the affects of her long journey.No matter. She scored 13 points against Waynesburg to reach 1,000 points on the nose in her career.Moose was more selective with her shots, though, forgoing long-range jumpers for higher percentage ones."I think I was worried because I was still jetlagged," Moose said. "But I got back into rhythm. I took a lot of layups."Moose never really thought 1,000 points was attainable until last year. She never thought it would come the same week she earned a gold medal playing in an international event."If someone would have told me that, I would have said no way," Moose said.