"I define passion as extreme emotion." ~ Coach K
So... something awesome is happening this week. And it came up rather suddenly.
I don't know if I can properly explain the magnitude of awesomeness this carries, but I can try by saying that this is bucket list stuff, people.
Three versions for people of varying interest and/or knowledge...
In 1989, I was 16 years old. For reasons that are just too boring to explain, I was finishing out the last two years of high school on Independent Study. Basically, I was home all the time. At that same time, my mom had already stopped working due to various health issues, so this was a time in our lives where we bonded like crazy. I grew up as a sports fan, so Mom and I always had that in common. But that summer began some of the best years of my young life.
The Chicago Cubs, for those who don't know, primarily play their home games during the day because up until 1988, their field didn't have any lights. Seems ludicrous now, but that's just how it always was, home games were played during the day. And even with the lights, they still played a lot of day games. This was good for my mom, because games were on every day in the afternoon, and it gave her something to watch and really enjoy. And as I spent more time with her every day, I'd hang out in her bedroom and watch the games with her while doing my summer school homework. It was a fun summer, watching Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Greg Maddux, Joe Girardi, and Andre Dawson buck against the odds and get the Cubs to the top of their Division. They got to the playoffs and lost to the SF Giants quite easily. But man, was that a great summer to spend with my mom, cheering and crying over the team... together.
Summer turned into Fall. A new semester of school work began for me, and college basketball started for her. She had always watched March Madness, always pulled for the underdogs, always filled out her bracket *after* teams had already won. She was never too heavily invested in our local colleges like UCLA, even though they were usually pretty good. But something was different this year. There was a team that she caught on TV early on in the season, and this was the moment that sparked a 22-year love affair.
The Duke Blue Devils, back in 1989, weren't as big of a deal as they are now. They had never won a National Championship and they weren't thought of as the big, bad Duke that they are today. One day, Mom was watching TV and saw a young man playing for Duke that made her stop in her tracks. My Mother, bless her, was never one to bypass superficial beauty in order to keep her street cred. Nope. I'm not ashamed to say that I probably wouldn't be a Duke fan today if my mother wasn't a complete and total horndog for Christian Laettner. Really, I can't blame her.
So, obviously, I became a Duke fan with her. We would watch them any time they were on TV, and we followed them all the way through March Madness to the National Championship game, where they lost to UNLV. It was sad to watch, but Laettner was only a sophomore. And since it was a rarity for kids to leave early for the NBA back then, Mom and I took comfort in the knowledge that we still had two more years to watch Christian get prettier and prettier. He sure didn't disappoint. Oh, and he also led the next two Blue Devil teams to back-to-back National Championships. Y'know, WHATEVER.
There were rarely any boys so pretty after Christian graduated, but my love for the team had gone way past the superficial by then. They were my team now, and Mom and I would keep an eye on them through the years, watching as many games as we could. We'd watch in awe of the Cameron Crazies that made Cameron Indoor Stadium so electrifying. We always talked about how much we'd love to see a game there sometime in our lives, but living on the other side of the country and living on a budget made that impossible. During my indulgent 20s, Mom would keep me up to date if I missed some games, and we would always watch March Madness together, no matter what I was up to. With our matching brackets in hand, we'd pull for Duke and all the underdogs. I still, to this day, have two brackets - one I fill out as predictions, and one I fill out after teams win.
In 2001, Duke stormed through their season and won another National Championship. As always, Mom and I watched it together and cried tears of happiness as we saw Shane Battier, Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Carlos Boozer, and others win #3 for Coach K.
That was the last March Madness that Mom and I got to have together. Unfortunately, we never made it to Cameron together to catch a game. But thanks to livehead16, I was lucky enough to visit Duke University a couple of years ago for the Duke Basketball annual banquet held after each season, and in doing so, I was able to fulfill part of our dream. I made it to Cameron. And even though there was no game going on, it was an overwhelming and emotional experience for me at the time, and one I'll never forget.
The trip to Durham and to Cameron was one of the most important moments in my life (Lara will have my unwavering gratitude for offering her other ticket to me). So much of my life experiences are tied to my Mom, and I felt like she was there with me. And that also gave me a new perspective on my fandom with Duke. Seeing it right in front of me, being so close to so much tradition and beauty, being so close to the players that are so proud to wear that jersey, it all became very real for me. In the simplest terms, it amped up my fannishness 10-fold.
Since Mom had passed in early 2002, real life had become much more important to me than any kind of fandom I could be a part of. It's part of the reason I backed off of the pop/slash fandom, and have never really glommed onto anything else since. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, losing a part of you can completely alter your perception of life as well as cause you to re-evaluate your connection to everything and everyone you know. But what that trip did for me, in so many ways, was re-connect me with who I was before my life imploded.
Fast forward to April of 2010, and Duke makes it through another March Madness on top. Watching Jon Scheyer, Brian Zoubek, Lance Thomas, Nolan Smith, and Kyle Singler fight their way through all the games that everyone thought we'd lose was a beautiful thing. I was more invested in that team than I had been in any team since the Laettner days. I watched every game I possibly could, I followed the team in ways I never did before, and my unabashed fanaticism was strong to quite strong.
And still, in all of those years, I'd never been lucky enough to see them play in person. Until now.
Before the brackets for this year's tournament were announced, the Regionals were announced to be held in Newark (NJ), San Antonio (TX), New Orleans (LA), and Anaheim (CA). Anaheim? ANAHEIM??? Well hot diggity, that's just a hop-skip-and jump away from me! But that's the West bracket.. surely Duke won't get sent all the way out here! But just in case, I looked up ticket prices. Man oh man, those prices were steep. I had just opened up a savings account last month, for heaven's sake! I was trying to actually be an adult! I was going to try and start saving to eventually buy a house, I couldn't possibly drain what little I had in there for tickets to a couple of basketball games. Could I? Nahh.
I harmlessly texted Lara with the fact that those Anaheim tickets looked really tempting. Half joking, half REALLY NOT JOKING. She replied that the ticket prices would be pretty high, to which I said that my pretty little house will just have to wait. Which, really, come on. I've waited this long, what's a little longer?
Keep in mind, none of this was guaranteed in any way. First, we didn't know if Duke would be placed in the West Bracket, then they had to avoid any upsets in the first two rounds to even GET to the Regionals. But I wasn't even thinking about this as a realistic possibility, if I'm being honest. Yeah, I had looked at ticket prices, but I was going to let my sensible self win out, and not think about it again until much later. Much, much later.
Then Selection Sunday comes around and the brackets are announced. After which, this twitter exchange took place:
Me: "Holy crap. We got the #1 seed. In the west, but I'll take it!"
Lara: "you'll take it?? you'll take the ticket i just purchased for the honda center is what you meant, right?!"
Me: "ARE YOU SERIOUS? UM, YES. :D :D :D aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!"
So there ya go! As long as Duke didn't get upset in the first two rounds, I was going to see my first Duke game in my LIFE. It wasn't going to be in Cameron, nope, that ultimate dream moment is for another time. This is momentous enough for now.
First round - Duke vs. Hampton - I wasn't nervous, except I totally was, because it would just figure that the one opportunity I had to see them play would be f'd up by an unprecedented #1 seed losing to a #16 seed. But we pounded them by 42 points, so all was well.
Second round - Duke vs. Michigan - Holy crap, this game gave me a heart attack. But we pulled it out to win by 2, which means...
I'M GOING TO ANAHEIM TO WATCH DUKE PLAY IN THE REGIONALS!!!
We moofed a little when we booked the hotel, which now means we're staying 5 nights instead of 4, but that's okay. It's a 2-bd suite with three TV's (AKA NIRVANA) and a full kitchen, and it's less than a mile from the stadium. Sure, Anaheim's less than an hour away from me, but it'll be a great mini-vacation.. especially if we win our two games. I can't imagine how miserable I'll be if we lose. Oy.
I leave tomorrow afternoon after my half-day at work, will have lunch with Pops and then head to Anaheim. The open Duke practice is at 3pm, so we'll go to that, and then the first game is Thursday night at 6:45pm. Watch for us on TV!!
I'll be on twitter for the duration of my trip via my phone, but not checking LJ or anything else while I'm gone. I'll be back Monday, and hopefully I'll have happy stories to tell about us going to the Final Four.
But win or lose, this will be the memory of a lifetime, and a check mark on the ol' Bucket List.
Next up, a day game at Wrigley... :)
I don't know if I can properly explain the magnitude of awesomeness this carries, but I can try by saying that this is bucket list stuff, people.
Three versions for people of varying interest and/or knowledge...
In 1989, I was 16 years old. For reasons that are just too boring to explain, I was finishing out the last two years of high school on Independent Study. Basically, I was home all the time. At that same time, my mom had already stopped working due to various health issues, so this was a time in our lives where we bonded like crazy. I grew up as a sports fan, so Mom and I always had that in common. But that summer began some of the best years of my young life.
The Chicago Cubs, for those who don't know, primarily play their home games during the day because up until 1988, their field didn't have any lights. Seems ludicrous now, but that's just how it always was, home games were played during the day. And even with the lights, they still played a lot of day games. This was good for my mom, because games were on every day in the afternoon, and it gave her something to watch and really enjoy. And as I spent more time with her every day, I'd hang out in her bedroom and watch the games with her while doing my summer school homework. It was a fun summer, watching Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Greg Maddux, Joe Girardi, and Andre Dawson buck against the odds and get the Cubs to the top of their Division. They got to the playoffs and lost to the SF Giants quite easily. But man, was that a great summer to spend with my mom, cheering and crying over the team... together.
Summer turned into Fall. A new semester of school work began for me, and college basketball started for her. She had always watched March Madness, always pulled for the underdogs, always filled out her bracket *after* teams had already won. She was never too heavily invested in our local colleges like UCLA, even though they were usually pretty good. But something was different this year. There was a team that she caught on TV early on in the season, and this was the moment that sparked a 22-year love affair.
The Duke Blue Devils, back in 1989, weren't as big of a deal as they are now. They had never won a National Championship and they weren't thought of as the big, bad Duke that they are today. One day, Mom was watching TV and saw a young man playing for Duke that made her stop in her tracks. My Mother, bless her, was never one to bypass superficial beauty in order to keep her street cred. Nope. I'm not ashamed to say that I probably wouldn't be a Duke fan today if my mother wasn't a complete and total horndog for Christian Laettner. Really, I can't blame her.
So, obviously, I became a Duke fan with her. We would watch them any time they were on TV, and we followed them all the way through March Madness to the National Championship game, where they lost to UNLV. It was sad to watch, but Laettner was only a sophomore. And since it was a rarity for kids to leave early for the NBA back then, Mom and I took comfort in the knowledge that we still had two more years to watch Christian get prettier and prettier. He sure didn't disappoint. Oh, and he also led the next two Blue Devil teams to back-to-back National Championships. Y'know, WHATEVER.
There were rarely any boys so pretty after Christian graduated, but my love for the team had gone way past the superficial by then. They were my team now, and Mom and I would keep an eye on them through the years, watching as many games as we could. We'd watch in awe of the Cameron Crazies that made Cameron Indoor Stadium so electrifying. We always talked about how much we'd love to see a game there sometime in our lives, but living on the other side of the country and living on a budget made that impossible. During my indulgent 20s, Mom would keep me up to date if I missed some games, and we would always watch March Madness together, no matter what I was up to. With our matching brackets in hand, we'd pull for Duke and all the underdogs. I still, to this day, have two brackets - one I fill out as predictions, and one I fill out after teams win.
In 2001, Duke stormed through their season and won another National Championship. As always, Mom and I watched it together and cried tears of happiness as we saw Shane Battier, Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Carlos Boozer, and others win #3 for Coach K.
That was the last March Madness that Mom and I got to have together. Unfortunately, we never made it to Cameron together to catch a game. But thanks to livehead16, I was lucky enough to visit Duke University a couple of years ago for the Duke Basketball annual banquet held after each season, and in doing so, I was able to fulfill part of our dream. I made it to Cameron. And even though there was no game going on, it was an overwhelming and emotional experience for me at the time, and one I'll never forget.
The trip to Durham and to Cameron was one of the most important moments in my life (Lara will have my unwavering gratitude for offering her other ticket to me). So much of my life experiences are tied to my Mom, and I felt like she was there with me. And that also gave me a new perspective on my fandom with Duke. Seeing it right in front of me, being so close to so much tradition and beauty, being so close to the players that are so proud to wear that jersey, it all became very real for me. In the simplest terms, it amped up my fannishness 10-fold.
Since Mom had passed in early 2002, real life had become much more important to me than any kind of fandom I could be a part of. It's part of the reason I backed off of the pop/slash fandom, and have never really glommed onto anything else since. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, losing a part of you can completely alter your perception of life as well as cause you to re-evaluate your connection to everything and everyone you know. But what that trip did for me, in so many ways, was re-connect me with who I was before my life imploded.
Fast forward to April of 2010, and Duke makes it through another March Madness on top. Watching Jon Scheyer, Brian Zoubek, Lance Thomas, Nolan Smith, and Kyle Singler fight their way through all the games that everyone thought we'd lose was a beautiful thing. I was more invested in that team than I had been in any team since the Laettner days. I watched every game I possibly could, I followed the team in ways I never did before, and my unabashed fanaticism was strong to quite strong.
And still, in all of those years, I'd never been lucky enough to see them play in person. Until now.
Before the brackets for this year's tournament were announced, the Regionals were announced to be held in Newark (NJ), San Antonio (TX), New Orleans (LA), and Anaheim (CA). Anaheim? ANAHEIM??? Well hot diggity, that's just a hop-skip-and jump away from me! But that's the West bracket.. surely Duke won't get sent all the way out here! But just in case, I looked up ticket prices. Man oh man, those prices were steep. I had just opened up a savings account last month, for heaven's sake! I was trying to actually be an adult! I was going to try and start saving to eventually buy a house, I couldn't possibly drain what little I had in there for tickets to a couple of basketball games. Could I? Nahh.
I harmlessly texted Lara with the fact that those Anaheim tickets looked really tempting. Half joking, half REALLY NOT JOKING. She replied that the ticket prices would be pretty high, to which I said that my pretty little house will just have to wait. Which, really, come on. I've waited this long, what's a little longer?
Keep in mind, none of this was guaranteed in any way. First, we didn't know if Duke would be placed in the West Bracket, then they had to avoid any upsets in the first two rounds to even GET to the Regionals. But I wasn't even thinking about this as a realistic possibility, if I'm being honest. Yeah, I had looked at ticket prices, but I was going to let my sensible self win out, and not think about it again until much later. Much, much later.
Then Selection Sunday comes around and the brackets are announced. After which, this twitter exchange took place:
Me: "Holy crap. We got the #1 seed. In the west, but I'll take it!"
Lara: "you'll take it?? you'll take the ticket i just purchased for the honda center is what you meant, right?!"
Me: "ARE YOU SERIOUS? UM, YES. :D :D :D aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!"
So there ya go! As long as Duke didn't get upset in the first two rounds, I was going to see my first Duke game in my LIFE. It wasn't going to be in Cameron, nope, that ultimate dream moment is for another time. This is momentous enough for now.
First round - Duke vs. Hampton - I wasn't nervous, except I totally was, because it would just figure that the one opportunity I had to see them play would be f'd up by an unprecedented #1 seed losing to a #16 seed. But we pounded them by 42 points, so all was well.
Second round - Duke vs. Michigan - Holy crap, this game gave me a heart attack. But we pulled it out to win by 2, which means...
I'M GOING TO ANAHEIM TO WATCH DUKE PLAY IN THE REGIONALS!!!
We moofed a little when we booked the hotel, which now means we're staying 5 nights instead of 4, but that's okay. It's a 2-bd suite with three TV's (AKA NIRVANA) and a full kitchen, and it's less than a mile from the stadium. Sure, Anaheim's less than an hour away from me, but it'll be a great mini-vacation.. especially if we win our two games. I can't imagine how miserable I'll be if we lose. Oy.
I leave tomorrow afternoon after my half-day at work, will have lunch with Pops and then head to Anaheim. The open Duke practice is at 3pm, so we'll go to that, and then the first game is Thursday night at 6:45pm. Watch for us on TV!!
I'll be on twitter for the duration of my trip via my phone, but not checking LJ or anything else while I'm gone. I'll be back Monday, and hopefully I'll have happy stories to tell about us going to the Final Four.
But win or lose, this will be the memory of a lifetime, and a check mark on the ol' Bucket List.
Next up, a day game at Wrigley... :)