From Andrea

Well, I have been dying to post these messages, but have found life (school, really) to be a little overwhelming and hogging a lot of my time. So as not to get the two things mixed up that I want to write about, I will post 2 seperate posts. I'll start with the first....

So, as I mentioned in my last post, my VERY frugal husband splurged and bought us a joint Valentine's Day gift of 3rd row seats, behind the Utah Jazz, against the Mavericks last Monday. I was so excited and counting the days until the big game. Monday came quickly with everything that has been going on around here and the date was a much needed break from reality. We got to the arena about 45 minutes before the game started so that we could watch the players warm up and soak in as much of the "expensive seating experience" we could handle. As we are waiting for the players to come out to the court, I notice a few people lining up next to where the players come out, so I ran over really quickly and asked if I could be a part of it too. Well, to my delight, I was placed second from the front just as the team came running out of the locker room. I stuck my hand out and totally froze. I cheered, but for the life of me, could think of a single blasted name of any of the players. It was so awesome though and that was the beginning of Joe wishing he was a little more openly enthusiastic about fun things like this.

I will preface this next part with the fact that we are big.....no HUGE Utah Jazz fans. As long as school doesn't conflict, we are on the couch together watching the game in suspense, yelling when we feel necessary and cheering loud enough to wake our kids-we often do. I sometimes find myself wondering what all the effort is for when no one IN the game can hear us. So, as I sat there on Moday and thought about the fact that we were IN the arena, not to mention ON THE THIRD ROW, I realized we were certainly going to be a true part of the action and decided I was going to act accordingly. (As a side note-Joe and I went to a Brad Paisley concert a few weeks ago. This was our first outting of this type and when it was over, Joe had no question where it was Luke got his energy.)

Well, the same was true for this "outting". By the time the first half was over, I was hoarse. It was an incredible game, we were winning and the refs were calling TOTALLY crappy calls. I was having the time of my life-literally. During one of the time-outs in the first half, the camera was scanning the crowd for the "best fan." Every few seconds, the camera would come to a new person who was waving wildly and screaming like a mad person. Well, needless to say (see above), my face flashed on the jumbo-tron for a split second and I felt fulfilled-although I didn't win "best fan"...I got totally jipped. At half-time, I notced my phone ringing and after many attempts to identify the caller, I realized it was my friend Liz. She had seen my face on the screen and located me behind the bench. In her blog she said that once she spotted me, she spent a lot of the game watching me because I was the most animated of my entire section.....I'm so proud.

Well, the best was yet to come. All through the game, I was trying to get a, I thought, much deserved t-shirt from the guys who come out and shoot them into the stands. Well, no such luck--until the 4th quarter. The Jazz dancers came out with shirts in hand and I went crazy believing this could be my last chance. One of the dancers and I made eye contact and she threw one at me. As it was on its way, I began to realize the 40 year old guy in front of me was going to snag it. Well, we both caught hold of it and started pulling. When I realized he wasn't going to give up easily, I gave it a hard jerk-harder than I realized apparently, because I pulled him back OVER his seat and ripped it from his hands. I held it up in victory and started screaming and jumping up and down. I looked down and realized I had the strict looking security guard laughing hysterically in amazement at what had just unfolded. Joe was so proud. I was a little embarrased at first, but realized that he was the punk trying to steal it from me. It was a good fight....and I won.

The rest of the game went just as well and I was hoarse for a few days after the game. We had such an amazing time and began figuring out the logistics of 3rd row season tickets for next season.....we'll see. As we were leaving, a guy behind us says to me, "You know, you should really try to loosen up and enjoy these games a little more." HA! That sums it all up....

P.S. I'll post some pics soon! Sorry for the long post.