"BEST DAY EVER!!"
-Rapunzel
How lucky to find that the first day of the NCAA men's basketball tournament fell on St. Patrick's Day. Two of my favorite days of the year, squished into one. It was a perfect day. One that I will look back and smile, because I pretty much had a huge grin plastered on my face all day long. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Even luckier than a Leprechaun.
I woke up with stirrings of excitement. My heart raced as I opened up ESPN.com and carefully added my selected teams on my bracket and entered them into our families tournament challenges. I agonized over my picks for THREE DAYS. I'd sit and stare at the sheet going back and forth, back and forth, hoping for inspiration as to which team was the right one. Rich laughed at me as he watched me struggle.
While I rode the bike, my little brother Jeff called. He had some major St. Patty's Day luck when his attending let him go at 10:30 am. He considers tourney time the happiest time of the year, so he was thrilled and wanted to share his good news with someone who feels likewise. We chatted games, possible upsets and who we thought would win. I loved every second of our conversation.
The girls were up and busy before Zach was awake. During breakfast the girls worked on their rainbows out of Fruit Loops and they turned out darling. Kaitlyn had begun one at school but wanted to finish it, so we picked up a box of cereal the day before so she can Brynn could finish it on 'Green Day'.
Then they discovered a real treat! A Leprechaun had visited us either in the night or that very morning (the boys didn't see it at all!) and left behind a fun St. Patrick's Day surprise. He must have loved our special green t-shirts we were all sporting this year.
The girls, Zach and I got dressed in our green attire and headed over to the school for lunch with the boys. The girls sparkled in their gold glitter shoes and shiny shamrock shirt and Zach really was an Irish charmer in his little green tee. We gobbled up chicken nuggets and green Italian ice, admired other kid's outfits and chatted with the boys about their day.
We got home in time to catch all the thrills of the end of the early day games. Oh my! I screamed out loud as Butler got a tip in to win by 2. They were my team. I had to pick them after visiting their campus in December and watching them in action. I let out a huge wail as Louisville was sunk by a lowly #13 seed Morehead State. I had the 'Ville going two rounds, but you have to cheer for the Cinderella. Morehead State's win would only have been bigger if their victory was over UK. It was like the Kentucky stepchild took out the bully big brother. HUGE. Really. Basketball in the Commonwealth is life and death. UK escaped a grisly ending by the smallest of margin. Oh, those Cats fans would have been in mourning until next season began if the brainiacts of Princeton could have pulled a basketball powerhouse like UK down in the first round. The Cats just got lucky at the end. Pure and simple. There was the nail biter between Temple and Penn St. and my team (Temple) came up on top. Good for me, bad for Josh who was hoping up and down in agony because his team wasn't mine.
We took a breather from the games to gobble up some green treats the Leprechaun left for the kiddos, take some funny pictures of the girls with their green hats and then raced back forth from piano to basketball (Josh and Matt) then back to piano and basketball (Trey).
While in route I called my dad to talk about the games. He told me he got a cool app for his phone. Trey downloaded as I drove and seconds later we had a live stream of the games there on our phone. Can I say INCREDIBLE! Rich came out in between practices to grab the Burger King I picked up and we all stood in the parking lot of the Beech Acres complex watching Vanderbilt choke and loose to #12 Richmond. The bookies in Vegas had said it would be close. They were right. What a memory of us huddled around a phone in Cincinnati, Ohio watching a live game played in Denver, Colorado. Amazing.
Then came the night games. Rich finally was able to sit down after a LONG day of work, plus coaching two basketball practices and enjoy 'The Dance'. And it didn't disappoint. BYU hashed it out with Wofford and finally got it done in the end. Cincinnati and U Conn looked tough. Utah State got killed and my Zags, who I always pick and wanted to pick, but somehow talked myself out of this year, looked great. I'm afraid for BYU next round. Very afraid.
Then we had a tiny bit of drama, twice. Even a perfect day has to have to ups and down, otherwise it wouldn't be real life. The first time was when I realized my bracket for the Jackson 'March Madness ONIONS!!!' did not save correctly. It was under Rich's profile and was saving my points, but it was not added to the group. Not good, but not to worry, if I do well in the end, I'll make sure all the Jacksons know my score.
The second time was when UCLA started beating up Michigan State. I had a hard time picking this one, so I went against my rules and asked Rich the night before. He told me Michigan St. could win. As the game raged on, I looked at Rich's picks and discovered Rich had picked UCLA. WHAT?! Was he trying to sail me down the wrong river? I wasn't happy, until the game got close at the end, then I felt my pick of Michigan St. was justified and I forgave him. Nice of me, right?
We all went to bed FAR TOO LATE, but with a perfect day slowly winding down, and a few close games we had to see to the end, we had to milk every second of it and soak it all in. Lucky for all of us, we get to watch the second day of MADNESS today! Woo Hoo!
I love this time of year. I love the tradition. I love the picks. I love talking hoops with Rich, my boys, my dad and my brothers. I love the magic in the air. I've loved going to the games in years past. I love cheering for 'my teams' because every game matters when you put pen to paper and record who you think will win. St. Patrick's Day and the first day of March Madness 2011 was one I will forever love and cherish because it was one I could spend sharing so many things with those I love.
The picture I wanted....
P.S. Hoping in a few weeks from now I see Ohio State, Kansas, Duke and Florida alive and well in the Final 4 in Houston, Texas. Got my fingers crossed!
2 comments:
I love March Madness!!! I need that app!! What's the name??
Darling! Holy cow Rich married well. You're as obsessive about basketball as you are about nearly everything else. Lucky guy!
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