Tuesday Updates & Stanford Game Highlights - 3/25/08

I got a good night of sleep last night so today I'm being productive at work and will have some time to give updates. I'm starting with everything except Saturdays games, so for those pics keep scrolling.

School - still in a holding pattern. This weekend I'm going to start mailing schools my rejections (Davis, American, Santa Clara, Arizona, Loyola). I'm really hoping to get a answer on Stanford soon.

D.C. trip - Curtis and I are going to D.C. next week! We will be there from Thursday April 3 until Monday April 7th. The official reason we're going is so that I can attend Preview Day at George Washington Law School, and make an appearance in the Georgetown Admissions office to ask about my chances of getting in off the Priority Wait list. But the unofficial reason is to go on a little vacation, which is something we haven't ever really done before, at least on this large of scale. And Curtis has never been to D.C. (or anywhere on the east coast for that matter) so he's really excited. We're thrilled that we're going to be there during the height of the Cherry Blossom season, and I'll make sure to post pictures from our trip. Plus, one of my really good friends from my church is in seminary in D.C. so I'll be able to see her for the first time in years. I have to do a lot of shopping this weekend to prepare - new tennis shoes, jeans that fit, etc.

Work - work is finally starting to get busy again, which is good because for awhile I wasn't doing much here. It was hard yesterday coming back to work after my trip because I was so tired and had so much to do. But I'm really excited now that I only have a few months left. I'll probably be done on July 3rd.

Wedding - my veil is at home! So I got to try it on on Sunday and it is a pretty as I remember. I'm kinda sad that I have a whole year to wait to wear it for reals. I am getting close to finalizing my invitation decision. There are these invites that have a daisy on them and are lined with yellow, which matches my colors and motif perfectly. I like the sample Save-the-Dates that I ordered- I just need to find a better quality high school graduation photo to use for them (the ones I got came out really grainy). The next 2 things on my list are to start the guest list (with addresses) and choose a photographer.

Easter - My weekend at home for Easter was great, my cousin Shaq was in town to visit so I was able to spend a lot of time with him. And for Easter my grandparents, my aunt and her 3 kids and my uncle with his two visited and we had a lot of fun just hanging out and catching up. I was able to show my aunt and my grandma my wedding binder which had a picture of my dress.
Stanford Basketball!!! - So as you already know, I went to the Stanford-Marquette 2nd round NCAA game on Saturday with Curtis, my dad and my cousin Shaq (we also saw the UCLA-Texas A&M game) where we won on a last shot by Brook Lopez (pictured in my last post). It was so much fun, but also very tiring, because it was so much basketball and both games were stressful to watch.

After we got our tickets and free parking pass from a local hotel (the Stub Hub last minute HQ) we arrived at the Honda Center, we took pictures a few pictures outside:

One funny tidbit from our time outside is that my ticket didn't work (of course mine, right?!). And because once they scan your ticket you can't leave, I had to walk by myself around to the ticket office, wait in line at will-call and have them write an "Ok" on my ticket so I could be let in. I was so annoyed, all of the other tickets worked! And they were purchased by Stub Hub directly and not by an individual seller (long story regarding mix up w/ StubHub caused this earlier in the week), so there shouldn't have been a counterfeit issue. Anyway, it was good that we left an hour and a half before tip-off because by the time I was seated they were about to do the starting lineup.
That's my cousin, Shaq. We took that last picture while we were waiting for the Stanford game to start.

The Honda Center is great because it's so steep that you can see really well. Here is a picture from our seat:

A few personal highlights from the Stanford game:

- Hearing "GO STANFORD" started by the 6th Man
- feeling about ready to cry after Trent was ejected
- yelling at UCLA fans who were rooting against Stanford "YOU'RE UCLA FANS, WHY ARE YOU CHEERING FOR MARQUETTE? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT YOUR CONFERENCE!!!!!" the people sitting above me were commenting on it and probably thought I was crazy.

- Screaming "the FINGER" and holding up my 2 index fingers every time Taj did something good.

- being asked by Curtis and Shaq if I'm ok during the first half, I said "ask me again when there's 15 min left in the second half" sure enough, with 15 min left, Stanford was in the middle of a promising scoring run.

- Hearing the entire arena gasp when Robin missed his first free throw at the end.

- Having to go to the bathroom at the end of the game and not being able to because it went into OT.
- Having an utterly surreal moment when Brook made that shot at the end, and hearing the entire arena cheer for Stanford even though they were dressed in blue and gold.

After the game we had to take pictures to capture our excitement that Stanford won.

When the game ended, I ran to the bathroom and then put on my UCLA jersey.

The guy we were talking to for the bulk of the game came over to give me a high five and was like, "wait a minute, why are you wearing that?" My dad goes "her fiance is a UCLA alum" and this guy goes "so?" and this RANDOM other guy who was listening to this goes "do you have a problem with that?!" It was pretty amusing.

After the UCLA game started Dad and I headed to concessions. We bought tourney t-shirts for everyone and then got some food. When we finally made it back to the game UCLA was down and the refs were calling it tight. The game was boring, but a few exciting things happened. First, the Stanford team walked out and met up with their happy families during a timeout, which was so cool to see, and the entire arena applauded them. Second, during halftime, both the Texas A&M and the UCLA dancers danced to the same song, one after another, and you could hear everyone in the arena cracking up. UCLA, shockingly (lol) was much better. The game itself didn't get exciting until the last 10 minutes, and fortunately, thanks to a great half by Kevin Love and Collison's 2 consecutive layups while Love was executing an (illegal) moving screen, they pulled it out in the end.

They really only won by 2 points, but Westbrook had to be a jerk and end the game with an unnecessary dunk. I don't understand why they older players call him out for his grandstanding because it's stupid and makes teams want to beat them even more.

As with the Stanford game we took a few celebratory photos:

Then we got in the car, and drove home, exhausted but elated. Now I'm sad that I can't go to Houston for the regional but Curtis and I are talking about trying to get Final Four tickets if both teams make it there.

So, that was our great adventure, it was totally worth the money and I'm so happy both teams won. On to the regional semifinals in Houston on Friday!