I can count on one hand how many sporting events I’ve been to. We were never a sports-oriented family growing up. I still get teams confused with which sport they represent, it took me years to remember that the Super Bowl was football, and I usually toss the Sports section in the paper. However, I have grown to enjoy basketball. Unlike the tedium of baseball and the stupidness of football, I can really dig on basketball. (I also really like hockey, but that’s after living in Colorado for five years and we had an actual Northern CO League we would check out at the local Budweiser Arena). Josh has returned to basketball recently as a form of exercise. As mentioned before, he was on the Freshman Basketball team in high school.
I’m not sure what happened, but all of a sudden I was told: “We’re going to the Sonics game on Thursday…and it’s playoffs!” This of course meant we joined the hordes of screaming fans at the Key Arena, chomping at the bit for a redemption win. This game was IT, either we won and were a step closer or we lost and (bam!) OUT of the playoffs.
Upon first arriving we, (Ryan, Chris, Josh, and I) ended up in the Sonics megastore in order to buy supplies. The absolute highlight of the whole night was the “I (heart) Rashard” baby doll tee Ryan squeezed himself into. Here’s a pic of me helping him:

Despite various opinions (and believe me we heard many of them throughout the night) I think Ryan totally pulled it off…I think it was the tattoos that really clinched it. Check out that pink sparkly heart!

The boys further outfitted themselves in coordinating sweatband apparel:

People asked: “The play offs? How did you get tickets?” Well, it wasn’t that hard…especially since we were literally up against the back wall. You couldn’t climb any higher…hence, our pictures all turned out great thanks to the white backdrop.
I tried hard to fit in. I realized while looking at this picture that my headband looks totally dorky: I’m wearing it on top of my head! I think this was because I had my hair in two little buns and the headband didn’t really fit. I still tried working it, even though the headband made me kinda hot and sweaty.

I think it’s important to note that while the guys are wearing NBA headbands I am wearing a NWBA band, including matching wrist bands–which Josh is actually sporting in this photo. Go Seattle Storm! (Photo courtesy of Sweatpants N’ Vaccuums).

Despite all this, Ryan still stole the show.

For those of you who watched the game, it was close…so close it was painful. We’re talking it came down to minutes–no seconds–of nail biting excitement. We lost by, what, TWO FREAKING points? And we were TIED up until the last 20 seconds of the game. The crowd was hysterical, I’m not kidding, I thought the audience was collectively going to cry. (Could you imagine? A gigantic hiccup of the largest magnitude shaking the Key Arena). Overall, it was a dynamite experience. Even though we got lost trying to get back to the car…and while we wandered around we witnessed some crazy bouts of road rage resulting from anguish over the Sonic’s loss. (But the best comment came from a drunk, old guy on the street: “Hey! That guy’s wearin’ a girl’s shirt…”) We’ll close out this post with one last picture of Ryan in all his crazy fandom, (the Sonics towel was free with our ticket!)