B-Ballin' Basketball

sporting the Blazer gear, chick style

Rip City Baby!

I am a die hard Portland Trailblazers basketball fan.  I grew up in a small town in Oregon that didn't provide the television station that aired the Blazer games, but my dad was big on basketball and as a kid I vividly remember gathering around the radio and listening to the play-by-play of every single Blazer game.  We never actually went to a game, but I knew all the terms, I knew all the players, and we [I'm the oldest of six kids] were avid, die hard basketball fans.  

Rip City magazine from 1993
this is my basketball card collection from childhood.  my brothers and i collected them all.

even if you aren't into basketball, you know who Michael Jordan is.. right?

When I moved to Portland four years ago, I was bored out of my mind, didn't know a soul, had left all my family behind, and it was just me and Tristen, on our own, with no one to hang out with and no where to go.  So I started buying cheap tickets off Craigslist [yep, top of the arena but the BEST place to be part of crazy Blazer Mania] and Tristen and I would go to the games.  

Aside from loving the basketball itself, going to the games was literally my lifeline to the outside world. It was the outings to the Rose Garden that got us out of house, made me figure out how to drive from point A to point B in a strange city, where I met random, cool people; it gave me something to converse with other Portlander's about, and it was something that both Tristen and I enjoyed.  

I love everything about going to a game.  From being in the long line of cars piling into the Rose Quarter, to screaming and jumping and dancing and clapping throughout the game, to being part of the masses walking back to my car, I love it.  I taught Tristen all the rules, we got to know all the players, and when someone I frequently bought tickets from off CL offered me the opportunity to split their season tickets, I jumped at the chance and we were attending 22+ games a season. It Rocked. 

ticket stub memorabilia from the past few years 

This year when ticket renewal came around, it was around the same time the water pump in my car had to be replaced [which is a dang expensive part!], and I'd tightened up my budget, and I just couldn't justify the expense.  Plus, Tristen is older now and has a lot of activities.  Making it to so many games, especially on weeknights, was getting to be a lot during the school year.  That's what I told myself anyway to deal with, honest-to-god, my true sorrow to give up going to the games on a regular basis.  

Giving up the games was sort of like letting go of a little piece of the independence I'd found for myself way back when I felt all alone in the world, and it was losing the one-on-one quality time with Tristen, doing something that we BOTH enjoyed.  I was bummed.  But I knew it was the right financial decision.  

The season started on Christmas and we've been catching the games on tv here and there, but since I don't get to go to the games, I've just been a little half hearted about my Blazer Mania.  

But then this past Sunday a friend had tickets to a Suite and invited Rhett and I.  And dang!  We have a nice looking team this year!! It was exciting to be back in the Rose Garden and part of the cheering crowd.  

a view of the boys from the suite

And then I got to work yesterday and my boss called me into her office and a bank we work with had invited us to THEIR suite.  And of course it was business, so I couldn't refuse, [hahaha] so I went to the game last night too.  AND when we got there, turns out they also have Courtside tickets ~ and I'm talking the VERY FRONT ROW COURTSIDE TICKETS ~ and my boss and I won the lottery to sit in them for the fourth quarter!!!!  O.M.GAWD.  It was truly and most likely Literally a Once in a Lifetime Moment.  

see my feet!  not a thing between them and the court

THIS is what it looks like with no one in front of you!

 OHHHH!

And I HAVE to show you this!  Sorry, I'm totally geeking out, but have you seen/do you have the Fast Burst Camera App on your phone!?! It is AMAZING!  Check out these sequence of shots, and watch the ball and Gerald Wallace [player in white] come into the frame on the left side of the pics.

Sooo COOL!  

If you have a smart phone, you need this app. 

AND T.H.E.N today, the guys that own the company I work for raffled off THEIR Courtside tickets [5th row], and my girlfriend Heidi won them but ended up not being able to go tonight and with the promise that if I ever win a future raffle for tickets I'll give them to her, she gave the tickets to Tristen and I to go to the game tonight!!!!!  [thank you Heidi!!!]

Wow.  I had distanced myself from my love of the game to ease my disappointments about not being able to buy tickets and go to games this year.  In the past four days I have gone to THREE games.  Incredible games!  One that included a once-in-a-life time moment.  I'm not saying these opporutunities were given to me because I can't buy tix anymore, but man... I just can't help feeling that someone is smiling on me.  

I've been extraordinarily, completely Blessed.  

My Blazer Mania is back!  Live and in person, or not, I am a die hard Blazer fan.  And lesson learned.  Just because something doesn't work out how I wanted and wished it would, doesn't mean that I need to remove my heart for fear of the disappointment.  It's quite possible that something else will come along that will be bigger and greater than anything I could have possibly wanted or wished for.

me and T. at the Blazer game tonight.
{Wednesday, 1/11/12}

-m-