Yesterday I had an amazing day. This week was Parent/Teacher Conference week at school which meant that we got Friday off as a "reward" for taking the time to meet with parents and discuss their children. Since Daylight Saving Time started this week, I felt as though I had been running on a half a tank of gas. So to be able to get a little extra sleep on Friday morning was WONDERFUL!
My friends Pete and Tas have a tradition of taking the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tournament off from work and camping out at a local bar to watch all of the games. Having the day off, I was very in for the day. Hanging out with Pete and Tas is one of my favorite things to do, so having the opportunity to do that all day long was something I was really looking forward to.
Our day began at the new Buffalo Wild Wings in Ames. The restaurant officially opens next Monday, but they had a VIP event for lunch and dinner on Friday and Pete was able to get us on the list for both times. The place is amazing, with televisions everywhere and the staff was very friendly and helpful. The food was good and we had a blast playing Buzztime trivia. Oh and the big bonus was that BWW comped our lunch! This was a dress rehearsal for the staff and all they were charging for were drinks. The proceeds of the event went to the Boys and Girls Club of Ames.
Following our FREE lunch, we headed over to Okoboji Grill to watch more tournament games and play more trivia. It was kinda funny that the training staff from BWW drifted over to Okoboji to grab some lunch. They saw us there and gave us some grief, but we replied that they kicked us outta BWW, so we had to go somewhere.
At Okoboji I got to watch the Florida State / Texas A&M NCAA mens game. Being a graduate of FSU I pull for my team and getting to watch them in the Big Dance is always fun (not that it happens all that often). My crew knew that I would be focused on the game, although for the first half of the game I was still able to play trivia. In addition, there was also an obnoxious Texas A&M fan in the bar. He was screaming and yelling and just being a general D-Bag. LOL
The game was incredibly close throughout and with each passing play my heart would beat faster and faster. It was so close that at one point FSU finally drained a three point shot and I yelled "YES" so loud that I scared a couple sitting at the bar. My palms were sweating and with every shot I lived and died on every shot. When the final buzzer sounded, FSU defeated Texas A&M 57-50. The day was just getting better and better.
The day ended where it began - back at Buffalo Wild Wings. We had a great time and kicked butt at trivia. We will definitely be returning there to play many rounds of buzztime and eat many, many wings. My personal favorites are the Asian Zing ones. Sweet and Spicy!
So this morning the Iowa State women played Marist in the first round of the NCAA women's basketball tournament. Marist had a 26 game winning streak and we knew that it was going to be a tough game. The game tipped off and we were hopeful that the team could pull out the win. Unfortunately Marist was pretty much hitting everything they put up and we trailed by 15 at halftime. In the second half, the team did play better, but some lapses in scoring allowed Marist to win the game 74-64.
I was tearing up pretty good when Coach Fennelly pulled Kelsey Bolte, our lone senior, out of the game. We've have a great relationship with her and her family and it was very hard to watch her lose her final game. The team had hoped to go much farther in the tournament and to lose the first game is a pretty tough pill to swallow.
