Junior Bloggers

Well now, to continue C and R’s vacation from blogging (SUCH hard work), we are opening up the spotlight on two junior bloggers, J and K (and their friends, L, M, N, O, P—sorry, just a little punchy, lack of sleep and all). No, these junior bloggers are, like, well, um, okay, like, see, dude, and, facebook and stuff.
No really, these two could be C and R incarnate with their stalking abilities, except they are waaaaay smarter and more articulate than C and R ever were, or shall be. And they make less typos. These two blogger/stalkers have lived in Palo Alto their while lives. Here, let them tell it… you could call us Palo Altans. We've both lived in Palo Alto our whole life, and we've both been playing ball as long as we can remember. But because we're from Palo Alto, which is home to Stanford grads, their families, and really high-achieving schools, we're both like Stanford academia-maniac JJ Hones and, as Nneka Ogwumike puts it, we both have to put the 'stud' in studious.

They come to every home game their schedule allows, provided they don’t have practice or homework or have to clean their rooms. As they like to say about each other, they are the two crazy fans on opposite sides of the stadium holding reversible posters and texting each other from across the stadium like all good teenagers ;)

See, they are always writing those texting symbols- we don’t even know what these symbols mean, and we can’t tilt our heads sideways or else some brain cells might fall out—C

So here is what J wrote about some recent “fan encounters”, with comments from K in Red and more comments from J in Blue, if C can program the text correctly. I think J gets extra credit at school for being a “published writer”. And we love that they fight/argue just like C and R! (At first C and R thought they should edit their account, but what the heck, no one edits us-so enjoy)

About those fan encounters: K and I were at the game on Senior Night and we were holding up posters. Mine said "Rosalyn #21" and K's said "Jeanette #23". Rosalyn was Pac-10 Player of the Week and they announced it during a time-out, so I dutifully held up my Ros poster. Much to my surprise, I got on camera! The JumboTron zoomed in on the poster :D After they'd finished, I pointed across the stadium towards K, and then K (and her poster) got on the JumboTron as well! Okay, okay, okay. Hold up. This whole first paragraph is about ROS. Hahaha. 'Cause she rocks. Hahaha. We need to be a little more diverse; maybe throw in a little Jeanette? Just sayin'. *Sigh* And then someone - maybe Ashley? or Hannah? Someone like that pretty much slapped Jeanette and pointed up to the JumboTron. She looked up and went BRIGHT red. It was very funny :) Before that, after the whole starting line-up thing, Ros was jogging back toward the bench and someone (Michelle or Ashley or someone) nudged her and said something. She looked up and grinned at me holding up the poster and beaming like I'd swallowed an LED or something! Then, with about 30 seconds left in the game, we went down to behind the players' bench and started screaming like crazy. When everyone jogged around with the victory balls, I was screaming "ROS! ROS! ROS! ROS!" and K was screaming for Jeanette. Ros was out of victory balls when she saw us, but she jogged over and high-fived me. Of course, that miracle shut both of us up for a minute... but only for a minute! We then commenced screaming for Jeanette so K could get a high five, but Jeanette didn't come over. She did, however, look at K, grin, and do the two-finger-guns salute. K was shaking, and then she started shaking me and yelling "She saw! She smiled! She saw! She smiled!" over and over and over... and over... and over.... LOL Jeanette TOTALLY did smile and wave (and blush I might add) and it was freaking AWESOME. Don't make fun of me :) Yeah, she looked pretty embarrassed. Good job, K! Embarrassing Stanford teammates like any good fan! Haha jk; I think you made her day ;)

We, overly emotional teenagers, nearly started crying during the Senior Tribute, and compromised by whispering "I'm gonna cry!" to each other when the seniors were talking and taking the pictures. After the big thing on court, we followed them down to Arrillaga Family Sports Center - Hahahaha remember when Jeanette walked in, me being me, I gasped really loud and everybody within a 5 foot radius turned around and looked - - Oh yeah, that was funny. And we were right near Kate Paye and Bobbie Kelsey and they looked at us and sorta fought back smiles - where the seniors talked for a while. They were telling really funny stories, so K and I kept whispering "That's a knee-slapper" and slapping each other's thighs and then howling with laughter [very quietly so we wouldn't be disruptive, ;) ;) ] And also during the speeches when Michelle went "and thanks to all my fans" she looked at us and smiled because she remembered us. :) Oh yeah, we had met her before after we won our championship game because one of our teammates goes to the same church as her. We love our perks, haha!

After, I dragged K to go get Ros' signature, and we waited as she talked to some people (I think she knew them... so we automatically demoted ourselves to last place in line). When she finally saw us (holding the posters) she smiled and said, "Thanks for the support, guys!" When I asked for her signature on the poster (and pulled out a classic red Sharpie), she grinned and said, "Of course! You know, I saw that poster right before the game. I looked up and smiled; did you see?" after she had signed it and we had pictures taken with her. I said "Yes!" and K muttered, "Of course she did. Why else would she have texted me the whole game???" Ros must have heard her, because she sort of smiled and was trying not to laugh when she was saved by some other people she knew. We actually kinda had a conversation with Ros. She asked our names and stuff. Jeanette not as much, but there's still hope. Yeah, she asked if we played, and we said yeah, and that we love her because she's proving that there can be fabulous players under 6 ft., haha :)

K and I wandered out of the Center, K annoyed she hadn't seen Jeanette and I mortified that K had said that to Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, whom K knows is my idol! J embarrassed me in front of Jeanette too....! K kept going, "You made me miss Jeanette! You made me miss Jeanette!" and I kept apologizing as we walked out. I then grabbed K's arm and said "Dude... we just walked past Jeanette!" K half-screamed "REALLY?!?!?!?" and ran back inside. Sure enough, she was there, and K stood - well, more 'bounced' really - in line and then asked Jeanette for her signature and a picture. She signed K's poster - I was too embarrassed to ask Jeanette to sign a Ros poster, and besides she's 6" and her height is intimidating - and we both got pictures with her. Okay, here's where I might have kinda-sorta-maybe gotten my revenge on K by embarrassing her... Jeanette: Where do you want me to sign it?? Me: Umm, yeah thats cool you can pick. Haha, anywhere? Jeanette: Oh, okay. Me: *bounces up and down* J: K's gonna take this home and hang it up on her wall forever. Okay, it was funny. Ros got a laugh at my expense and Jeanette got a laugh at your expense. We're even. Haha ;) When K and I finally did get out of the Sports Center, K screamed "SHE SIGNED MY POSTER!!!!" and commenced dancing wildly in front of tons of people. Oh yeah, and as I'm dancing Jayne runs out, looks at me weird, then runs to Maples. OH LORD. Hahahahahaha :) It was funny though! She dragged me along with her, so I danced, very embarrassed - I mean, what if Ros had run out or something??That would've been even more mortifying - and laughed at her ecstasy. It was definitely the highlight of our month.

Now, I know K's going to comment here, so I'll keep it short. The next day my parents and I went to a popular restaurant at about nine am because I figured 1) the players and their families would probably be there after Senior Night and 2) hopefully college students would be out and about by then. We sort of know the manager, so we asked him if he knew if any players were coming. He said yes, that Lindy, her mom, her dad, and her grandmother were coming for her grandmother's birthday, and asked if I was blind because Jeanette Pohlen was sitting right there. Trust me, if her face wasn't so defined, I would never have recognized her. I'm sure K would have - yes, I would've - but I nearly didn't!! I was too shy to ask for her autograph, since I had just seen her last night, so I just watched in awe as she walked past after she had finished breakfast with her parents on her way out of the restaurant. My parents and I sat down, and who should come (after I'd anxiously watched the door for ages!) but Lindy LaRocque.

After much anxiousness on my part I went and asked for her autograph, which she did graciously and talked for a minute or two. She's actually pretty witty! I stammered a "Thank you", told her that we loved her threes and her awesome slide-and-steal against Cal last year on Candice's birthday, and departed. I then forced my dad to switch places with me so I wouldn't be in Lindy's line of vision. (What? I was embarrassed!) When we were leaving, Lindy waved and said "I'll see you at the next game!" Apparently, I went a lovely shade of magenta, and I said, "Yeah, of course," and rushed out. I was starstruck. Hahaha!!! And then I get a text from K saying that I was awful for getting her autograph without her, which is hardly fair because I did ask K if she could come. Okay, that actually wasn't fair AT ALL that you got to meet Lindy. I had a semi-final basketball game. I'm sorry! Hahaha :) Yeah, you should be sorry. Haha jk, jk. But I was so shy! I'm never shy! If I had had a partner in crime it would have been so much easier ;) We are on the prowl for any more possible celebrity sightings, and are planning on invading the many nail salons in town sometime soon, because we always see Jayne and Jeanette with nail polish on. We are also planning to stalk that restaurant, and we'll be down behind the bench at the end of Saturday's game, hoping for a high five or a red victory ball!

~ J & K, junior bloggers