Stanford’s Sweet Sixteen

Let’s recap C and R’s trip to Sacramento to see the Stanford Women’s Basketball team take on the Georgia Bulldogs at Arco Arena in the Sweet Sixteen.

Early Morning:
R calls C to tell her that her tire is flat. C asks how she got a flat tire. R says yesterday she ran over a curb. C and R have long debate about how that is even physically possible. R locates a tire store open on Saturday. C buys a can of “Fix A Flat,” an aerosol that magically pumps up the tire and has gummy stuff to stop any leaks and let’s you drive for an extra 2-4 miles. The tire store is exactly one mile from R’s house. C puts the aerosol into R’s tire and sees the leak. The gummy stuff seems to have stopped the leak but C is not convinced. She yells at R to start the car as time is of the essence. C and R argue about how best to go over speed bumps in a flat tire magically fixed by aerosol and mysterious gummy stuff. They survive the one-mile trip with out rolling the car or killing each other and in 40 minutes R has a new tire. After the stress of that, driving up the California Interstates to Sacramento going 70 miles an hour while trying to eat chicken pesto sandwiches with motorcycles cutting us off and semis trying to flatten us seem like a lark, except when C stepped in pesto.

Lunch Time:
C and R stop off at a family member’s house to help with various computer issues, rhymes with tissues, which is funny as C and R can barley turn theirs on. Always double your estimate when working on computers. C accidentally presses the wrong button and causes the computer used for work to lock up. R wisely decided go out to the patio and work on her tan. After much more stress, both computers in the house get fixed. C and R get the heck out of there before C touches something else and breaks it.

Mid Afternoon:
C and R drive to the appointed restaurant to meet a whole bunch of people. On the way, one group of friends texts and says they have already checked into the hotel and brought a blender and the ice machine was located before unpacking. They tell C and R margaritas have been made. C and R say they can’t stop and drink the free margaritas, as they are enroute to the Brew Pub to pay for beers. (Um, C and R hope they don’t get kicked out of any family-type blogs for the mention of adult beverages—and C and R hope they don’t get kicked out of any of the websites they report to, websites that wanted REAL coverage of women’s basketball, not this trivial recounting of C and R’s Saturday.)

C and R and friends and Cal fans try to order (Can C and R be friends with Cal fans? They say that with Cal out of the tournament they are rooting for Stanford, and they seem believable). The first waitress says she is too busy to take their order and has to go home. The second waitress says she is too sick to take their order and has to go home. The third times the charm, C and R think, as the third waitress actually writes down their order, however only half of the food show up. Cal fans tell waitress number three they will give her five bucks if she can make salad dressing appear in the next 60 seconds. C and R make plans with their group to drive to the nearest free parking lot next to Arco Arena to park there and save the $12 parking fee, all the more to spend on adult beverages. (Well, the quote was funnier at the restaurant; guess you had to be there.)

Going to the Game:
After much walking and notice of land marks and a trail of breadcrumbs so C and R and friends can find their car again, and a second trip back to the car for ID, we make it to Arco Arena with five minutes to spare. C and R notice a Stanford fan walking back to their car with their backpack. Didn’t they read our post about NO backpacks allowed in Arco Arena? The ushers are doing their job checking for tickets but are not so strict so that C and R can’t sneak into good seats. Our Cal friends have snuck in a sign that says “Hecka Nneka” and “Ogwumike is Okay!” C and R are impressed and the stock of the Cal friends immediately goes up. An usher says no signs are allowed in Arco Arena. C and R and Cal are crestfallen. C and R have their tinkle bells to fall back on.

Game Time:
The announcers makes the players introductions and a Georgia fan, sitting in front of C and R, sticks her fingers in her ears every time we cheer for a Stanford player. Oh, this is going to be fun, think C and R. We decide to cheer every great play by Stanford and see how many times we can make her stick her fingers in her ears. Our Cal friends are dismayed to see C and R’s sadistic side and start to move to seats far away from us.

Game Game Time:
C and R watch as Jayne Appel, so good around the basket for four years, uncharacteristically miss shot after shot. C and R think maybe they should stick their fingers in their ears. C and R watch as Stanford is down 4-8 at the 15-minute mark. C and R then watch Jayne feed Nneka Ogwumike instead. Cal fans hold up Nneka sign anyway. C and R see at the 10-minute mark we are now up 19-10. Stanford has done it with defense, shutting down Georgia on the perimeter, and inside. C and R watch JJ Hones make a three in the final seconds to put Stanford up 37-15 at the half.

Half Time:
A first in basketball history, C and R are too full to eat anything at half.

Second Half:
Jayne finds the basket again and has 17 points while the whole team of Georgia has only 19 points. Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer takes out Jayne at the 13-minute mark. C and R surmise it is not to embarrass Georgia by having Jayne out score them but our Cal friends wisely point out it is to save Jayne’s ankle for Monday. C and R and the rest of the team get a scare when Michelle Harrison goes down with an elbow to the nose. C and R hope it is not broken. Stanford wins easily, 73-36.

After the game:
C and R and friends find car, get to hotel room and blender and turn on Xavier and Gonzaga game in the background and start Texas hold ‘em game. Game disintegrates when card-peeking and chip-swiping happens, not that C and R are namin’ names but at least one of them was R. Okay, maybe C. C launches into long and boring story about growing up in Dayton, Ohio and how a tornado hit Xavier and we always refer to it as the place where the tornado hit. Xavier, that plucky town that survived the tornado, beats Gonzaga and will face Stanford in the Elite Eight on Monday. It’s not until an hour later that C realizes it was Xenia, Ohio, Xenia, not Xavier, where the tornado hit. Anyway, congrats to Xavier for the right to meet our three trees.

C and R get much needed sleep to have the strength to eat the free breakfast at the hotel and drive the dangerous interstates back to the Bay Area.