Spring Break Road Trip!!!

Just in case Vegas was not enough to exhaust me, I came home for a few days and then we got back in a car and drove up to Chicago for the last half of the week, to go to the Big Ten Basketball Tournament to cheer on the Hoosiers!  It's something my dad and his high school friends have done for about 10 years now.  The wives were invited a few years in, and now the next generation (that's me) has joined the fun!

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Metro, which is on the west side near UIC.  It was great!  Reasonable price, in a great area, and really nice rooms!  The only downside to it was that the breakfast was super expensive!  BUT - never fear, we found two great places just across the street.  The first morning, we went to Dominick's which is a small grocery store.  It was pretty good food, low prices and Starbucks coffee, but nothing fancy.  The second day, we went across the other street to Mariano's Fresh Market where we had THE most delicious breakfast!!!  The first day we had this...

The next day - we had oatmeal that was so delicious, I ate it too fast to take a picture of it - OOPS!

Between games on Friday, we had a hell of a time finding a place to eat - there's not much around the United Center so everywhere we tried to go was PACKED!  We stopped by Madison Vine Wines to get out of the rain and bought a bottle of wine.  We sat down to drink the wine and the owner brought up this plate of cheese and crackers for free!  They were so nice there, and the wine was amazing!

 

On Saturday, my dad and his friends do their Fantasy Big Ten League "banquet".  We went to Roditys Greek restaurant for dinner, and one of our friends met us there to join the fun!  He showed up in a ridiculous green ruffle shirt (his St. Patty's Day garb) and that made J decide we needed an Irish Breakfast shot before dinner.  WELL, the Greeks didn't have any bacon, but they did have Gyro meat to substitute.  SO, we had a Greek Breakfast shot instead!!!  A shot of 1/2 Jameson & 1/2 Butterscotch Schnapps; a shot of orange juice and the Gyro meat to finish... AMAZING!!!

Beyond that, we did a lot of basketball watching - we saw at least part of 10 of the 11 games of the Big Ten Tournament, and I was quite a tweeting machine (#B1GTourney)... although we did leave early from a few games, and we skipped the championship because the Hoosiers weren't in it.

It was a great trip - I love hanging out with my parents and their friends... such great stories!!!  Now I'm back to work, but with only 7 weeks to go until summer break and only about 4 weeks until our next road trip adventure!!!!

It's GAME DAY!

I've always been a Hoosier Basketball fan, and I am so excited that they are back to being a power in college basketball!

Today is a big day - #1 Michigan is in town... SO big, that College Gameday came to visit!!

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Students and other fans work up to about 3 inches of snow on the ground, but they braved the elements to fill Assembly Hall at 8:00 am... it's so cool to see our fans on Gameday... it's been a long time!!

The game is at 9:00 pm tonight - I'm going to have to take a nap so I can last that long!!!  GO HOOSIERS!

On the Way Home from Chicago

J and I took the South Shore Line from Dune Park into Chicago, so we made the trek up I-65 and back during our most recent Chicago vacation.

On our way home, we stopped for gas and I realized that we were not too far from where I lived in West Lafayette.  Because it's been a while since I had been there, I asked J if we could go find my old house.

I lived in West Lafayette from ages 3-10, before we moved to Texas, so I went through Elementary school there, and we lived in the same house that whole time.  We had a great neighborhood there, and I remember riding my bike all over the place!  There was a baseball and softball field next to our house and my elementary school was just down the street.

We drove into my neighborhood, and it looked the same and different all at the same time.  I remembered the houses, some of which were completely different colors than they used to be, and everything is much closer together than it seemed to be when I was little.

We drove up to my house and it looked nothing like it used to...

It used to be tan with brown shutters and trim, and the bushes are so overgrown now... it's not nearly as welcoming as it used to be.

We parked over by the baseball and softball fields, which is right next door despite the fact that it seemed like it took me forever to run over there from my house.  We stopped by a small memorial that still stands right by the softball field.  

One of my friends from pre-school, Tom Skehan, died in 1990 at his brother's baseball game when a storm with high winds blew in and knocked a tree over, killing him and another boy.  It was the first time I remember losing someone I cared about, and I was not quite 7 years old at the time.  It also gave me a strong fear of storms, which still lingers a little today.  The softball field that I spent so many summers on is also named for him.

We kept driving down my old street and by my elementary school, where I went to Kindergarten through 4th grade.  It looks just about the same as it always did, but it's a lot closer to my house than I remember it being.  That walk or bike ride used to seem MUCH longer!

It was cool to see where I grew up... and also kind of weird.  It's the first time I've been back in a long time, and it was a great stop over on our way home.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

School Starts Monday

Well, it's been a crazy week getting ready for the start of school.  For me, this means welcome back events, employee training and just an overall amp up in the level of activity in our building.  This year was extra intense because we reopened one of our gyms that has been closed for over a year!  It was closed at the beginning of last summer (2011) to fix the roof, and then a worker caught the roof on fire, causing thousands of gallons to be dumped on the roof, and into the gym, ruining the basketball courts and track.

SO, we've been without 10 of our 15 courts, which is Indiana is just tragic, and after a really tough year, the courts reopened yesterday!  It was built in 1924, it used to be the place that the IU Men's Basketball Team played, and it's historic.  The remodel didn't change the look, and though we still have some work to do, but what matters most is that it's open and the students are back and playing!

We even had an IU Basketball Alum come and play today... we were excited to have Eric Gordon back, and he certainly drew a crowd!!  He was a really nice guy, too!

One more employee training tomorrow and the school kicks off on Monday!  The late nights and long weeks don't end, though... I'll be keeping some late hours for the first couple of weeks of the semester to be around to help the employees out!

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend and have a great week!!

Indiana, Our Indiana

I was born in Indiana, to two parents who went to Indiana University.  This means I grew up a Hoosier.  When I was 3, I knew all the words to the IU fight song (and still do to this day) and at the age of 5, while walking around campus on a visit to see my mom's long time friend,  I announced to everyone that I thought it was time for us to go visit Bobby Knight.

I lived a few years in Illinois and then, during my grade school years, we spent about 7 years in West Lafayette... Purdue country.  IU and Purdue are rivals and the hatred runs deep.  I had a teacher in 4th Grade... Mr. Lyle... he was awesome, but he was a Purdue fan.  That year, IU beat Purdue in basketball and because of some luck at the grocery store, we were able to make our way into his classroom on Sunday and decorate it in red and white (something that would surely get you in trouble these days... I'm so glad I'm not a kid now) just to gloat.

I moved to Texas right before I started middle school, but still loved Indiana.  My dad watched basketball games at every chance he got and often times, if he was out refereeing, the game would be taped to watch later.

When I was looking at colleges, it really came down to 2... Indiana and The University of Texas.  I got a pretty great scholarship that would have made out of state tuition at IU relatively affordable, but in the end, I didn't want to be that far from my parents and chose UT.  I had an amazing college experience and a pretty great 4 years of sports teams while I was there, even though the football team never beat Oklahoma while I was in school.  Even though I am a Longhorn through and through, I have always had a love for Indiana basketball.

I was a freshman in college the last time they went to the Final Four and after a few bad years and a few worse years, IU basketball has finally made its way back into the Top 10 in the nation and is having a great season so far!

All of my life, I've watched IU basketball on TV, but I've never been to a game.  Now that we live in Bloomington, I thought I was finally going to get my chance this year.  J and I looked at tickets this year, but with that win over Kentucky early, the prices on Stub Hub were kind of ridiculous.  I was kind of disappointed that I was going to have to wait another year, and then Christmas came.

I had an envelope in my stocking and when I opened it, I found out that I'd be going to a game in Assembly Hall... the real one, not the one in Champagne.  J used to work with a guy who is an IU alum and he's hooking us up!!!  I am so excited that after 28 1/2 years of watching IU basketball on TV, I'm going to actually be there, crossing something off my bucket list!

I'M SO EXCITED!!!