Sweet Victory!

Last night, Emmy and I watched the Lakers win the NBA Finals for the 2nd year in a row and it was glorious. The reason I'm writing this, though, is because of the random events surrounding the game...

I texted her to see if she wanted to watch the game at Applebee's because they have a sweet ice cream cookie sandwich and it would be nice to watch it with a lot of people around. I also knew that they'd be playing the game there because Kim and Jenny had been kind enough to watch it with me when they came to visit a couple of weeks ago. She wrote back and said that she'd rather watch it in the Student Center at Regent in order to keep from spending money. I was about 14% disappointed because I figured that no one else would be watching the game there, but I was 86% okay with it because it meant that I wouldn't be spending money, either.


I got to the Student Center at exactly 9pm and there was a man who was probably in his mid-late 50's who had the TV on. I was worried for a second that he wasn't watching the game and asked, "You're going to be watching the game, right?" (thinking back, it's not like he seemed the SYTYCD type.) He said that he was going to be watching the game, then asked if I was rooting for the Celtics or Lakers. I told him that I was wanting the Lakers to win because I'm from California and he immediately told me that he was a Celtics fan. He was quite the talker and I started to think that it was going to be a rough night.


During the 3rd and 4th quarters, he started coaching the Celtics from his seat on the couch at Regent. Some lines yelled at the TV by him:
- "You need to get out there and coach, Doc! They're tired and they need someone to coach them right now!"
- "Don't pass it to Ray Allen! He's ice cold and missing everything!"
- "See! They're all afraid to shoot and that's why they're not winning!"


Emily texted me at one point during all of this to say, "this guy miiiight drive me nuts." I laughed and made sure not to read that aloud (thank you, Miss Kim, for teaching me that last year).

During the span of the game, a few other people showed up. There were 2 cops, Tyrone and Dave. Tyrone is a Lakers fan and was excited to watch for awhile. Dave doesn't care about basketball, but he was nice enough to bring candy back for us from someone's office. Then, Mike (another Lakers fan) came in with a pizza from Little Caesar's and shared it with us. He said to just make sure to leave 2 slices for him. After that, he insisted on getting waters for us from somewhere, which was very kind. Jeff and Buster also got there at some point during the game and I think the Celtics fan was kind of annoyed by Buster. That, of course, made Buster want to be near him during the rest of the game. The night ended up being more eventful than expected, we got free food, we met new people, and the Lakers won!

Goals

I found an old journal entry from 10/31/2001 entitled, "Things I Want To Do In My Life." I wrote down the goals that I had for my life and kind of forgot about it after that... on another note, I think it also shows my love of Halloween since I spent that evening writing in my journal, instead of trick-or-treating or hanging out with friends. Here's what I wrote and here's what has actually happened in the past 9 years:


Goal: Take a road trip by myself.
Reality: I've taken quite a few road trips by myself now. The longest one being from California to Kentucky with stops in Tuscon, AZ; Midland, TX; Dallas, TX; and middle of nowhere, AR. Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to stop at places like Graceland and the world's biggest ball of twine.

Goal: Write a book about the people that I talked to on my road trip.
Reality: I didn't do it and I should have when I had the opportunity.

Goal: Take lessons of some kind (I'm thinking piano, hip hop, karate, or ballet).
Reality: I took a hip hop class and plan to again. I got a piano for my 25th birthday and played it almost every day for 3 years until moving to Kentucky.

Goal: Take a cruise to a tropical island.
Reality: I took a cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada with Andrea.

Goal: Be a camp counselor at Hume Lake for an entire summer.
Reality: I was a camp counselor for 1 week per summer at Royal Family Kids' Camp for 4 years and 1 week at Camp Shawnee last year.

Goal: Become a guidance counselor for my career.
Reality: Became a special ed. teacher for my career and may go back to it eventually.

Goal: Become a missionary in a foreign country for 1 summer (0r maybe longer).
Reality: Went to Haiti for 3 weeks and held babies. Volunteered in Kentucky for one amazingly magical year.

Goal: Have a really cute dog.
Reality: I have to settle for a cute nephew-puppy until I have the space for my own dog.

Goal: Have season tickets for the Lakers.
Reality: I apparently thought I was going to be independently wealthy when I was 21... I'm okay with watching them win the Finals on TV every year, though.

Goal: Find the man of my dreams and marry him.
Reality: I know that will happen.

Goal: Possibly being a foster mother.
Reality: I came very close, but chickened out when I thought about how much responsibility it was. It was also at the time when I realized that I needed to take time to grieve leaving Kentucky and volunteering.

Goal: Volunteer at a hospital and play games with the kids who are sick.
Reality: This didn't happen, but I was Cameron's CASA for 4 years and I wouldn't change that for anything.

Goal: Be a sponsor in a youth group and be able to join them for any of their activities.
Reality: I've helped out with youth group activities at Essential, but not to the extent that I could.

Goal: Live in a nice place with a swimming pool.
Reality: I've lived in 4 places with them.

I think everyone should make a list of their goals occasionally because it's really fun to look back and see what's actually happened.