What a freaking trip. I'll post what I can remember, but I'm sure I'm leaving things out, and forgetting people. Got to the team hotel around 10:30am Friday. Met up with SUinAustinTX and his wife, as they were amazing enough to let me crash in their room. I grabbed a quick shower, and we headed to breakfast. (I forget where, cool little diner thing). Headed back to the lobby, grabbed a drink, and just started to soak it all in. Players wandering around, Orange everywhere. Ran into two of my favorite people ever, cto and VAorange!! Hugs from those two can really take a tired, jetlagged cusetroop, and wake him right up. Met Ragman for the first time! Talked with Coach Autry for a bit, snapped some pictures with Otto. Then I see Lydon... My man... My boy... He was with his family, so I didn't bother him... Until about a half an hour later when he was walking by himself. I went up and was about to say "dude! Do you remember me? I'm Adam from Alaska!" but before I could he goes "Adam, whats up man!"... I about lost it. Snapped a pic, talked for a few, and I let him go. A few minutes later his mom and dad come up, "Are you Adam from Alaska? We've heard about you!" They got married in Alaska 28 years ago, and want to take the fam back. I offered my house, my truck, and any and all connections I have to do cool stuff. Really cool family. We headed to the Ogden for the pre game party. Place was a mad house, but I managed to catch quite the buzz. Rented one of those peddle bike cabs to take us from the ogden to the game, they don't go near as fast as the ones in Seattle. Got into the stadium, and was immediately in awe. I've been to the Dome, the arena at Atlantis, and MSG.. And I don't remember much about MSG (hammered troop)... but this arena was insane. I walked down to my seat, met up with my seatmates, my man Poc, and the two people who refuse to let Cuse lose, Obie9 and Headmaster. Thanks to someone amazing, we were right across from the bench, row two. Doug Marrone sat in front of me, I shook his hand, thanked him for what he did for our program, got a picture, and we left it at that. I'm still a little bitter at him, but at that moment, we were just two Orange fans, and man, I'm not sure where our program would be if Doug hadent given us those few years. The Gonzaga game speaks for it's self. You all watched it. I walked out of there thinking it was the best game I'd ever seen live. How do you top that. Managed to catch up with cto, VAorange, and BillOrange leaving the stadium and caught a ride on the fan bus back to the hotel. What a bus full of just happy people. The lobby post game was the place to be.. Took forever to get drinks tho. The hotel dropped the ball on that. Another bartender, or a stand that sold just bottled beer off to the side would have been amazing. No worries tho, just order two or three at a time. The band showed up and played for us, amazing. The team came through, amazing. And we celebrated all night. Then, apparently bars close? Not sure what time the hotel bar shut down, but we werent ready for bed. Hit a bar down the street for another couple hours. Woke up Saturday morning, to a phone call from my girlfriend who was in Anchorage Alaska watching a high school basketball tournament. "Did you get my ticket yet?" Apparently I called her the night before and told her I'd fly her down for the elite 8... Played it cool, like "yea baby, I'm doing it now" Saturday was the pep rally in the team hotel, the band played, cheerleaders cheered, whole jazz. I honestly don't remember anything else I did saturday... Don't remember what I ate.. If I left the hotel?.. Dinner? Not a clue. My pictures on my phone go from the pep rally, to having drinks with a a cool dude and his wife (I'm legit horrible with names, and they werent on the board). At some point Saturday night, a dude named Roscoe asked for everyone's attention in the lobby. He said "I'd lake to take any Cuse fans to the most amazing place in Chicago.. free of charge".. At first I was like, what's this scam... but then I figured, I'd done nothing but drink since I got here, maybe I should go see something cool... 5 minutes later about 8 of us are on the team bus, with no clue of our destination. He took us to the water, where we had an amazing view of the Chicago skyline. Beautiful. The rest of the night was a blur. I remember the hotel bar closing again, and me planning on heading to another bar that stayed open longer. I ended up just chatting with Obie and Headmaster in the lobby for an hour or so, and I think they talked me into just heading to bed. (Thanks for that, was the best move). Sunday... heh... woke up at 9:30 to about 9 missed calls from my girl. She landed at 8am. I told her to take the blue line to Monroe, and call me from the train, I'd meet her there. Didnt tell her the hotel, room number, anything... Well, heh, that didnt go well. Somehow she found the hotel I was at, and I found a very p!ssed off Sonnary in the lobby. I let her be mad for a few mins, give her the "I'm sorry, but you knew I was a drunken idiot when you decided to date me" face, and everything was fine. I knew that the one thing she wanted to do in Chicago besides the game, was to see that bean thing... Just at the right moment, VAorange came up, said she was walking to the bean, and allowed us to tag along. Was a great walk, sobered me up, and the bean was really neat. Met up with my crew from Penn Yan, and our group went to the Elephant for some pre drinks. Ubered to Dino for pre game, which was epic. Again, the band and cheerleaders were there. Had some banging ribs, and then it's game time. Walked into the stadium... So like I said.. I was sitting in row two.. Now my girl is there. I got her a ticket in the 300s for $20.. I told her, "Babe, I feel bad, I'll find two tickets together" she, like the amazing girlfriend she is said "Adam, this is your team, you stay in your seats, I promise its fine".. We had ran into a couple we met in the bahamas, and they said they might have an extra ticket in our section. More on that later. Sitting in Marrone's seat for this game was Dino Babers!! I said "Coach, I'm Adam from Alaska, and I'm so excited for the future!" I said "I'm in your introduction video on Youtube!".. for some reason, he didnt believe me, and legit stood there and made me pull it up on my phone, wait for it to load, and get to the part that I'm in lol. He thought it was super cool. The first half, well.. you know.. Right as the half ended, the couple I spoke abotu before got my attention and called me over. The two people in front of them had to catch a plane, and now my girl and I could sit together! I had Sonnary run down as fast as she could, and boom. Row 4, sitting with my girl, at an Elite 8 cuse game. My girl looked concerned, but knows basketball, and knows anything could happen. the last 10 mintues of that game was the crasziest, most amazing 10 minutes of my life. I hugged Cooneys grandma like 30 times. (she kept turning to me for hugs, she's the sweetest lady ever). Again, I won't speak too much on the game because you guys watched it, and I'm supposed to be catching up on work right now. but wow... freaking wow. Walked out of the stadium, met up with my crew, trying to find a cab to the hotel... found a limo instead (Danny Parkins ended up seeing us get in, and tagged along). The rest of the night was just a party in the lobby. Not as busy as Friday night. No band, no team, they all flew home. Hung out with cto, vaorange, suinaustintx and his wife (i was with those two the whole weekend) and anyone else I could find. Talked with G's dad, and Franklin Howards dad for a long time at the end of the night. My girl has a 13 year old son who is 6'2 and one of the best players in Alaska. The two dads gave my girl advice on camps, ect. Very cool guys, who are very proud of their sons. Somehow the girl got me to bed, somehow we woke up on time, and It's back to Alaska. I realized on the subway that I had left my credit card at the hotel bar. My friend from texas grabbed it, and it's currently waiting for me to pick up in Houston. We take a direct flight to anchorage Alaska, where we find out our flight to Fairbanks is cancelled due to a volcano. No big deal, we have friends in Anchorage, they picked us up, and we waited there until we could get our next flight. 5 of our flights were cancelled. About an hour into being at our friends house, my girl found out she left her wallet somewhere at the airport. The airport said they didnt have it, so she cancelled all her cards. Well, the next day the airport found it.. I told her not to cancell everything. Finally get on a flight at 11pm last night. My friend said he would pick us up at the airport. We land, he text "your truck is in short term parking, keys in it, $3 for parking" I had left it at the bar, keys hanging in the bar, so he jsut grabbed it for me.. Well, my truck locks after 10 minutes, unless you hit the unlock button when you get out. SO it's like 10 degrees. Midnight. and my keys are locked in my truck. A cab driver will unlock it for $30. But none of us have any money because my cards in texas, and she canceled hers. I talked the cab driver into unlocking my truck, and going to the bar and getting $30 from the bartender. She knows i'll pay her back. Finally make it home.. pull my wallet out, and boom. there's my girls debit card. I had it because I bought a drink at the anchorage bar. I forgot to give it back to her. I had that card the whole time and didnt know it. She had already cancelled it.. ughhhhhhh . This hurts to say, but as of now, Houston is out of the picture for the ol cusetroop.. The delay in Anchorage caused me to miss out on any deals, and miss an extra day of work. My debit card is in texas, my girl has no cards until they come in the mail. I'm not a rich dude. I'm a drunken 29 year old, that is extremely fiscally irresponsible. I could make Houston work. I could put myself in more debt. And I think if I didnt get stuck in Anchorage, with the hype still going from Sunday's win, I would have booked it all... But sometimes reality sets in... I've had an amazing year. Bahamas, UNC at home, and now Chicago? What more can a guy ask for. I couldnt have done all this without alot of people on this board. Hook ups on tickets, help with the hotel in chicago, introducing me to amazing people... You guys know who you are... I wont call you out here, but hopefully I've been able to show my appreciation appropriately. This year has been a dream come true. I'll watch the games with my Alaska Cuse fans at the ol Red Fox Bar and Grill. Man, what a freaking ride!
