Gabe and I are both keeping a running blog of this weekend's activities. Here are my thoughts, and some attempts at being funny. Whether it works out or not is up to you to decide!
5:22 PM: Live band playing at the airport. Nice touch Austin. Vegas has the slot machines. You have live music. I’m impressed that the live music capital of the world keeps it real in their airport as well. Nice.
5:32 PM: Our flight is meant to depart Austin’s Bergstrom Airport at 5 sharp, but as these things tend to go we didn’t get off the ground until around 5:25PM. I did get lucky though in getting the exit row seat. Is there anything better than having a bit of extra leg room in an otherwise cramped environment?
5:47 PM: In my need to exercise my extroverted-ness I strike up a conversation with the father and son sitting to my right. They seem nice enough, not the vagrants you typically run into on these ‘lesser’ airlines (i.e. Southwest, Jet Blue). Ha just kidding, I’m poor enough that if Brandon wasn’t sending me on this trip I would have to miss my first NCAA appearance by the Aggie Basketball team. Interesting note though about the father and son: they are UCONN fans. The son lives in Austin and the dad commutes from Philadelphia each week to spend time with his family. Even though they are the enemy they seem nice enough. I try to talk some basketball, asking them about Thabeet and other players on UCONN’s loaded roster, but they don’t know much basketball. Oh well, when the hell am I getting some peanuts?
I ask if they have tickets and they confirm, that is the reason they’re headed to Philadelphia as well. They tell me they’d rather meet up with us in the 2nd round. I’m not sure whether I should take that as a compliment or not. Are we that bad and just can’t see it in ourselves? I don’t think so. I think they just don’t realize the ferocity that the Aggies are about to unleash on Philadelphia.
6:00 PM: We touch down at Hobby in Houston. The pilot was Navy man, rough landing. I like Navy guys, they keep it real. Just can’t tell with those Air Force guys… too gentle on their aircrafts. The count is off for the number of people meant to be continuing onto Philadelphia. The stewardesses, I mean flight attendants, seem frustrated. Funny really when the ‘Friendly Skies’ crew has to lay down the law.
Side note: how are all flight attendants so good looking? Not like 10’s, but solid 6.5’s and up. I don’t fly all that much, but what little time I do spend in the air is spent with good looking attendants. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it, just odd that the airlines have cornered the market for good looking people in this way.
7:00 PM: Peanuts finally, and other assorted snacks. When did they start this? When did you get offered more than one choice? And when I went to grab more than one snack selection my hand wasn’t slapped by the man with perfectly coiffed hair. Rather, he said, “Have as many as you want.” Really? You really want to tell me to take as many as I want? I’m gonna be bored on this flight, and those 100 calorie snack packs are gonna start looking pretty good at some point. Note to flight attendants: don’t make promises you don’t intend on keeping.
7:23 PM: I’m excited to get to photograph the NCAA’s from the sidelines. That is for sure. I’m also excited about getting to see the city where our nation was begun. The Liberty Bell. Independence Hall. The stairs that Rocky ran up in the one Rocky movie I saw before that debacle where Stallone was 74 years old.
What I’m really excited about though is the prospect of partying with Billy Liucci. Maybe we could auction something like that off one day on the site. A night on the town with Looch! Not in a weird way or anything, just a trip to the Tap or something. I think I’ll start a thread and update it as often as I can titled: ‘What is Liucci up to now?’ It’ll be like a twitter feed here live on the Maroon & White Board. This is gonna happen. Until Looch takes it down.
8:47 PM: When are we gonna land? I’m ready. Really though I’m just using that as an excuse to placate my nervousness about how we’re gonna play against BYU in the morning. Cummard and that big dude of theirs kinda scare me. Cummard was money last year, and if not for Carter lighting them up for some big time plays we might have lost that game.
My take on what we’ll have to do to win the game:
1. Play like we did against Baylor at home the first time. I don’t think we’ll have to be as good as we were against Missouri, but we’ll have to be pretty good. Arizona good would make me happy too.
2. Dash needs to come ready to play. If he can keep the ball in our hands, and make some plays when we need a spark, I’ll feel much more confident at halftime, and likely pretty happy after 40 minutes of basketball. Guys like Dash and Holmes are the ones that will make the difference.
3. Elonu must, must, must stay out of foul trouble. (This one scares me to be honest. Let’s hope the refs either really like us, or really don’t like BYU.)
4. Most importantly, we’re gonna need to get the crowd behind us. A good effort in the bars beforehand, buying rounds of drinks, and otherwise classy Aggie type moves should make this fairly easy, but it needs to be a concerted effort. Who remembers the entire Florida Gator contingent in Jacksonville doing the Gator chomp and chanting “Aggies! Aggies!” Good job lil99chris on getting that one started.
8:52 PM: I just realized that our last trip to the northeast ended in a tournament championship. Sure it was the NIT preseason tournament, but still, the northeast has been kind to the basketball team.
9:03 PM: The pilot just came on and told us we’re starting to descend. Pretty interesting huh? I’ll hit you up again when I get to the hotel room.
10:30 PM: Plane landed and luckily the luggage was there waiting for us. Going to meet the shuttle but we had the story all wrong. The shuttle bus didn’t come to the regular curbside pickup, rather you have to meet up at some desk and take a number and wait to get called on. Terrible system. Luckily the crack squad at the ground transportation desk reluctantly answered enough of Gabe’s questions to get us onto the shuttle in a reasonable amount of time.
11:10 PM: Shuttle bus driver just picked us up and then got out and walked away. Literally gone for 10 minutes. Here’s the situation, me, Gabe, and 2 other ladies in the bus. Gabe is an ‘always talker’ as I’ve dubbed him, so he’s in the back going on about who knows what, and the girls are just trying to sit there and not act awkward. It’s not working for them, or for us. This is strange.
11:50 PM: One of the girls gets dropped off at the Omni Suites. She’s climbing out and we saw some major plumbers butt. For the record I tried to avoid it, but Gabe pointed it out right away. Gotta love Philadelphia.
12:05 AM: Checked in at Loew’s Philadelphia. Cute girl at the reception desk was very helpful. What do you expect though from a rather pricey hotel? Gabe was talking again, this time about her and my hair, I flirted with her to get the free internet hookup. The room is sweet. 50’s mod look, something out of a Eame’s catalogue for sure.
A bit of information on the building we’re staying in, pretty cool stuff: HERE.
12:20 AM: We’re going to some all night diner. Kristen at the front desk told us about it. You’re only in Philadelphia once in a while, might as well make the most of it.
1:11 AM: All night diner turned into beers at the hotel bar with Gabe. It’s getting late, and I feel less funny now. Maybe tomorrow will be funnier.
5:22 PM: Live band playing at the airport. Nice touch Austin. Vegas has the slot machines. You have live music. I’m impressed that the live music capital of the world keeps it real in their airport as well. Nice.
5:32 PM: Our flight is meant to depart Austin’s Bergstrom Airport at 5 sharp, but as these things tend to go we didn’t get off the ground until around 5:25PM. I did get lucky though in getting the exit row seat. Is there anything better than having a bit of extra leg room in an otherwise cramped environment?
5:47 PM: In my need to exercise my extroverted-ness I strike up a conversation with the father and son sitting to my right. They seem nice enough, not the vagrants you typically run into on these ‘lesser’ airlines (i.e. Southwest, Jet Blue). Ha just kidding, I’m poor enough that if Brandon wasn’t sending me on this trip I would have to miss my first NCAA appearance by the Aggie Basketball team. Interesting note though about the father and son: they are UCONN fans. The son lives in Austin and the dad commutes from Philadelphia each week to spend time with his family. Even though they are the enemy they seem nice enough. I try to talk some basketball, asking them about Thabeet and other players on UCONN’s loaded roster, but they don’t know much basketball. Oh well, when the hell am I getting some peanuts?
I ask if they have tickets and they confirm, that is the reason they’re headed to Philadelphia as well. They tell me they’d rather meet up with us in the 2nd round. I’m not sure whether I should take that as a compliment or not. Are we that bad and just can’t see it in ourselves? I don’t think so. I think they just don’t realize the ferocity that the Aggies are about to unleash on Philadelphia.
6:00 PM: We touch down at Hobby in Houston. The pilot was Navy man, rough landing. I like Navy guys, they keep it real. Just can’t tell with those Air Force guys… too gentle on their aircrafts. The count is off for the number of people meant to be continuing onto Philadelphia. The stewardesses, I mean flight attendants, seem frustrated. Funny really when the ‘Friendly Skies’ crew has to lay down the law.
Side note: how are all flight attendants so good looking? Not like 10’s, but solid 6.5’s and up. I don’t fly all that much, but what little time I do spend in the air is spent with good looking attendants. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it, just odd that the airlines have cornered the market for good looking people in this way.
7:00 PM: Peanuts finally, and other assorted snacks. When did they start this? When did you get offered more than one choice? And when I went to grab more than one snack selection my hand wasn’t slapped by the man with perfectly coiffed hair. Rather, he said, “Have as many as you want.” Really? You really want to tell me to take as many as I want? I’m gonna be bored on this flight, and those 100 calorie snack packs are gonna start looking pretty good at some point. Note to flight attendants: don’t make promises you don’t intend on keeping.
7:23 PM: I’m excited to get to photograph the NCAA’s from the sidelines. That is for sure. I’m also excited about getting to see the city where our nation was begun. The Liberty Bell. Independence Hall. The stairs that Rocky ran up in the one Rocky movie I saw before that debacle where Stallone was 74 years old.
What I’m really excited about though is the prospect of partying with Billy Liucci. Maybe we could auction something like that off one day on the site. A night on the town with Looch! Not in a weird way or anything, just a trip to the Tap or something. I think I’ll start a thread and update it as often as I can titled: ‘What is Liucci up to now?’ It’ll be like a twitter feed here live on the Maroon & White Board. This is gonna happen. Until Looch takes it down.
8:47 PM: When are we gonna land? I’m ready. Really though I’m just using that as an excuse to placate my nervousness about how we’re gonna play against BYU in the morning. Cummard and that big dude of theirs kinda scare me. Cummard was money last year, and if not for Carter lighting them up for some big time plays we might have lost that game.
My take on what we’ll have to do to win the game:
1. Play like we did against Baylor at home the first time. I don’t think we’ll have to be as good as we were against Missouri, but we’ll have to be pretty good. Arizona good would make me happy too.
2. Dash needs to come ready to play. If he can keep the ball in our hands, and make some plays when we need a spark, I’ll feel much more confident at halftime, and likely pretty happy after 40 minutes of basketball. Guys like Dash and Holmes are the ones that will make the difference.
3. Elonu must, must, must stay out of foul trouble. (This one scares me to be honest. Let’s hope the refs either really like us, or really don’t like BYU.)
4. Most importantly, we’re gonna need to get the crowd behind us. A good effort in the bars beforehand, buying rounds of drinks, and otherwise classy Aggie type moves should make this fairly easy, but it needs to be a concerted effort. Who remembers the entire Florida Gator contingent in Jacksonville doing the Gator chomp and chanting “Aggies! Aggies!” Good job lil99chris on getting that one started.
8:52 PM: I just realized that our last trip to the northeast ended in a tournament championship. Sure it was the NIT preseason tournament, but still, the northeast has been kind to the basketball team.
9:03 PM: The pilot just came on and told us we’re starting to descend. Pretty interesting huh? I’ll hit you up again when I get to the hotel room.
10:30 PM: Plane landed and luckily the luggage was there waiting for us. Going to meet the shuttle but we had the story all wrong. The shuttle bus didn’t come to the regular curbside pickup, rather you have to meet up at some desk and take a number and wait to get called on. Terrible system. Luckily the crack squad at the ground transportation desk reluctantly answered enough of Gabe’s questions to get us onto the shuttle in a reasonable amount of time.
11:10 PM: Shuttle bus driver just picked us up and then got out and walked away. Literally gone for 10 minutes. Here’s the situation, me, Gabe, and 2 other ladies in the bus. Gabe is an ‘always talker’ as I’ve dubbed him, so he’s in the back going on about who knows what, and the girls are just trying to sit there and not act awkward. It’s not working for them, or for us. This is strange.
11:50 PM: One of the girls gets dropped off at the Omni Suites. She’s climbing out and we saw some major plumbers butt. For the record I tried to avoid it, but Gabe pointed it out right away. Gotta love Philadelphia.
12:05 AM: Checked in at Loew’s Philadelphia. Cute girl at the reception desk was very helpful. What do you expect though from a rather pricey hotel? Gabe was talking again, this time about her and my hair, I flirted with her to get the free internet hookup. The room is sweet. 50’s mod look, something out of a Eame’s catalogue for sure.
A bit of information on the building we’re staying in, pretty cool stuff: HERE.
12:20 AM: We’re going to some all night diner. Kristen at the front desk told us about it. You’re only in Philadelphia once in a while, might as well make the most of it.
1:11 AM: All night diner turned into beers at the hotel bar with Gabe. It’s getting late, and I feel less funny now. Maybe tomorrow will be funnier.