THE DAILY DIVERSION

LOSING SUCKS! THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO SAY IT!

My lady and I went and watched our first live basketball game since the Toppers beat New Orleans in Murfreesboro. It was a little different game though. We went and watched the Grizzlies face off against the Seattle Supersonics. Once again my buddy that works for the Grizz hooked me up. We sat about 6 rows behind the Seattle bench. The face value on our tickets were $138.75, each. We had 3 of them. I started thinking "400 bones to watch some hoops? Man, that is crazy! Oh well, they're free!"

The Grizzlies jumped out on them early, taking a 14-2 lead, with 9 minutes left in the first quarter. That's when I decided to take a potty break and grab a beverage. Big mistake! I can tell you that much! Usually a large Sierra Mist is magic for a win. Well, at least at Diddle, but I have to buy it before the action starts. The Toppers only lost once at home this year, while I was at a game, and that was when Pacific came in town. I made the mistake of not purchasing my S.M. pre-game, and tried to make up for it at halftime. It didn't work. The team knew I didn't follow my pre-game ritual, so I take full responsibility for that loss.

Anyway, I get back to my seat, and it's 19-11. The Sonics put on a spurt and take the lead. Shortly before halftime they had it up by as many as 12. We fight back in the second half and take a slim lead going into the final frame. Pau Gasol was a beast last night. He ended up breaking the Grizzlies most points scored in a game record, by notching 44. The prior record was 41, held by Mike Miller (this year) and Bryant (Big Country) Reeves. He also broke the record for scoring in 3 consecutive games. He needed 31 last night, but nearly had that at halftime. Unfortunately, the real record I wanted to see didn't happen.

The Grizzlies were on a 7 game win streak, tying the longest in team history. Last night would've broken the record. We're up 4 with less than 45 seconds left in the game, so I'm thinking it's in the bag. Seattle has the ball with the shot clock running down. I think Ray Allen has the ball, and is attempting a shot when the shot clock goes off. From my vantage point (which was pretty good I might add), the ball was clearly still in his hand when the buzzer sounded. He drains the 3, and it counts. We just sit there stunned! The officials didn't check the monitor, nor did Fratello adamantly complain about it. We take the ball down the court and promptly turn it over. Up 1 with 17.4 seconds left. Ray Allen gets the ball out top facing off against Eddie Jones. Man, what a matchup. Eddie plays great D on Ray and forces him to a difficult shot. The ball rattles around and finally drops with 0.3 on the clock. Immediate Time Out. We have the ball out of bounds at halfcourt. Shane impounds the ball by tossing it toward the backboard, where Pau is attacking. Two Seattle players tap it out of bounds. Ball Game! Dammit! It sucks to lose!

Okay, onto the good stuff (actually I thought the ball game was pretty good, regardless of the loss)...

Dream of the day: I'm sleeping in my old water bed that I got rid of years ago. It was a real piece of crap, but I loved it while I had it. It had the vinyl cushioned rails on the sides. (You'll need that for future reference)

Anyway, I'm sleeping and I keep hearing the "tapping" sound. I wake up to see Adrianne trying to break a green Heineken bottle on the rail. I immediately hop up out of bed and yell "What the hell are you doing? Why are you trying to break glass in our bed?" She doesn't say a word, but keeps pounding the bottle off the railing. I try to wrestle the bottle away from her, but finally she tosses it across the room. It doesn't break. I lay back down to go back to sleep.

I hadn't been asleep too long when I hear the "tapping" again. I wake up and this time she's trying to bust the bottle on the wall. Again, I get up out of bed to confront her about it. She tries to hide the bottle from me, but I end up chasing her around the bedroom, trying to get the bottle from her. Finally I do, and throw it in the trash.

We both head back to bed. Again, I'm asleep for only a few minutes when I hear her rustling around. I open one eye to see what's going on. Now she's standing, barefoot, on the bottle, trying to break it, even occasionally stomping on it. I'm perplexed. "What the hell is so important about breaking this bottle? Why won't she just let it go and get some sleep?" I end up thinking to myself. Then I wake up.

What it means: Well, first off, I had a pretty good conversation about beers with my neighbor, just before heading to bed, so that could be part of it. However, I hate Heineken (sorry Beed), so that's kind of out there. Maybe the empty Heiny bottle (that I don't like) and the fact that she's trying to destroy it signifies that she is helping me rid my life of things that aren't good for me, or that I don't like, by any means necessary? That's really the best I can come up with this morning. I thought it was a funny dream though, especially when I got up and chased her around trying to get the bottle. That's been our last weekend. She's wanted to throw stuff away and I've argued to try to keep it. That might be a better reasoning for my dream. And, no, I didn't drink last night.

Song of the day: "Pulse of the Maggots" by Slipknot from Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses

Not too sure why it's in my head today. I haven't listened to any Slipknot in at least a week. All I really heard though, was the chorus:


Ehh, chalk it up to the oatmeal I had before going to bed. We didn't have a whole lot of time to eat dinner before the game, so we kind of ate and ran. I was starving after the game though, but didn't want something big, so I had some Apple & Cinnamon instant oatmeal. It's the "Dinner of Champions".