My sparkly blue nail polish mocks me

(Note: I wrote this on March 27, a few weeks ago after KU lost the tournament game to make it into the final 4. Not sure why I didn't hit "publish post".)


*sigh*

KU can't win it every year but every year there's always that point when fans think, "this is the year". And then they lose.

And, for the 2nd year in a row, KU loses on a day when a cold-snap brings snow to Lawrence. There's always one freak snowfall in March but I am not amused it falls on the same day as a KU loss.

But it's this kid that makes this hurt. Here for four years and totally worked his butt off. There are several on the team that have their choice to leave or stay, but this was Tyrel's last game.


I came up to my office after the game to work on some cover letters and job applications. Might as well be productive while I pretend not to be sad.

March Sadness

Being a college basketball fan almost guarantees sadness at the end of the season. Because you always want your team to win the big dance. And MOST years, that doesn't happen. But THIS year, KU fans had high expectations. And a team from my home state crushed those expectations. Hard. UNI simply played better.

My only consolation is that 47% of the brackets filled out on espn.com had KU winning the whole thing. That's something like 2 million brackets. Trust me when I say most of those are NOT KU fans. That's a whole lot of busted brackets.

Rock Chalk and yours in true March Sadness,
Bailey

selection sunday

Yesterday, I was home for about 2 seconds.
Today, I've barely left the couch. I like to mix it up! I'll blame it on my anticipation for Selection Sunday. Which is ironic, since 7 years ago I had no idea what Selection Sunday was. But then I went to KU for school. A couple months later, I went to my first basketball game. I've been hooked ever since.

KU is the #1 #1 seed. Considered the best college men's basketball team in the country.

Here's to 6 more wins this season! Rock Chalk!

My Favorite Things (about this weekend)

Reciting Anchorman quotes over breakfast with my roommate and friend, Becca.

Making chicken parmesan with my roommate (she's so good at it!) complete with a fancy salad. And we had all the ingredients in our house already! Progress!

Making banana bread late, late on a Sunday night. (yum!)

Eating junk food with my friend Becca while we drool over hot curlers. And by hot curlers, I mean attractive men who curl. Like, you know, the Olympic Sport?

Listening to my roommate talk to her mom in Korean.


Things I don't like:
having to go into the office to catch up on work
KU losing a basketball game :(
co-workers leaving

I'm trying to be POSITIVE here...

There's been lots of stuff that's happened in the 9 weeks of this year that I'd rather pretend didn't happen. But instead of complaining about THAT, I'm going to talk about the fun/awesome things that DID happen.

My boss called me feisty yesterday which I'm totally okay with.

I was asked if I had a 5 year plan. After staring blankly at the people who asked I said "I don't." A few hours later, I realized I'm also totally okay with this.

As a part of my job, I help students plan to get their degree. Sometimes I receive not so nice emails. But sometimes I receive emails that I love. Here is one:

"I received my diploma today, 2-22-10, in the mail. I will be forever grateful to you."

I love that.

The KU Men's Basketball team is rockin' the '09-'10 season. Every Saturday this month I've spent at least 2 hours watching basketball. That makes for a good Saturday! Three more games left in the season and 3 more wins until the team has won 2,000 games overall. That's. A. Lot. Of. Games. They are 12-0 in conference play and they have also already clinched at least a part of the Big 12 title. That's 6 seasons in a row. That's called OWNING the Big 12. Okay, I'll stop gloating now... (But I LOVE KU basketball!)

(Disclosure: KU DID lose 1 game this season, but that was ALLL the way at the beginning of January. Practically a different season!)

Photo from kusports.com

Visuals

I got a new phone a few weeks ago and have loved using the camera (5 megapixels - not too shabby!) Here's a few I've taken.

I hate that it gets dark so early, but dusk is my favorite time of day.


Blurry, but a cool image.


On West Campus.

Me on pre-Thanksgiving date night.


Lawrence's Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade yesterday:


Some of the carriages are gorgeous:


It was a VERY chilly morning:


So I got a latte while I worked on my paper for class (LOVE Henry's on 8th!)


Some new art in my mom's bedroom.


KU's men's basketball team is playing at UCLA this afternoon (lucky them, bet it's 40 degrees warmer there) so I'm going over to my friend Ryan's house to watch the game. Should actually be a good game. The last team we beat by like 60 points- it's rough being the #1 team in the country! Rock Chalk!

One year ago today...

...I was in Allen Fieldhouse. (Baseketball again, I know. But this will be it until October!) Not watching KU play live, but watching a video on the big video board of the men's basketball team playing in San Antonio. We (yes, it's a collective "we") were down by 9 with just over a minute to go and several spectacular plays later (and several missed free throws by Memphis and Mario Chalmers (with a scrappy floor-assist from Sherron Collins) hit the most magestic 3-point shot I will ever see sending the game into overtime. As a KU fan, you almost knew the outcome from there.

Here is the pep talk from KU Coach Bill Self before the game on April 7, 2008:


A video from where I was:


And then we went to Mass. Massachusetts Street that is...


Here's to next year, an unstoppable team, I'm sure!

(Oh, and GO SPARTANS! MSU beat KU in the tournament last weekend, so it's better if they win! I think?!)

40 minutes 'til gametime!

As previously discussed, I love KU basketball. I've also decided in the past week college basketball is probably one of my top 10 favorite things ever. (Possibly top 5 even!)

KU plays today, and even though they are playing the Cinderella team of this year's tournament, I would encourage you to root for KU today. If not because we have an AWESOME mascot...





...than do it for me. Because the tournament is not nearly as enjoyable when KU does not make at least a decent run. Decent = advancing to the 2nd weekend. Now, we KU fans are pretty spoiled. This year, though, we were a little generous with the team. We WON the championship last year and all the starters left, so the '08-'09 season was billed as a "rebuilding year". Apparently, we should not have let our expectations down as KU ended being the Big 12 champs of the regular season. Yes, Oklahoma and Texas, we're in a rebuilding year and we STILL win the regular season. Do you see what I mean about being spoiled?!

I could go on and on about KU basketball, it's history, it's LEGENDARY status in college hoops. But I won't because sometimes you can't explain it with words. Here, watch these videos (below text from my facebook photo album description of pictures I took on during the final 4 game against UNC and the championship game against Memphis.)

ONE SHINING MOMENT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKKbrHMGkD4

WHY MARIO IS MY HERO, UNBELIEVABLE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHt0tszfk3A
(can we also notice how FAR Sherron FLEW after he passed that ball? Best assist EVER!)

AND THE MAN WHO LED THE TEAM TO VICTORY, because KU Basketball is great and watching these Jayhawks is much freaking fun. We will ALL remember that night for the rest of our lives!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrG3BYQiI1Y

and because we all need to KEEP ON DREAMING:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U53afA3SNdo

one more, because BILL SELF HIGH FIVES BIG JAY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxM9c4kqjT0&feature=related



The scene at Allen Fieldhouse after we won the championship. Thousands gathered at the shrine of college basketball to watch the game on the jumbo screens. The winning was pure joy.

We live in Kansas; you don't think we haven't heard that before?

The University of Kansas has a pretty good men's basketball team. Ok, who am I kidding?! It's pretty legendary. Right now I'm watching them play at Baylor. We won the championship last year (OMG SO EXCITING!) and lost all 5 starters. So, kind of a rebuilding year but still only 4 losses. So, we're playing Baylor (a much closer game than it should be) but still exciting! And have lived in Kansas for 5 1/2 years now, you kind of expect the Wizard of Oz jokes every so often. But as far as fan signs go (when the team is playing away games) this is NOT creative:

You're not in Kansas anymore!

This usually happens when we play anyone in the Big XII besides Kansas State University. The other 10 teams are super, duper creative, right?

*sigh*

But anyway, Rock Chalk Jayhawk, GO KU!!! Enjoy this:



The victory, the glory, the power, the legends, the titles, The Tradition. This video gives me chills just watching it at home. I got to see it for the first time before the game I went to on Saturday. On Saturday, I had goosebumps and shed tears. Kansas Basketball is amazing.