I'm Game
Went to a Hornets game the other night. They played the Portland Trailblazers, who, in the end, didn't blaze much of a trail.
The game came about because my sister-in-law bought me tickets for this past Christmas. Very cool gift by the way (um, for future reference, you know...) ;)
My original intention was to have a guy's night out. I figured I'd invite a few of the guys out to the game where we could cheer on the Hornets, leer at the Honey Bees, eat some burgers, drink some beer, burp, and scratch ourselves. You know...guy stuff.
Then, my buddy...I'll call him Steve for the purpose of this writing, was unable to go due to some work-related thing. Suddenly, I had an extra ticket. Damn.
Since none of the usual suspects could attend, I thought I'd do the right thing and ask my wife, who actually REALLY wanted to go. And, hell, she's cool. I mean, going with her is like having one of the guys there. Ok, well, maybe without the leering, burping, and scratching. Let's just say she brings a certain civility to the group. Probably much-needed civility.
The day of the show, I call the wife and ask her to look at the tickets and let me know where the seats are located. I'm looking at the Ford Center web site. She reads me the numbers. They aren't good. I tell her to bring oxygen. And binoculars. (There are Honeybees involved here, remember.)
That evening, we get to the Ford Center and meet my buddies outside. Dude K (yeah, it's a pseudonym...so what?) was sitting outside by the Ford 150 pickup display waiting for us. I say sitting because a few weeks prior to this outing, he was playing basketball when all of a sudden he felt his Achilles tendon rip away from the bone in his heel. Not a good thing. He's opted to forego surgery, but that's put him in a hard plastic boot on his left foot. Oh, that, and crutches. He can't put any weight on his foot. At all.
So, we head inside. We got there early to get something to eat. Like I mentioned: Burgers and beer. I ask an attendant where the seats are located. He tells us to go up two escalators then we have to walk around almost all the way around the back of the Ford Center. I'm thinking that this is going to suck out loud for Dude K, but there are three others. If we had to carry him we could. The attendant was even nice enough to mention that there was some handicap accessible seating available. But, Dude K is tenacious like that. No handicap seating for him.
So we ride up the first escalator. So far so good. Oh-oh. The next escalator is out. Of course. But, Dude K doesn't even miss a beat. He hops up the stairs on one leg. Crutches in one hand, railing in the other, hop, hop, hop....it made me sweat just watching him. And, he wasn't slow about it either.
So, then we walk around to our section and we go in. We're at the bottom of the section. I look up to where I think we have to go. Man, is it steep. I keep thinking that I really should have brought oxygen. Dude J, my other buddy who's with us jokes that we should build base camp here just in case the bad weather moves in. I'm starting to think maybe he's right.
I start up Kilimanjaro and scout for our seats. I'm looking from the seat letters to the tickets, back to the seat letters, back to the tickets. I keep climbing, careful not to look back lest I get hit with a wave of vertigo and topple off this sucker.
I finally reach row R: It's the farthest possible point from civilization inside the Ford Center.
On the other hand, I've always wanted to know what held up the ceiling of that place. Now I know.
The bad part here is that Dude K has to make it all the way up here. We're so high I can see clouds and small planes below us. I see him start up the stairs. And, man, he's hopping ON ONE LEG ALL THE WAY UP. I think he stopped once to catch his breath, but damn, he was a trooper. To illustrate just how far up we were, I've enclosed a picture of the court from our vantage point:
The banners that hang from the rafters around the upper deck cheap seats pronouce that you are in "Loud City". I think they only call it that because the printer left the 'C' off the word 'Loud'. Still, despite the lack of oxygen and high altitude, we had a great time watching the Hornets beat up on the Trailblazers. I thought for sure that some closer seats would open up so that we could move down once the game got started, but no. The Ford Center holds (someone told me) 19,250 people. There were 19,100 in attendance that Wednesday night. An amazing feat here in OKC.
Dude K and Dude J both had a great time. Even if Dude K now has one thigh the size of a redwood from the workout.
And, Mrs. A had a great time, too. She loved it, as a matter of fact, and would definitely go back. I'm sure we will, but I hope next time I can leave the oxygen at home.
-la
The game came about because my sister-in-law bought me tickets for this past Christmas. Very cool gift by the way (um, for future reference, you know...) ;)
My original intention was to have a guy's night out. I figured I'd invite a few of the guys out to the game where we could cheer on the Hornets, leer at the Honey Bees, eat some burgers, drink some beer, burp, and scratch ourselves. You know...guy stuff.
Then, my buddy...I'll call him Steve for the purpose of this writing, was unable to go due to some work-related thing. Suddenly, I had an extra ticket. Damn.
Since none of the usual suspects could attend, I thought I'd do the right thing and ask my wife, who actually REALLY wanted to go. And, hell, she's cool. I mean, going with her is like having one of the guys there. Ok, well, maybe without the leering, burping, and scratching. Let's just say she brings a certain civility to the group. Probably much-needed civility.
The day of the show, I call the wife and ask her to look at the tickets and let me know where the seats are located. I'm looking at the Ford Center web site. She reads me the numbers. They aren't good. I tell her to bring oxygen. And binoculars. (There are Honeybees involved here, remember.)
That evening, we get to the Ford Center and meet my buddies outside. Dude K (yeah, it's a pseudonym...so what?) was sitting outside by the Ford 150 pickup display waiting for us. I say sitting because a few weeks prior to this outing, he was playing basketball when all of a sudden he felt his Achilles tendon rip away from the bone in his heel. Not a good thing. He's opted to forego surgery, but that's put him in a hard plastic boot on his left foot. Oh, that, and crutches. He can't put any weight on his foot. At all.
So, we head inside. We got there early to get something to eat. Like I mentioned: Burgers and beer. I ask an attendant where the seats are located. He tells us to go up two escalators then we have to walk around almost all the way around the back of the Ford Center. I'm thinking that this is going to suck out loud for Dude K, but there are three others. If we had to carry him we could. The attendant was even nice enough to mention that there was some handicap accessible seating available. But, Dude K is tenacious like that. No handicap seating for him.
So we ride up the first escalator. So far so good. Oh-oh. The next escalator is out. Of course. But, Dude K doesn't even miss a beat. He hops up the stairs on one leg. Crutches in one hand, railing in the other, hop, hop, hop....it made me sweat just watching him. And, he wasn't slow about it either.
So, then we walk around to our section and we go in. We're at the bottom of the section. I look up to where I think we have to go. Man, is it steep. I keep thinking that I really should have brought oxygen. Dude J, my other buddy who's with us jokes that we should build base camp here just in case the bad weather moves in. I'm starting to think maybe he's right.
I start up Kilimanjaro and scout for our seats. I'm looking from the seat letters to the tickets, back to the seat letters, back to the tickets. I keep climbing, careful not to look back lest I get hit with a wave of vertigo and topple off this sucker.
I finally reach row R: It's the farthest possible point from civilization inside the Ford Center.
On the other hand, I've always wanted to know what held up the ceiling of that place. Now I know.
The bad part here is that Dude K has to make it all the way up here. We're so high I can see clouds and small planes below us. I see him start up the stairs. And, man, he's hopping ON ONE LEG ALL THE WAY UP. I think he stopped once to catch his breath, but damn, he was a trooper. To illustrate just how far up we were, I've enclosed a picture of the court from our vantage point:
The banners that hang from the rafters around the upper deck cheap seats pronouce that you are in "Loud City". I think they only call it that because the printer left the 'C' off the word 'Loud'. Still, despite the lack of oxygen and high altitude, we had a great time watching the Hornets beat up on the Trailblazers. I thought for sure that some closer seats would open up so that we could move down once the game got started, but no. The Ford Center holds (someone told me) 19,250 people. There were 19,100 in attendance that Wednesday night. An amazing feat here in OKC.
Dude K and Dude J both had a great time. Even if Dude K now has one thigh the size of a redwood from the workout.
And, Mrs. A had a great time, too. She loved it, as a matter of fact, and would definitely go back. I'm sure we will, but I hope next time I can leave the oxygen at home.
-la
posted by Lex Armenia at 12:36 PM
1 Comments:
Sweet sloth of ice planet Hoth, you were way out there. Glad the game was good.
Sounds like Dude K needs to enter the cut-throat world of competitive hopping.
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