Wendy and I celebrated yesterday's winter solstice by going to Evanston, IL to watch the OU men's basketball team play at Northwestern. It's very rare for OU to play a game so close to us (about an hour from our house) so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them play in person. I bought tickets from StubHub over a month in advance, and I've been looking forward to it ever since.
Work and Cookies
My winter solstice began by going to work in the morning. Wendy took the whole day off, while I took off the afternoon. When I came home at midday, I discovered Wendy had made chewy brown sugar cookies! They were delicious. We ate lunch and cookies and got ready to go. The game wasn't until 8pm, but we didn't want to deal with rush hour traffic, so we decided to go down early, visit a museum near the arena, and eat dinner at a restaurant.
Leaf Vacuuming
As we were getting ready to leave, we heard loud rumblings outside. I looked out the window and saw it was the leaf vacuuming vehicle! Recently our neighborhood got a new trash service which offers curbside leaf vacuuming. So this fall, instead of mulching the many leaves in our yard, I just raked them to the curb. Vacuuming was supposed to take place the week after Thanksgiving, but we got a bunch of snow that week, so it didn't happen. I'd started to wonder if the leaves would be there until spring. But I guess enough snow had melted for them to start vacuuming. Here's what it looked and sounded like:
Museum
With that excitement over, we drove down to Evanston to visit the Halim Time and Glass Museum. I discovered it via Google Maps; it opened last year and has all kinds of amazing clocks and some really neat stained glass art.
Here's a small sample of the stained glass:
There were over 1,000 clocks on display, and they were incredible. Some were unbelievably intricate and ornate. Many of them were hundreds of years old. Here's a tiny sample:
The Game
After the museum we went out to eat, and then waited for the arena doors to open at 6:30. Once inside, we found our seats, which were 9 rows behind OU's bench. We got to see the team warming up, and OU players and head coach Lon Kruger signing autographs and getting pictures taken with kids. We also saw Toby Rowland, the radio voice of the Sooners, preparing for the game.
Here's the team during the national anthem:
And here's the view from our seats as the game began:
It turned out to be an evenly matched game. There were a few frustrating stretches, where OU just couldn't score a bucket, but for the most part it was close throughout the game. In fact, it was so close that it went to overtime! Thankfully, OU pulled away in the final minute of overtime to win the game, 76-69! OU had a deeper bench, which I think was the decisive factor. Northwestern's players were too tired at the end.
A few other thoughts:
- Watching the game up close made me realize how hard it is to play defense. It looked really intense and required a lot of focus and communication with teammates.
- There was a loud and somewhat obnoxious drunk guy in front of us. It was a good reminder of why I don't go to many live games.
- I have a new appreciation for how hard it must be to be a head coach. From managing the clock, to dealing with referees, to being in the center of a hostile crowd, all while coaching what are basically teenagers! I am amazed they remain as calm and level-headed as they do.
It was great to watch the Sooners win a difficult game in overtime on the road. We headed home after the game, getting back just before midnight. We both ate another cookie to "help settle the nerves" after such an exciting basketball game.
Thus ends the tale of our winter solstice.
Boomer Sooner!