One of the greatest things about Philadelphia is that is really close to much better cities. The crown jewel of these is, of course, New York, especially during conference tournament time. For the past three years, I took a week off during the Big East tourney in order to travel up to Madison Square Garden. Usually, Darren and I stay at Casey's place in SoHo. This year, however, I took my vacation in February to go to Jamaica, so I was only able to travel on the weekend. Luckily, Louisville managed to get into the finals on Saturday night. Since Casey is in China, he kindly mailed us his house keys so we could still crash at his place (and watch his cat). Darren found some tickets on Craigslist Saturday morning, and the day was set! That's about the last thing that went right....
Problem 1: I blame Tim Burton. If Big Fish wasn't such a darn entertaining movie, I would have put more thought into the packing process. As it was, Darren and I got stuck watching it until 11:30 or so when our bus to NY was supposed to leave at 12:30. After the scramble to get out the door, we started our trek to 30th street station to catch the bus. About 2 blocks from our house, Darren remembered that we forgot to put Max up. So he ran back to do that while I kept walking. When we reached the bus stop at 12:15, our ticket was nowhere to be found. We still haven't found it. Perhaps Darren dropped it while trying to catch up? The bus pulled away while we stood there frantically searching our bags.
Problem 2: Well, the bus problem was easily solved as we were already at the train station and the R7 Septa line goes to Trenton, where we can switch over to New Jersey transit trains. We were out $24 bucks, but at least we would still get to NY in plenty of time for the 9pm game. We waited in yet another line for Septa tickets and caught the train with a few minutes to spare. (side note: Septa machines spit out $1 coins for change, but yet don't accept the same coins. Go figure). As our train pulled up to Trenton Transit center at 1:48, Darren leaned over and asked, "did you grab Casey's keys?". Uh, no. I felt like the fat kid in Stand by Me that only remembered to bring a comb (I brought two of those). After a quick discussion before the 1:59 NY bound train left, we agreed that Darren would return to Philly for the keys, and I would continue on to Penn Station in order to meet with the lady we were buying tickets from. Darren would drive up in our car.
Problem 3: I've had my phone for a couple years now, and as it has aged, the battery has lost the ability to hold charge. When we left the house, I had 3 bars. By the time I reached Penn Station at 3:15, I was down to 1. I called Darren on his train and asked him to grab my charger. The problem arose when I had to meet the ticket person. As my phone kept blinking stupidly at me that my battery was dead (side note, if you are dying, stop doing the equivalent of jumping jacks. save your damned energy), I was able to get the tickets at 4:55. With my phone now completely dead, I waited outside Casey's apartment hoping that Darren wouldn't break down on the way there (my car is ancient).
After all that happened, we were finally together by 6pm in order to enjoy the day that we wanted to. The NY alumni associated hosted their annual pre-game party at Stouts Bar on West 33rd, and we got to talk to Denny Crum and Darrell Griffith while listening to the pep band. Much more fun than missing buses and forgetting keys. The game itself was awesome, and congratulations to UofL for not only winning the Big East (twice), but doing it with a crowd that was 70% Syracuse fans. Darren and I went down to the lower levels for the trophy presentation and cutting of the nets, and it made the whole day of adventure well worth it.
Last story: we went to a diner accross the street from MSG after the game for some (veggie) burgers and fries (I also wanted a milkshake but their machine was broken. Bastards!). We talked to our waiter who had worked Thursday night during the 6 OT SU-UConn game. He said the manager had let all the waiters but one leave at midnight or so. Then they got swamped with post-game fans at 1:30 when the game let out. I guess they should have turned on the radio or something.
