Monday, December 18, 2006

Grizzlies lose again!

Man, this is just NOT their year.

Friday night, Amanda, Anna Marie, and I met Amanda's friend Kelly in Memphis for a Grizzlies game. We were super stoked, because it marked the return of Amanda's favorite player, Pau Gasol, after an injury over the summer.

You should've heard the (not so jam-packed) crowd at the FedEx Forum when the announcer said his name during the introductions. They went wild!

Although we had stopped for dinner at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Anna Marie started saying she was hungry before the game even started. I'm trying to get her to understand the difference between true hunger and, say, smelling the barbeque plate the guy two rows in front of you is eating.

I put her off until the end of the first quarter, to give her time to really see if she was hungry, and we went downstairs for some grub.

(Did I mention we were on row "V"? MUCH better than our last seats on row "Y.")

I figured the best bang for my buck would be a soft pretzel, which we could share and which would also serve to fill her up with its carb-y goodness. I got it without salt, because I figure they have to brush it with extra butter to get the salt to stick.

I dropped nearly a whole "Hamilton" ($10 bill) on the pretzel and a drink! At least the cup was the big 32 oz. souvenier cup, which is reusable, and which I got without ice so as to have more drink for us to share.

Amanda also wanted some hot chocolate, so I went down the escalator to get that too. Somehow, we made it back up the escalator with our pretzel, diet pepsi, and hot chocolate, and spilled nary a drop.

This is what Anna Marie did with her portion of the pretzel, which, by the way, did serve to fill her up so that she didn't get hungry for the rest of the game:



(Oh, this wasn't the only part of the pretzel she ate. In fact, I asked her to hold it and she had eaten about a third of the thing before we made it back to our seats.)

It was a good game. Even though we got the first basket, we pretty much trailed the rest of the night. The closest we got to Atlanta was four points down.

During the last quarter of the game, they had the "Gibson Air Guitar Contest." We couldn't get Anna Marie to play the air guitar, even after extensive lessons from us, but she did dance her little rear off. She even got so hot, she shed her Grizzlies hoodie. She is the queen of twirling several stories up.



During halftime, we went downstairs and walked around, and I went into the Grizzlies Den (team store) to get a window cling for my van. I think it's the first time Anna Marie has ever gone to a game and not come out with something from that store, but I told her it was too close to Christmas.

When we got back to our cars, we spotted a wallet on the ground next to a car. While we were pondering what to do, a police car appeared and we flagged him down. We gave him the wallet, which he figured out went to the owner of the car we found it next to. He took it, and put a note under the guy's windsheild telling him where to pick it up. I guess we did our good deed for the night.

As we were leaving the Forum, I took this picture. I always laugh at the restroom signs in the building, and I think you could find these only in Memphis:



Rock on, baby.

3 comments:

Valerie said...

good grief. i WANT one of those bathroom signs!! those rock!!!!

Melissa said...

I know! I know! And the ones for the individual rooms (men and women) have the individual singers.

And, in addition to Griz (the mascot) there is a group called the "Kings of the Court" which, of course, are Elvis impersonators who help with the contests and promotions. Again, only in Memphis.

I HATE the Grizzlies dancers - the little sluts - but they have a group called the Grizzlies Grannies, who are "older" women who dance. Hilarious!

Jolene George said...

I love pretzels with salt and cheese. :o) You were so good to turn the wallet over. Too many people wouldn't do the right thing.