Scoring With The Jazz. Basketball That Is.

Between leaving work and arriving at home yesterday evening, The Man informed me that he had acquired free Jazz tickets.

As in, NBA Utah Jazz, not a musical concert of the Jazz genre.

Apparently he'd gone through our bank's drive thru banking for a transaction and the manager came over the speaker and offered him tickets, did he want them?

I have kids, he says, do you have enough tickets for my family?

And they did.

And so we did.

Jayme and Sean were with their mom and Cas was "sick" (*cough cough*, see mom?  Sick.  I just can't go to school today, but can I hang out with my friends anyway?).

We're not huge followers of sports, we'd rather play a thrown together game than sit and watch it, but it was fun to shake things up a bit and go.  It's a lot more fun to be there in person than to watch it on TV.

Plus also, Odyssey Dance Company performed Thriller at half time.

I died, and my night was made complete.  I have yet to see that on stage and you had better believe it's on my list.

Now that The Man has seen a taste of it he's agreeing that it could be fun to go to.

Score.  Touch down, home run, hole in one, and the whole nine yards.  Now that he's on board with that you better believe I'm making plans.

The circus goes to a Jazz game

On Monday I was sitting at my desk working, and generally just minding my own business (ha ha). It was a little after five, and I work until six. Wendel, one of the owners of the company I work for (Burt Brothers Tires) came up and asked in general (there were three of us still at work) "who wants tickets for tonight's Jazz game?" Usually when this is asked it's for the company seats, of which there are four, and we're usually given only two, so as an excuse to NOT take them, I replied with "I have my girls tonight." "How many of you are there?" "Five." He begins counting tickets onto my desk, "one, two three, four, five. It's starts at seven, you better get going." Needless to say, the circus was ecstatic. I called and told them to make sure they had clean clothes on and I hung up the phone while they screamed in excitement on the other end.

We found parking on the street and made our way in to the Energy Solutions Arena where we bought a couple of plates of loaded nachos to share and wound our way to the door we needed. I pointed out the huge Burt Brothers advertisement on the wall and by the time we found our seats the girls were singing the Burt Bros jingle full blast. The circus got to experience their first Jazz game from the 18th row, just two sections over from the regular Burt Bro seats. I'm assuming it was some sort of promotion tickets given to Wendel, as he gets all sorts of cool stuff like that. I think I created fans for life last night as I taught them about the game and they screamed and cheered and ate too much ice cream. The Buzz bee mascot was there and at one point tormented Cali, who turned around and almost tripped the poor guy by hugging him unexpectedly. Of course, the Jazz won, and confetti fell from the ceiling and according to the girls, it was the best night ever.
After the game, we walked up to the corner to wait for the light to cross to walk to our car, and a panhandler was standing there with his hand written, cardboard sign which simply read "Please help". Unfortunately for me, the group of people was positioned in such a way around this pan handler, that it left my circus and me standing right in front of this man, as he was standing in a little off the street corner, facing all the people, and we were facing him... as he was in our way of the street as we waited. These situations for me are awkward enough on their own. Cali, in all her rambunctious curiosity says loudly enough for me (and everyone else around us, including this man) to hear, "Mom what does that say?", as she points right at the cardboard sign in his hands. I try barely shaking my head to sway her. "What does it say Mom?" Brynn chimes in, "it says 'please help'". Cali continues, standing right in front of him, "it says please help? Why would it say please help Mom?" I can't even bring myself to look at the man. "I don't know, please don't worry about it." A second or two of tangible awkwardness passes when FINALLY the light changes and we move past him to cross. (The morning show I listen to in the mornings had actually been doing some stuff about "kids say the darndest things", so I emailed this experience to them. One of the morning DJs emailed me back saying he wanted to share it on the air. To hear it go here and listen to the podcast for 12-2, part 2. It starts at the timing 30:24).

Utah Jazz Vs Minnesota Timberwolves

The perks of working at Burt Brothers Tires. Free Jazz tickets, behind the basket, row 16. This season Ron Burt was nice enough to send Jr. and me to two games. The first game we got one ticket each (of the four), but the second time we each got two, so I took West, and Jr took her friend Brennan. Have any car needs at all? Call you nearest Burt Brothers! :) I couldn't resist.We were trying to take a self shot, so Brennan said he would take it for us. He cut Jr off!We did a much better job ourselves.

Jr and Brennan.

The game was the typical back and forth game, with the Bear's antics on the time outs. The Jazz was ahead pretty much the entire game, until the last bit when the Timberwolves pulled ahead by two points. From then on it was a frantic rush with the ball flying between the two hoops. By the last two seconds the Timberwolves were up by one, and Jazz called a time out.

They threw a shot, which happened after the time ran out, but it bounced off the rim anyway. Final score Jazz 102 Timberwolves 103. Still, what an amazing game to be at. The energy was high and it was fun to be a part of.