Reminiscing

Few things bring me joy like Kentucky basketball. After living through this "not so hot" era of what should be phenomenal basketball since after my freshman year at UK, this season has been INCREDIBLE.

Jamie and me in the Eruption zone at a game our Freshman or sophomore year.... going by how young we look / J's necklace, I'm going to go with Freshman :)

I've been anxiously awaiting the start of the Kentucky, Tennessee basketball game all day today. I even proudly wore my "Beat the Vols" t-shirt to mom's little East TN gym to run this morning. With 30 minutes until tip off, I can hardly contain my excitement! In fact my stomach is full of butterflies. I've been looking forward to this game all season. This morning while watching College Game Day from Rupp Arena (which was OUT OF CONTROL by the way), I became VERY nostalgic just like I do every time we play at home as I mourn the loss of $5 student tickets 3 years ago.

Our last home game our Senior Year

This morning, I was feeling even extra nostalgic and thought back to my days at Kentucky, rarely missing a home basketball game. I'm still going through withdrawal 3 years later.

But I thought about how fun it would be to go back to my freshman year, when sitting in the Eruption Zone was still the fun thing to do / we had much better luck at lotteries, when we'd stand in line in the FREEZING cold for hours to sit as close to the front row as we could (this is until my friend Brooke became buds with the old man who had been working there for YEARS who started saving us seats).

Brooke and me at a game my freshman year

Waiting in line outside Rupp arena with 3 of my best friends from college: Jamie, Brooke & Katie

So as I sit here anxiously awaiting this game, preparing myself to feel even nostalgic, followed by lots of screaming and intense emotions as there is NOTHING I love more than beating Tennessee (except beating Louisville of course) ......... I can only hope that the scoreboard looks just like this when we played UT at home 6 years ago:

So here's to wishing that this was my view of the game today, but instead of Chuck standing on the free throw line it's John Wall.

Oh well. Watching from my mom's living room will have to do. Did I mention that my mom LOVES UT basketball as much as I hate it? This could get really ugly!

Did I mention how horrible that nasty orange looks in a sea of Kentucky blue!?

JOYFULLY cheering the wildcats to victory,