In Which a Four-Day Trip to Spokane Gets Serialized…(cont.)

Conclusion: Into the Sunset, Just like Shane.

And so it ends.

I’m not going to lie–I was a little sad boarding that plane back home on Sunday morning.  My sadness could have been owed to the fact that the last friendly face I saw before boarding the plane was my old roommate Kyle (he of the “Oh, snap, A&T is on the rampage!” phone call from the night before).  Something like that is the absolute last thing you want to see before you get ready to hurtle above the ground at 35,000 feet in a metal tube traveling 400 miles per hour.  But really, honestly, I was sad to be leaving Spokane and all my friends and the life I once knew. 

A Better to Burn Out Than to Fade Away Game Day

In Which a Four-Day Trip to Spokane Gets Serialized…(cont.)

Chapter Three (Verse Three): Green Lights, Black Shirts, Nameless Jerseys, and One Hell of a Blowout.

There’s always so much optimism in a Zag crowd. Everyone’s all happy and cheery and “Weewee Zags!” It’s touching really. Now, as for me, it was sometime in December when I realized this Zag team was not, how you say?, all that awesome. Watching them has generally become a chore of boredom, frustration, and general whistfulness for the days of yore when Casey Calvary dunked on some fool’s brain and then stared him down, knowing full well that Casey would just as soon eat the guy’s babies as not. Now, it’s all Josh Heytvelt flying in to jam a miss after the whistle or scream like a banshee after blocking someone’s shot or pulling down a rebound.  In short, there’s something very, very, different about this GU team. They aren’t tough, they only play such on TV.  But, I suppose I’ve had enough time with my thoughts to come to terms with them.  I’m over it.  They’ll lose early in the tournament, and that’s just the way it’s going to be.  Wake me up in November.

In Which a Four-Day Trip to Spokane Gets Serialized…(cont.)

Chapter Three (Verse Two): Operation Cannot Possibly Fail

You ever seen Rudy?  You know that part when the dad walks into Notre Dame Stadium for the first time and says it’s the most beautiful sight his eyes have ever seen (while his wife is standing next to him no less…I’m sure she was thrilled)?  Well, walking back into a fired-up-as-hell Zag crowd after too many years away is a damn beautiful sight.

In Which a Four-Day Trip to Spokane Gets Serialized…(cont.)

Chapter Three (Verse One): BARTENDER!

I’ll admit to being a little down on Gonzaga in general lately.  Maybe it’s because I’m so far away that I forget how much fun I used to have there.  Or maybe it’s because I’m just a whiny bastard.  Either way, it’s been rocky roads here in my relationship with the U.  It’s funny though, because all it took to bring me back in was merely walking to my seat at the Arena for the Memphis game.  Thousands of people, all in Zag shirts, all ready to bring ruckus, and only because they love Gonzaga.  That’s enough to bring anyone back.  But first, let us start from the beginning.

A “Maybe Quigley Down Under Ate Your Baby” Game Day

In Which a Four-Day Trip to Spokane Gets Serialized…(cont.)

Chapter Two: Well, the Margarita Was Good.

On a Friday morning the day after hangning at a bar until the wee hours on very little sleep, the first thought that comes into your mind is, Damn, my dome hurts.  Second thought?  Which way to Jack and Dan’s?  And so day two of Spoked Out/Loked Out 2009 begins.

In Which a Four-Day Trip to Spokane Gets Serialized…(cont.)

Chapter One: Hooters.  Gross.

You have kids?  I’ll bet it feels like you’re babysitting, huh?  Yeah, I don’t have kids, and everytime I see my friends with their own kids, it feels like they’re babysitting.  See, on Thursday night, a group of us went over to a friend’s house for dinner before the Portland game.  The friend has two kids.  We just came from seeing another friend who has one kid.  Two of the guys who were with us have two kids and another has one.  It’s like Night of the Living Dead out there, except all the zombies are replaced by kids, and they don’t eat people (presumably). 

In Which a Four-Day Trip to Spokane Gets Serialized…

Introduction: Spokanistan, You Truly are the King of Kings

La Rev commenter A&T and I got picked up at the airport on Thursday  and dropped off at our buddy’s downtown office.  He’s got this kick-ass view of the city and the mountains (and Chicken n’ More).  He has two computers, a name plate, a pool table and coffee machine down the hall, and a little plastic desk for his little daughter to play on when she comes over to hang out.  Talk about a recurring theme for the weekend.  Here we were, A&T and I, ready to get started with a weekend filled with the same jokes we told in college at the same bars we drank at in college with all the same people we hung out in college, and we’re sitting in the office of a friend with a real life.

I won’t be able to fit everything that happened over the weekend into just one post, so I’m taking a page out of the old dime store magazines and serializing this thing over a few days.  You’ll get all the gory details (including the time I punched a kangaroo–just wait, it’s an awesome story) filled with some pictures, some dreams of Erin Andrews, and a few trips to Jack and Dan’s (pink margaritas included) thrown in for good measure.  It’s all about living in the past here at La Rev, in case you hadn’t noticed. 

But then, that’s what every trip back to Spokane is.  Every time, it’s like a journey through the past, where your best friends are there and all you do is make fun of each other, listen to each other snore all night, and generally act like fools simply because you can.  Then, when you inevitably go back to your old life, you find yourself, like one of Fitzgerald’s boats, smashing around against the current, trying to get  back to that past.  It’s sad, really.  I’m looking for a green light at the other side of the harbor, thinking about how I might or might not get shot in my own pool. 

Hey, pansy, are you going to cry now?  Suck it up so we can go get drunk!

Check please.

Spokane. Near Nature, Near–HERE I COME!

Tomorrow at 6:00 am, I board a flight that will, hopefully, eventually carry me to sunny, sunny Spokane, Washington.  What will follow is anyone’s guess, but you can bet that it will kick bootie.

So, since I’ll be away from any internets for until late Sunday night, I’m taking the unprecidented step of forgoing the usual game day videos and post game recaps for the next two games.  Instead, come back sometime early next week for a recap that will be, like a Casey Calvary thunderdunk, at once horrifying and awesome.

Go Zags?  Nay, Go Spokane!

And, Go Zags?