rock chalk jayhawk

when people ask me why i'm a yankees fan i try to explain that it's because my dad has always been a yankees fan so it's just what i grew up with. i'm still accused of being a band-wagoner but whatever, people can think what they want. people also ask me why i'm a fan of kansas basketball and that one might be a little easier to explain. my whole family is from kansas. my parents moved to austin in the late 70s but they are kansas folk through and through. my aunt went to ku for about a million years (she has a phd) and now she also works for the university. so it may seem that i just like winning teams but i promise, that's not true!

i remember once in the late 90s, maybe 1997, our local newspaper printed a story about kansas basketball titled "the road to the final four." the story featured a picture of several of the team members piled into a blue classic car (i don't remember what kind of car it was). you better believe i cut that out of the newspaper and taped it to my bedroom door where it stayed for years. at the time i had the biggest crush on scot pollard. i honestly don't remember very well but i don't think he was quite as big of a weirdo when he was in college. or maybe he was and i just like weirdos. who knows? 

for the last decade or so i've filled out an ncaa tournament bracket picking kansas to win every year. i didn't just pick them because they're my favorite team, i also legitimately think that they're one of the best teams around, every year.  kansas broke my heart 2 years in a row, losing in the first round to bucknell in 2005 and then bradley the very next year. i remember being on the verge of tears because wayne simien was a senior when they lost to bucknell and he had worked so hard all season, it was just devastating to see it all end so quickly. finally in 2008 i predicted the national champions! i was a nervous wreck during the game against north carolina and boy, did i hate tyler hansbrough with a passion. once kansas took that game i knew that the championship was theirs. of course i was still a bit nervous during the game against memphis but i was confident in my jayhawks!

nels knows what a jayhawk looks like and when i wear one of my kansas shirts he says, "tessie, you have a jayhawk?" he says the same thing to my dad when he wears one too. a few weeks ago i decided that nels needed his own jayhawk shirt. he was so excited when he opened the box and pulled it out. he kept saying, "i have a jayhawk! i have a jayhawk!" this afternoon he ran around saying, "rock chalk tessie! rock chalk papi! rock chalk karsten!" and so on until he had rock chalked all of us. it was adorable. and you know what else is adorable?

nels and his papi are ready for the ncaa tournament!

he seems pretty excited, don't you think? 

wear it proudly

my mom just came home and asked me to find ku championship t-shirts online. i immediately went to kuathletics.com and found a few different styles. all of them were sort of tacky except for one:

so i obviously wanted that one. then my dad said he did, then my mom said that she did. so i was forced to order the same shirt for all 3 of us. i told my mom that under no circumstances do i ever want to see more than one person wearing that shirt at a time.

FINALLY!

i pick kansas to win the ncaa tournament every year. and every year i really do think that they have a chance. this year, i wish i had bet actual money on my bracket because i would be rollin' in it right now. that was a hell of a game! for a second i started to think that memphis might win. but only for a second. i knew kansas could do it. i knew that they had the heart and drive to pull it off. i know that memphis wanted it as well, but kansas just wanted it a little bit more. oh how i wish i'd been there!

boy am i glad that memphis missed some of those FTs, otherwise this post would be completely different.

weekend update 1

i completely forgot that this weekend was texas relays. i was quickly reminded when EVERY exit on i-35 was closed and i had to cross the damn river before i was able to exit to head to casey's house (who lives off 7th street). so annoying. we all enjoyed a couple of pre-drinks before heading down to see the ramonahs. if you visit their myspace and check out the album "debut show- pastime tavern" you'll get a good idea of what the show was like. we were all expecting real drag queens with makeup, fake nails, and ridiculous high heels. that was obviously not what we got, but it was still awesome. musically they sounded pretty much exactly like the ramones which isn't hard given that most ramones songs consist of about 3 chords. it was enjoyable and definitely worth the $3 cover. i think i went to bed around 3:00 and woke up at 8:00. ick. i really require 8 hours of sleep each night. it took me a long time to get moving but i finally left the house sometime after 10:00 to head to my sister's baby shower. i was a shaky hot mess for most of the shower. sooooo hungover. not cool. the shower was fun though, we didn't have to play any stupid games which i was very happy about. and there was a lot of delightful food. mmm! after the shower some of us went to opal divine's for a couple of hours. after lunch i came home for a nap. i totally crashed for a little while, then i had to head to my sister's for dinner and basketball. i have never been so nervous about a basketball game in my life. i was seriously concerned that unc (mostly that dipshit tyler hansbrough) were going to run all over my jayhawks. the game was alllll over the place! at one point kansas was leading by 28 points, then down to only 5 points, then back up to 18 at the end of the game. i was a nervous wreck when their lead got down to 5 points. i didn't know if i could watch the rest of the game but steve made me. i'm glad i did! i really think that kansas stands a chance against memphis. especially if they were able to (mostly) dominate unc like they did. i can't wait until tomorrow night! i really wish i could go to the game. it's in san antonio...that's so close! today i will be bumming around the house all day. that's what sundays were made for. there are lots of baseball games for me to watch today and i will be perfectly content lounging on the couch all day.