So I talked for days about how I was going to sob at the Lady Rocket Senior Night game. I managed to mostly keep it together last night, mostly because during the little Senior Night ceremony, I busied myself with taking a video of it that I will likely never watch, which is OK with me. At least I didn’t sob like an overly-invested weirdo.
Senior nights and the like always make me teary-eyed. I cried approximately 2,000 times during my senior year of high school; most famously at the last home AWHS football game during the Marching Generals’ post-game show (from the stands! I was not in the band…I stood smack in the middle of the center reserved section and sobbed, gremlin-like. We’re talking the kind of unattractive, consuming sobbing that Claire Danes does in Romeo and Juliet or My So-Called Life). I also cried at some random other “lasts” – fall play, spring musical, cross country meet (at least I was a participant in this one), I don’t remember what else but there were a ton more. This trend continued when I was leaving Xavier and when my peeps moved away after the 5th year of Rx school, and when I left the hospital. I was always, like, whatever age going on 42, so I was super-aware that fun times would never again be quite so easy to have (I never thought “everything good always would remain”).
Also, I regularly cry during series finales of shows (30 Rock? Yes. Wonder Years? Yes. Different World? Yes…I don’t even remember what happened in that show/episode, but I remember crying. The first SATC movie? Yes. Private Practice? Yes. Cheers? Yes. Conan’s last Tonight Show? Yes.) not only because I am sad the storylines/characters are ending, but also because I get sad that the actors and crew won’t get to hang out anymore. I am similarly sad for the Lady Rockets in this way – they seem to all be genuinely nice young women who are friends and like playing together and at Toledo. I also am really jealous that I never was part of anything like that…not the success so much as the team (as always, thanks, mom, for talking us out of team sports so you could avoid driving us ever. Seems fair…you had romance novels to read and frozen food to thaw).
Anyway, clearly, I’m a spaz.
The very first Lady Rocket games that Brian and I went to were during these senior Ladies’ freshman year (minus Naama, who was then a sophomore but subsequently lost a year to her blown-out knee), so I have had the chance to grow quite attached. After Bossman gave us some tickets that first season, I think we’ve missed one home game in 3 seasons (when we were in Florida last year) and have been to some away games. My dad has gone to most of those games with us, and he’s a spaz like me – he certainly enjoys “I Gotta Feeling” and other songs from the “Lady Rockets Mix” CD I made him.
Anyway, I have a hard time imagining watching Lady Rockets at Savage without the seniors (we’ll see them play next week at the MAC tournament, which they will hopefully win so we can go to an NCAA game…as much as I love going to Lady Rockets games with over 4K of my closest Lady Rocket fanatic friends, I hope we’re not WNIT-bound this year). Each senior is endearing in their own way:
Toledo’s Own Yo-Yo (Come get ya some Yo-Yo Gurrrrrrl):
Riley the Rifle:
Lecretia, who has historically been underappreciated despite putting in WORK (even last night, her standing ovation when Coach subbed her out was eaten up by the media timeout):
Kyle, who transferred to Toledo from Akron and has had some crazy good games mixed in along the way:
Everyone’s favorite Super Jew, Naaaaaaama Shaaaafiiiiiiiir:
Much has been said the last few days about where Naama ranks among Toledo Women’s Basketball greats and about what she’s done for Toledo Women’s basketball in the community. A lot of people who were not UTWBB fans became Naama fans and hopefully ended up UTWBB fans. When you read about or listen to interviews about Naama coming here, not knowing English, being away from her family, not knowing if the challenges of being an Orthodox Jewish person on a Division I basketball team would alienate her from the team or prove too difficult, etc., her success and ability to carry the team when she needed to, all while maintaining a 4.0 are amazing. Plus, little girls love her, and she seems to love Toledo and the team’s faithful following.
No one cares, but personally, I’m grateful to Naama’s parents (who were here for Senior night and will be here through the MAC tournament!) for letting us borrow her for the past 5 years. The last time they saw her play in person was when the team went to Israel before last season:
Jewish Toledoans adopted her and are probably extra sad:
Along with saying goodbye to the Senior girls, I am sad because it’s almost a given that Coach Cullop will be gone after this season also. With Naama gone and Coach’s stock going up because of the team’s success this year, it’s more than likely she’ll leave to coach at a bigger school for $$$$. The fans here love her and support her, and the players seem to really love her too, but a MAC school can only give her so much money. I’m hoping she doesn’t leave, but I’m trying to brace myself for what’s probably inevitable.
Here’s Coach thanking the Seniors’ parents and the fans:
Anyway. I got goosebumps when the five seniors started the game, and then when they were all in again towards the end of the second half. It was so great that UT was winning so that they were all able to play, all (eventually) score, and they each got to come out of the game one by one and get raucous standing ovations. Five standing ovations later, I was wiping away tears.
After the game, all five seniors got to talk on the post-game radio show with the voice of the Lady Rockets, Jim Heller, and that’s when I took the pictures above.
My dad was really gung-ho about me getting my Andola jersey signed, despite me not wanting to bother Andola and/or seem like a creeper. She signed it, she prints rather than signs, and the silver marker I thought would look decent is hard to read on the navy blue. AND, the jersey frame I ordered is (I think) back-ordered through May. Whatever.
Onward, to this morning, when the ridiculousness of my Senior night sadpandaness was really driven home by spiteful baby jesus.
Brian had to take Harvard back to the vet to get his bloodwork rechecked. A month ago, they didn’t do his earwart/teeth-cleaning because they found out his kidney function was bad. The vet says Harvey’s creatinine has gone up during the month (3.2 to 3.7). WTF.
He seems his normal self, prancing about, and if we hadn’t tried to get his earwart and teeth taken care of, we wouldn’t have any idea anything was wrong. That seems like a thing I wish for, right now, as I’m an emotional mess about this situation. Harvard is only my step-cat, but I rather love him, as well as his human. I take companion animal well-being prettttttty seriously. Our companion animals are family members here at the Beach-Link household…family members who don’t understand why they have to ride in cars or get blood tests or maybe aren’t feeling that great, and who can’t tell you when something’s wrong. I’m sure if he was suddenly symptomatic without warning, I would say it would have been better to have known ahead of time.
“There are times in the lives of most of us, when we would have given all the world to be as we were but yesterday, though that yesterday had passed over us unappreciated and unenjoyed.â€
― William Edward Hartpole Lecky
UGH CAT KIDNEYS UGH WHY.
