My First Day Being 30!

I knew this would happen...either it would be half-time or K'dawg would be on the phone...well, both happened so I had a chance to blog about Sunday - aka the first day officially being in my 30's. And let me tell you, if the rest of the decade is this fun & exciting, I'll be napping all through my 80's just to catch up!

So Sunday, we slept in (ok, I slept in...we got up around 8:30) and went to get breakfast. Well, my happy little Caribou Coffee place in the lil' underground mall was CLOSED and I was pouting. So, we walked across the streat in the rain to Starbucks. They had this nasty pod coffee maker thing in the room that only made one itty-bitty cup of coffee, and that just would not do! So, a venti Pike Place Roast later & an omlet in the above mentioned mall and it was back to the room to grab K's windbreaker vest. It'd turned nasty cold and rainy and well, he needed another layer...and boy am I glad he did!

**oh snap, sometime during the above time period, I ran into our neighbors from growing up -- huge State fans and one of the main reasons I wanted to go to NCSU so bad -- we're talking Jimmy V visted with him and all kinds of jazz like that -- so, it turned into a little mountain reunion in the lobby of some fancy ATL hotel**

There were these two people with huge boxes of t-shirts....so, we go ask them if there is a Pep Ralley for FSU (they were in our hotel) before the game. And they said no, they were doing a Nike promotion. Somehow we ended up with not 2, not 3, but like 5 FSU t-shirts. Of course I'm monster excited because I was getting more FREE STUFF! While getting the FREE shirts, this UNC fan comes up and we start talking to him. Turns out, he had 3 tickets to the game and was leaving since UNC wasn't playing. Well, we had our two tickets, but he told us to take his anyways because they were awesome tickets. Awesome doesn't cut it....they were section 105 row 12, seats 1&2. Now, we were excited we had lower level tickets and had to call our friend C (aka the biggest Duke fan on the planet) to invite him to come on to Atlanta, because we had 3 extra tickets to the championship game. So, the trip to the room turned into changing into our new FSU t-shirts.

Then it was back to the lobby...
The FSU dance team (called the Golden Girls) were all hanging out in the hotel lobby. We'd already talked about the girls and how scandelous they looked-- they were really pretty and athletic but their *uniforms* left next to nothing for the imagination. There was a woman and man standing there and we start talking to them to see if the FSU team had came out yet. Well, they had...but we kept talking to these people. Both had grown up in NC and were just so happy and friendly.

Now this is where it gets weird...here we are thinking we're just talking to some super nice people in the hotel lobby...well, they were players & the wife of a player from the '72 NCAA Championship team (FSU lost to UCLA, but they played none the less). Then, Leonard Hamilton (FSU Head Coach) comes down, and Jimmy "Fly" Williams (former NBA player & played college ball with Hamilton) introduced us to him. Way cool. We had no clue at the time who these people were (many thanks to the wonderfulness of Google for filling in the holes). So, we then get invited to watch the NCAA Selection Show with the FSU team -- we were in with the FSU crowd like you have no idea!

So, it was off to the Dome for the game. We knew our seats were lower level in the make-shift bleachers. What we didn't know was that they were 12 rows back from flippin' half court! Not since the 'Pack left Reynolds Collisum have I had such awesome seats. We were in a high-rollin' section. Frank Beemer (Va Tech Head Football Coach) was a few rows in front of us. So was Duke's Coach K's family. We were in high cotton in our FSU shirts! Dick Vitalas was sitting on the front row (of course) -- we waved really big to him and he waved back! Seriously, this all was a little basketball lovin' bumpkins dream come true!

So -- we stayed until the end of the game, watched the nets being cut, all the fun times. Duke won the game, and becoming a FSU fan just a few hours earlier, I didn't know their players like I did Duke's. We were excited Duke won.

Then, it was back towards the hotel to dinner followed by dessert at Dailey's. Oh my goodness...my mouth is watering just thinking about the ice cream and heavenly chocolate sauce I had!

We were exhausted from all the excitement from the day -- so were headed to bed. But we got stopped in the hotel bar by some more FSU people...turns out to be the parents of one of the assistant coaches! After an hour or two of serious basketball talk, it was time for bed.

That was until we checked voicemails. Seems like Raycom Sports scanned the crowd and showed us before the game (we have a friend with the game on DVR -- but now they are out of town...gotta' see it to believe it!) and we had a zillion Facebook messages and voicemails to that effect. So we were all giddy once more! So lots of giggles later, it was to bed!

Woke up Monday and did nothing but pack, sit in the airport, and fly home. Reclaimed muppy dawg from her grandpeeps at the lake and tried to see if life would ever return to normal.

Gotta' say...I like this being 30 business thus far!

Who knew 30 would be so great!?!

*Warning* this will probably be way long & rambling...but a lot happened!

I knew that spending my 30th birthday in Atlanta - at the ACC Tournament- would be cool. However, I had no idea just how AWESOMELY AMAZING it would be!! I can't tell you how much Hubby K & I needed the time away from everything...it was perfect!

A quick review...
Friday: Left the house at like 5:30 am...way too early! Flight to ATL was quick & great. Saw my green polka-dot bag roll onto the plane, so didn't worry about not having it there when we landed (that's always a good feeling). Then, we hop on the MARTA and zoom over to the Regency Hyatt. Our room wasn't ready, but they stored our bags and we darted over to the Dome for the first of 4 basketball games. We leave between sessions and check into our hotel room -- it was SWEET! Modern spa feeling w/ a city view & flat screen tv. Went to the Varsity for dinner (YUMMY goodness!) and back to the Dome for more b'ball. All the games were close & it was so much fun! Our seats were second level, but still better than when we had season NCSU tickets at the RBC Center. Oh snap -- forgot to say that we saw the Va Tech basketball coach in the lobby. He'd just lost, so we didn't talk.

Saturday: Woke up and got my free birthday Caribou Coffee (Yay free coffee) and went to World of Coke. Oh my goodness. It was lots of Coke goodness. I had not seen that much Coke stuff in one place in my life. It was CRAZY! We had tons of fun sampling all the products from around the word. Some were winners - other's were nasty. The worst part of the day was the rain...thank goodness I'd packed umbrellas! After that, we walked to the World Congress Center to the ACC Fan Zone. Oh my goodness it was at the furtherest corner of the furtherest building away. Not a lot of good stuff there - actually, it was very disappointing. I thought the different Alumni Associations would have booths set up. Nope, just stupid booths & blow up stuff for kids to bounce on. Back to the Dome for 2 more b'ball games. Two very good games. Turned 30 as UNC was getting beat by FSU (I didn't officially celebrate until the very hour & minute...held on to those 20's as long as I could!) After seeing Duke win (I heart Zoubek) we were off to Aunt Pitty Pat's Porch for my birthday dinner! It was so good and saw one of the University's biggest benefactors drinking girly drinks and holding court -- it was awesome! Back to the hotel to catch some ZZzz's (we walked a zillion miles it seemed!)

Sunday: Now kids, this is where it starts getting C-R-A-Z-Y....and it's so crazy it deserves it's own post...plus I'm still tuckered out from all the excitment!