Vandalism, OSU Basketball and Military Appreciation Night

Vandalism, warm weather and a basketball trip. Interesting week in the OKC. The weather has been warm lately. Mid 80s yesterday and expected high of 83 today.

Last night the Thunder hosted a party at Red Pin, a trendy bowling alley and bar downtown (wrote about it one other time when we celebrated my friend Jasmine's birthday party there). It was an opportunity for our players and coaches to mingle with suite and courtside season ticket holders. It was the nicest evening of the year from a weather standpoint so we used the plaza out in front for an autograph table and everyone had a great time. My primary job was to help direct the players into a secured parking area. Turns out some of our players have really nice vehicles.

Wednesday night the Thunder played the Washington Wizards and it was Military Appreciation Night at the Ford Center. I think I heard we provided tickets to something like 1500 military folks and those that brought military ID were able to get a nice looking coin to commemorate the evening. The Promo Crew handed out mini american flags at the door and we all wore camouflage Thunder t-shirts (pictures from that night are included on the post although you might have a hard time spotting me and my co workers since we are wearing camouflage). Personally I think they should have all military wear nothing but khaki in the midwest as that would be the true camouflage around here right now. Not a lot of green vegetation in the winter.

Tuesday was a day to remember. I parked my car in a small parking lot at Lake Hefner and went for a 45 minute run. When I returned I found that someone had tried to break into my car by breaking out my front passenger window. I didn't have much in the car and nothing was stolen. Turns out I have thick windows and they didn't completely knock it out. Wish I would have taken a picture but I didn't have time. I immediately grabbed the only thing in the car that has any value, my cell phone and called my insurance company. They were able to get a 3 way call going with an auto glass place that said they could fix it that afternoon if I got the car into the shop within 30 minues. They were across town so I quickly drove home to grab my wallet (which I don't take jogging for this very reason), changed clothes and went to get it fixed. The whole thing was inconvenient but not the end of the world.

Before I went running, I was planning on heading home right after the jog to shower before heading north 65 miles to go watch Oklahoma State University play their final home basketball game of the year against Kansas State. I didn't have a ticket in advance so I figured to cancel my trip after my car was broken into as the game started at 6:30. While my car was getting fixed one of my co-workers who is a student at OSU sent me a text message saying she had an extra ticket for the game if I wanted to go. I thought about it for a second and decided I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to see my first OSU Cowboys game because some idiot busted my window so I called her up and told her I would love to go but would have to show up late.

Got to the OSU game with about 2 minutes to go in the 1st half and am very glad I went. It was a great game as OSU won 77-71 and it is always fun to see the final home game of the season in a college arena. OSU has a couple of popular seniors and it was nice to watch the fans cheer for them as they exited the game for the very last time. OSU's arena is very intimate and I had an incredible seat (thanks Katie). We sat near center court, 3 rows up in the 2nd level. The lowest level only has 3 or 4 rows and the wall dividing the two isn't very high so our seats were low and the wall creates a feeling of sitting right over the court. Might have been the best seats I have ever had for a basketball game. Overall it was a great day regardless of someones attempt to ruin it by messing with my vehicle (HA HA BAD PERSON).

Thunder update. We are currently in the middle of our first 3 game winning streak. Very impressive when you consider Durant has missed all 3 game and Green the last 2 games. 13 wins and 16 losses since December 31st when our record was 3 wins and 29 losses.