Ice Storm Hits OKC and Makes For A Quiet Thunder Game

Greetings from OKC where the current temperature is 8F. We are in day 3 of our winter storm however there is hope as we aren't expecting any more precipitation and the high temperature is going to be around 35 today, 45 tomorrow and then into the 50s and possibly 60 by the weekend. We have had over 1.5" of sleet, ice and snow over the last few days which have brought the city to a halt.

Monday was one of the more interesting basketball games I have ever worked as we had a nice ice storm earlier that morning. The temperature that day was in the 20s and yet somehow it rained (I always grew up thinking that any precip on a below freezing day would fall from the sky in the form of large white flakes called "snow"). Of course as soon as the rain hit it froze over so sidewalks and roads were icy. I knew it was going to be an interesting day when I took a tumble walking out to my car. Walking was worse than driving since no one puts salt on the sidewalks. I heard on the news that over 150 people needed ambulance assistance around town due to pedistrian accidents and one of the local postal workers is intensive care after she fell on a sidewalk while delivering mail. This stuff is no joke.

I drove to the Ford Center on Monday at around 1:00 and was surprised that the freeway wasn't that bad. A large part of that had to do with the fact that there weren't a lot of cars out by that time so travel wasn't bad as long as I didn't go faster than 45 MPH and kept my distance from other vehicles. The worst part was walking the 2 blocks from my car to the Ford Center as I felt I was going to fall again with every step. A few employees started calling me to let me know they couldn't make it which really stressed me out since we were giving out roses and mini-banners to the fans entering the game as well as our usual game night rosters. Turned out I wasn't alone as many of the other employees around the Ford Center didn't make it in either and neither did many of the fans. We ended up having less than 5,000 people show up for the game (building holds 19,000 and is usually filled mostly to capacity). In the first quarter we moved the fans that were sitting in the upper bowl down to the lower bowl and there were still plenty of seats. I tried to show it in a picture but my camera flash isn't very good. The building felt very quiet but the show must go on and the Thunder beat the Nets for our 10th win of the season.
Yesterday we had a layer of snow come down which made for easier walking conditions but driving still wasn't ideal so I was like a lot of people and didn't even leave home (I did walk over to the apartment office to get my mail but figured why drive if you don't need to). I'm getting ready to head into work in a little while today and hope that things are better as we haven't had any new precip.

Changing directions, I went to the birthday party of my friend/co-worker Jasmine on Sunday night. We went to a trendy bowling alley called Red Pin where 17 of us had dinner and then bowled a game on 2 lanes. It takes a while to get a game of bowling in when 8 bowlers are on one lane and 9 on the other and they charged us individually by the minute (30 minute increments) so it was a pricy bowling game. We did have a great time though.

Friday night I went to a local bar to watch my buddy Courtney's band play. He is the drummer in a jazz band and figured I should include a picture of him here.

Super Bowl is 4 days away. GO CARDINALS!!

MLK Day Parade and Late Night Sporting Events

This blog is about my Midwest Adventures and I don't want it to be about politics so I will sum this up in one sentence. Tuesday's events in Washington DC made me smile.

Monday was MLK Day and we received an inter office e-mail last week regarding some of the events that the Thunder were going to be taking part in that day so I thought I would check them out. I have a tremendous respect for what Dr. King did with the Civil Rights movement but I have to admit that I have never really gone out of my way to do anything to honor him on his day other than to volunteer at a high school basketball tournament a few times so I decided to do so this year. On Monday Morning I decided at the last minute that I would head over to the Oklahoma History Center to watch a bell ringing ceremony in which some prominent people living in OKC community were going to speak, including Thunder broadcaster Grant Long and player Chucky Atkins. It was to start at 10:45 and I showed up at 11:00 which was just enough time for me to catch the last 2 minutes. I thought it was going to be a much longer ceremony but I was wrong. Still worth the trip though as I got to walk into the atrium of the center and was blown away. The state of Oklahoma has a very storied history and though I didn't have the time to pay the $5 and check out all of the exhibits, I did decide that I will be going back in the near future.

Monday afternoon I went into downtown OKC to check out the MLK Day Parade. One of the things I was looking forward to was the Thunder representation as I knew that some of the players would be in the parade as well as members of our dance team and drum line. Don't know the dancers but the drummers have become my buddies so I was looking forward to cheering them on. Started watching the parade at about the 6 block mark and realized that the Thunder were near the front and that they were being accompanied by around 50 school kids and a handful of the front office people. One of my co-workers spotted me taking pictures and she told me to join them "the more the merrier" she said so I ended up walking the rest of the parade route with them. I even helped lead some of the cheers while the drummers did there thing "Let's Go Thunder". I was surprised how long of a parade it was. I would guess that the total route was 1.5 miles or so. Good times though and 3 of our players: Russell Westbrook, Kyle Weaver and DJ White rode in a carriage pulled by horses.

It is almost 10 pm here right now and I am about to watch the UW-USC basketball game live on Fox Sports Oklahoma. I'm still not used to all of these late events due to the time zone differences. I'm just glad my Huskies are going to be on national TV so that I can see them. Last night the Thunder played a 9:30 game against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland. Great shootout game as the Thunder lead 72-68 AT HALFTIME. Gotta love a game with 140 first half points. Thought we had lost it down the stretch when Seattle native Jamal Crawford put the Warriors ahead with 1.4 seconds to go. Jeff Green had other ideas though and hit the game winning buzzer beater: Final Score Thunder 122 Warriors 121 and the game ended just a few minutes after midnight.

Usual strange temeratures here in OKC. Today's high was in the high 70s. Tomorrow in the 50s, Friday low 40s and Saturday's high might not get out of the 30s. Still hasn't rained in 2009 though.

Super Fan picture, Burnt Food, Avoiding Football Scores

Another weekend filled with football and OKC Thunder has come and gone. Friday night the Thunder beat the Pistons 89-79 for our first back to back wins of the season. Unfortunately we weren't able to make it a 3 game winning streak as the Miami Heat came into the Ford Center last night and beat us.

Friday night was also the 3rd appearance for my alter ego, the Thunder Super Fan. This time I took a picture and have included it on the blog. It was kind of fun as the fan response is now pretty good. The first couple of times I did it I received a lot of strange looks as I went to sit down. On Friday many people knew what to expect and the people around me were cheering me on when I started dancing around in their section during the timeout.

After my shift ended Friday I went out to watch a dozen of my co-workers play in a 10:30 pm indoor soccer game. I guess games are scheduled as late as midnight which seems like a strange time to be playing soccer but why not. The indoor facility is right at the entrance of a housing development about 1.5 miles from where I live. The soccer team didn't quite fair as well as the basketball team though as they lost 7-2.

Saturday night a bunch of us went out for a night on the town as we celebrated the arrival of two more Seattleites. My co-workers Sabrina and George both had their spouses move down to OKC this week so we all went out to Bricktown. It was a late night and I was hungry when I got home so I popped a couple of mini paninis into the toaster oven and fell asleep while watching TV. You are supposed to cook them for 15-19 minutes and not the 4.5 hours that I "napped" on the recliner. Burnt panini smell takes a while to exit the appartment.

I tried the impossible while working the Thunder game on Sunday. I set my DVR to record the two NFL Conference Championship games and was going to try to go my entire work shift without hearing the outcomes. I was so close on the Arizona-Philly game as I had manged to avoid the score for a couple of hours when one of my co-workers approached a table where I was eating dinner and announced the final score. The AFC game was a little tougher as I glanced up at our scoreboard and saw a 13-7 halftime score. Made it until the 4th quarter when someone can down a hallway and mentioned the score again but still thought I could enjoy watching the game since I still had not heard a final score. As I was exiting the arena I got off of an elevator and as the door was opening I stared right into a TV to see Steelers coach Mike Tomlin being interviewed with the Lamar Hunt trophy being held up over his shoulder. Oh well.

I still went home and stayed up until 1:00 am watching Arizona advance to their first Super Bowl. It was also a warm night so I was able to keep my back door open for a couple of hours to let the burnt food smell exit the room (smells much better now) I tried to watch the Steelers-Ravens game afterward but fell asleep. This time I made sure there was no food being cooked.

I hate to keep making Seattle fans upset but I am very excited about the Cardinals victory. Phoenix has really become a home away from home over the last 8 years since my Mom has spent so much time down there and I really enjoy my visits. GO CARDINALS!!

OU-Texas basketball game, Facebook and The Return of the SuperFan

Went to my first Oklahoma University basketball game on Monday night when the 5th ranked Sooners played the 11th ranked Texas Longhorns!! Two of my Thunder co-workers are the mascots at the OU basketball games (identical horses, Boomer and Sooner) and one of them hooked us up with 15th row seats on across from one of the benches. The Oklahoma arena really blew me away. When you enter the building onto the concourses, you are above the top row of seats and can see the court as you walk around. They did a really nice job of putting the seats right on top of the floor which creates an exciting atmosphere. The Sooners led from the start and won 78-63. Went to the game with JB, Stephen (one of our Thunder drumline guys) and Madison (co-worker from Seattle that is working for our Broadcast Department). I also put a picture on here of one of the mascots as well as some of the cheerleaders. The cheerleader on the far right is Whitney, one of our Promo Crew members who has done an outstanding job for us so far this year.

I also decided to give in and finally signed up for Facebook this week. I already had a couple of invites when I signed up so I had 2 friends right away and within about 5 minutes I had a couple more people send me invites. I immediately started sending out and receiving invites and have already caught up with people. Have exchanged messages with a number of friends I haven't seen for years. I admit it, I should have signed up a long time ago.

The Thunder beat Utah on Wednesday 114-93 for our first win over a team with a winning record (had lost 20 games prior over teams with winning records). During the 4th quarter I was asked to sport my mask, shorts and cowboy hat and grabbed a seat in the stands so that they could put me up on the big screen again as the SuperFan. This time I got out in the aisle and played air guitar during the timeouts to Bob Segar's "Old Time Rock & Roll". Seemed to go well so I'm sure my SuperFan alter ego will be back again soon.

Hanging in Norman for the National Championship Game, Thunder Super Fan and Bull Riding at Club Rodeo

January 8th finally came and went. Over the past month the talk of the town has been the college football national championship game between Oklahoma and Florida. The Sooners had an opportunity to win their 8th national championship game and what better way to watch the game then to head on down to Norman and watch the game at a sports bar located next to campus. A handful of us had talked about it for a while and I thought we were going to have a decent sized group making the 20 mile trip south of OKC to watch however people started dropping off one by one and some people decided to go to a co-workers apartment so it ended up being me and JB. The media outlets were reporting that the Norman bars would be packed and that tables would be hard to come by but we didn't care as we just wanted to be part of the atmosphere. I was also excited for the game because I am now a Sooners fan. Not the same way that I love my Huskies but I am still a Sooners fan and was ready to wear my heart on my sleeve.

We were told that the most popular sports bar in Norman, O'Connells would be packed so we should go to a place called Coach's. Got there about 20 minutes before kick off and found it to be crowded but far from packed. One big reason is that OU is still on winter break until next week and most of the students are not in the area. It was still great to be a part of a large festive group that cheered when the Sooners made big plays and moaned when the Gators had success. It was a tight game all the way but Florida scored the final 10 points over the last 10 minutes and won 24-14. I would have loved to have been a part of the celebration that would have taken place on the streets of Norman but it just wasn't the Sooners night. Still enjoyed the experience.

Friday night the Thunder had a home game against Houston and lost another close one (we did beat Chicago on the road last night and now have 6 wins). It also was the night that I took on a new role for the organization and that was as a Thunder Super Fan. They asked me to get dressed up so that I could grab a seat in the stands and start dancing during one of the timeouts so they could put me up on the big screen. I failed to take a picture but I will eventually get one up on the blog. I wore a Lone Ranger type of mask that was colored like the american flag, a cheesy cowboy hat, hawaian shirt and crazy shorts. They hit me with the camera and played James Brown "I feel good" and for 15-20 seconds so I danced in the aisle while thousands of people watched up on the scoreboard. The things I do for this company :-) My Director John wants this to be a possible re-occuring role and one that could grow into me throwing t-shirts into the crowd and help getting everyone cheering. Stay tuned.

After the game some of the Ford Center employees decided that some of us Seattle folks needed to have an OKC experience and took a bunch of us to Club Rodeo. This was a true Western experience as it is large bar/club that is located about a 10 minute drive from the arena. Club Rodeo has a large dance floor for western dances and one of my Oklahoma friends tried to teach me how to 2 step and how to do a line dance. The 2 step was frustrating because she is good and I am lousy. I didn't feel as bad about the line dance because all of the Seattle folks were on the dance floor for that as well and we were all pathetic and many of the locals were not much better.

What really seperates Club Rodeo though is that they have a Bull Riding area and every hour the dancing stops and everyone heads over to watch actual bull riding for 15 minutes. A dance floor right next to a bull riding ring in the same building!!! How great is that!! I had never seen bull riding in person and it is impressive. One guy got tossed off and the bull then turned around and flipped him over and into the rail. The rider wiped himself off and ran off. Those guys are tough.

Also got to hang out with my buddy Rob on Friday. Rob is a Seattle entertainer that has been performing at our halftime shows for around 15 years. He and his buddy John used to have a juggling unicycle act and they called themselves the "Gentlemen Jugglers". John decided a few years ago to pursue something more 9 to 5 so Rob went solo and now calls himself "Roberto the Magnificent." Every time Rob performed at the Key Arena, he and I would talk about hanging out in Seattle sometime since we lived about 5 minutes from each other however he travels a lot, is married and has a daughter so we never did. Rob had also never been to anything like Club Rodeo so we dragged him out with us and he was also impressed.

Hope everyone in the Pacific Northwest is surviving the flooding. I miss everyone and the area but I don't miss the rain. So far it has yet to rain here in 2009 and I am okay with that.

New Year's in OKC and Staying Warm By Not Ice Skating

Happy New Year!!! I went grocery shopping today and that was the only time I left my apartment. I was thinking about going ice skating today since it was the last day that the downtown outdoor rink is going to be open until next December however when I went outside today at about 11:00 this morning and it was about 28 degrees and the wind chill made it feel about 10-15 degrees cooler. It did warm up later on in the day but I figured watching playoff football in my warm apartment sounded better than skating in the wind.

I am a little bummed though as I think outdoor ice skating would have been fun. The only place I have ever ice skated was inside the Key Arena and I think each time I was doing mascot work. I've seen outdoor rinks on TV in New York's Rockefeller Center, Chicago and other large cities with cold climates and always thought it would be fun.

New Year's Eve was a fun night. Worked the Thunder game where we got to wear New Year's hats and beads (didn't think to get my picture taken until I was leaving so it is kind of dark out in the concourse) and had a number of fans compliment me on my plastic hat. I got out of the Ford Center after working the game (the Thunder's 4th victory of the year) at around 11:00 pm and headed over to Mickey Mantle's to meet up with some co-workers. I really wanted to walk into the middle of downtown and watch the ball go up as they do the opposite of New York's Time Square.

My buddy JB also said he would go check out the raising of the ball but he wanted to stick around Mantle's for a while. We kept arguing over what time to leave and finally walked out at 11:52. Neither of us were sure which street we needed to walk to or exactly how far away it was, we just followed the large group of people quickly heading toward the middle of downtown. Got way up the street and walked around the corner to where we could see the ball about 2 or 3 seconds before the crane raised it to the very top which signified 2009. I'm guessing the ball was about 10 stories in the air but since we just saw the finale, I'm not sure how low the ball was when it started going up. We were probably about a half mile from the ball (posted a picture on here which didn't come out very well) and could hear the fireworks show going off but were on the wrong side of the ball to see them other than the reflections. We started yelling and chanting Happy New Year for about 5 minutes while high fiving people walking by and then went back down the street.

JB was having a great time at a Blues bar in Bricktown called the Biting Sow (same place I saw country music star John Rich in November) but I was hungry and ready to leave at 1:30 so I went solo. OKC is not a very good town to be hungry about 90 minutes into January 1st. IHOP was the only thing that was open and they had over an hour wait. I hopped into my car and headed toward home as I knew of a Sonic that was 24 hours and on the way home. Got to the parking lot and THEY WERE CLOSED!! I couldn't believe it as I know they could have cashed in that night. I then started heading toward the IHOP near my apartment as I figured it was far enough away from downtown to be busy......WRONG. They had about a 45 minute wait so I went to WalMart and bought myself a DeGiorno's pizza. Nothing like cooking a pizza at 3am. Happy New Year.

Almost had our first 2 game winning streak on January 2nd as Kevin Durant put us ahead of the Denver Nuggets with 2.7 seconds left on an amazing turnaround 3 point shoot. We thought we had it won however the Nuggets passed the ball into All Star Carmelo Anthony who hit a 3 point game winner at the buzzer and we lost 122-120. Tough loss but 2 months ago we probably wouldn't have had a lead that late in the game. The team is getting better so the next 4 months could be fun.