Whoever Draws The Short Carrot

Yesterday I headed to STL for our annual trip to the Busch Braggin' Rights game, Illinois vs. Mizzou. I will get to the basketball in a separate post, but I first wanted to share a bit about the part that is more important than basketball. I know, you my reading public are shocked and amazed there is something more important than the basketball! I love Bruce Weber, Jerrance Howard and Brian Randle, but that kind of love simply pales in comparison to the love I have for Nikki, Karen and Sarah J. These lovely ladies have been my Braggin' Rights buddies for a number of years and each of us looks forward to our holiday basketball trip every year. Sarah J gets special kudos in this blog because she schleps all the way from Vicksburg, Mississippi (an 8 hour drive) for approximately 16 hours of basketball and girl talk.

We arrived in STL late in the afternoon on Saturday, just in time to get settled in our room and relax a bit before it was time to hit the FREE Happy Hour in the lobby of our hotel, the Drury Plaza. I had the idea of doing an ornament exchange to get us revved up for the holidays, but was woefully unclear on the directions, so Nik showed up with an ornament for each of us, while the rest of us had more of a "grab bag" (bring an ornament, leave with an ornament) thing in mind. Nik just gave each of us her ornaments, but then that meant when we proceeded to "exchange" either Sarah J, Karen or I would give, but not get, so that Nik wouldn't leave emptied handed. Gee how should we decide who was "out"... well that is easy, whoever draws the short carrot. After two beers, and a tequila sunrise (yes we sang the song) brilliant ideas such as the now infamous "short carrot" just don't stop.

After knocking back free drinks and snacks we made the walk to the arena, arriving just in time to spot Nik's Dad and our friend Nathan each sitting in separate box seats and wave heartily at them. Okay, so they each got their tix for free and had free food and drinks, but our seats were far better. We were just off the corner of the court near the Illinois bench, in the first two rows of permanent seats, just across the aisle from where the Illinois team enters the locker room. The game was awesome, like I said more on that another post, and afterwards we opted to bypass the bar scene in favor of some real food (happy hour snacks were just not going to cut it) at Friday's. At Friday's we managed to have half of their staff wait on us, but particularly enjoyed Ray, our flamingly gay waiter that talked us into the fried green beans... yummy! Ray scored way big with me, besides joking that cocaine is what made the fried green beans to addicting, he separate our checks without us having to ask, and even split to the green beans that we shared among the four checks.

Back at the hotel we stayed up far too late... giggling like school girls. We discovered you can see me in the game program, sitting in our seats last year. We discussed the fact that Nik's slightly creepy downstairs neighbor brought her soup this week when she was sick. Nice of him I guess if he wasn't trying to use the soup to get her to date him. She hasn't eat the soup yet... and we joked that hopefully it isn't Chicken Rufies Soup!

After free hot breakfast the hotel this morning we hit the road. Sarah J back to MS, and the rest of us to Central Illinois. It was great to hang with the girls, remember good times at the Hall, and of course keep our perfect Braggin' Rights record in tact. I can't wait for next year.