Dallas Entertainment

I spent a wonderful weekend in Dallas with a girlfriend and her friend.  I love it when you meet  your friends' friends and know immediately what each of you brings to the table in said friendships.  Huh?  I'm trying to say I dig my friends' friend.  I would be friends with her too.  Except she's deploying for a year next month.  There's always Facebook! :)

Anyhoo, we enjoyed some retail therapy, juicy story telling, and ab blasting laughter.  It was comforting to me as I've been missing some good girlfriend fun lately.  My ND crew was always up for a good time.  Speaking of them, they got together last night to celebrate an engagement.  I LOVE that they called me to share in the well wishes!  They're the best.

But back to Dallas.  The ab blasting laughter will of course provide us with great entertainment for years to come. For example, I was highly entertained as I ate sushi next to Spud Webb, the retired basketball player.  I was a fan of Spud's when he played for the Hornets in my junior high years.  I had a funny story I was tempted to tell him, especially since we made eye contact a few times.  But everyone and their brother wanted to shake his hand so I let him dine in peace as much as possible.  But I'll tell you my Spud story.

It was the fall of 1993 and I was in the eighth grade.  My mom and dad took me to a Detroit Pistons game at the Palace of Auburn Hills.  We arrived early enough to watch the players warm up, though we were in the nose bleed section.  My dad suggested we take a stroll around the court for a closer look.  Didn't know if we could do it, but we were gonna try.  No one stopped us to look at our tickets so we made our lap around the court.  I was inspired by Spud as he warmed up with players that stood a foot taller than him, making just as many shots as they did.  You see, I was pretty short growing up and never imagined I could play a sport like basketball.  And I didn't.  But I could have.  Because Spud proved that.  So there.

As we ended our court lap we got stuck in a line.  Being a short kid, I couldn't see what the line was for and grew impatient.  There were so many men in business suits, casually standing around chatting.  I just wanted to get back to my seat, people!  But my dad encouraged me to be patient.  The line began to wind onto the court.

"Dad," I said.  "Are we supposed to be on the court?  I don't want to get in trouble."  He looked around and shrugged his shoulders.  "I'm not sure what it's for, but lets just wait and see," he said.  I was starting to grow uncomfortable.  We looked like impostors.  We weren't dressed up like everyone else.  For Pete's sake, I was wearing a junior high cheerleading jacket.  No fooling anyone into thinking I was important with that on my back!  My dad began chatting with some of the men around us.  I think they had us pegged, but didn't seem to mind.  The best we can guess is that all these business men and women were employees of companies that sponsored the game.  Our wait ended at the three-point line where my dad and I were each given a basketball to hold while we posed for a picture with two women in fishnet stockings and tuxedo tales.  Yeah, we're kind of a big deal!

After having their picture taken, everyone was shooting their ball.  No one was making it.  I took my shot from the three point line.  No good.  Pathetic, really.  My dad offered me his ball and pushed me to the free throw line.  I was embarrassed at this point because the stands were filling up as the game was to begin soon.  I already airballed it once!  Like, badly.  The pressure was on.  So I lined up my feet at the free throw line, squatted, aimed, and shot (with a little jump, of course).  Swoosh!  And the crowd went wild.  Seriously!  The team benches, full of coaches at this point, were high-fiving me.  Fans were clapping and cheering.  Why?  Because this shorty little girl made a basket, and it was the first one in the long line of grown men who had attempted it.  Score!

The next day at school a friend of mine said he saw me make a basket at the Pistons game.  What!  This story was getting better by the minute now that I had a witness!  He told me Spud Webb was still warming up on the court and turned to see why everyone was cheering.  Spud saw me high-fiving the coaches.  Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal!

So there's my story that I didn't share with Spud this past weekend because I wanted to let him dine in peace since no man in the room was passing up the chance to say hello to him.  I was entertained by Spud's charm.  He moved in on this table of young women, probably in their mid-twenties.  Honestly, I was kinda weirded out at first because I didn't recognize him.  Just thought he was mackin' on the honies.  Which he was, but it was easier to understand the girls' interest in him when I realized who he was.  Anyway, I watched as he played a totally different game than basketball.  Let's just say it ended with him ditching one girl for two others, and all three of them probably were in diapers in 1993!  I will laugh about that for years to come!