Sweet Sixteen–The Big Dance

Okay, now don’t get too excited, Pitt’s been here before, but again, they’re in the NCAA heading-to-the-finals mix! 

What a wonderful week in sports. 

The week when your team makes it to the next round and you have several days of sports-talk to entertain the fantasies associated with being the next Champion. Like the two weeks before your team plays in the superbowl.  Okay, well, Pitt’s not quite there, yet.  But they can get there  And they will, because I said so. 

Very interesting matchup with Ben Howland, UCLA, and Jamie Dixon (Howland’s former assistant at Pitt).  Here’s hoping Jamie has some sort of daddy complex he’s got to put out to pasture with this game.  But from all accounts he had a normal family life….crap, it figures.  Okay, let’s hope Howland’s overconfident.  Nothing like a little hubris to make things go the other guy’s way.

I attended two other “Big Dances” this weekend.   

One was a beautiful preview party for an antique show that benefits a local house museum.  Everything was stunning and taking all the antiques together the owners might be able to put a dent in the national debt. 

Someone there told me that he and his wife bought a $2500 painting and they loved it and so on and so on.  I’m nodding along, thinking that sounds nice.  Wow, 2500 dollars down the tubes for something on your wall.  Yeah, I could do that if I had the cash.

Well, turns out the woman (the owner’s mother!) who sold them the painting mis-read the tag and it was $25,000!!!!!  Well, I choked on my brie and wheat crackers waiting for the couple to turn white and return the painting before someone accidentally kicked a hole through it. 

The wife nodded, whipped out her checkbook and paid the difference.  The husband feigned discontent and upset with the development while giving her a loving squeeze, basking in his wife’s happiness.  You’d think he might have smacked me on the back to dislodge the cheese or something, but no, they were busy. 

I backed slowly away from the painting (I’m clumsy, you know) and finished my brie in the corner imagining that money filling my children’s college funds….

The second event was a St. Patrick’s Day wedding for my cousin.  It was the polar opposite of the antique show party.  But just as fun and, also as beautiful.  The bride beamed at her million dollar husband and the guests lit up the room with more line dancing prowess than you’ll ever see in any one place. 

The bar–only feet from the dance floor boasted an enormous TV so no one would have to miss the Pitt game. Now, tell me that’s not a wedding any man would kill to be invited to?  A TV in-house.

Seriously, this branch of my family tree is hands down the sweetest, most fun of the giant oak.  Wherever they are, fun is right behind and in a more simple way, the reception was beautiful and left me just as awed as the antique show. 

So, there, three Big Dances in one weekend.  How many people can say that? 

How was your weekend?