I'm Back After a Weekend Off

I'm back from my little break. Everything I said was true about turning off the computer to get something accomplished, but also we went to Hartford, Conn. to the America East basketball tournament because our Binghamton Univ. was playing. We had a blast, stayed in a nice Marriott a short drive from the Univ. of Hartford campus, ate some good meals, and mostly watched hard fought games. Meanwhile, no one knew we were gone so I didn't have to worry about our house. (There have been break-ins in the area recently

Back when I played a little basketball at prep school in the Middle Ages we had to play girls' rules. What a rotten excuse for a game that was! Maybe it was just as well though because I don't think I would have been able to play the game the way it is now, even at 18 years old. Those young people play rough. At one point one of the men's games looked like it had turned into a rugby match. There were surprisingly few injuries, but one of our seniors, an excellent athlete, did injure his ankle, and the only senior on the women's team reinjured an ankle. Our teams played their hearts out; we were so proud of them. The men lost out in the quarterfinals, the women made it to the semifinals and then lost, but they had nothing to be ashamed of.

The only bad marks on the whole weekend were two instances of terrible behavior by fans. I had always heard that no one liked people from one particular school which has avid fans who travel all over following their team. Never understood it until this weekend when their fans behind us were vocal and nasty in their criticism of the referees. And the ones immediately behind us made obnoxious, rude, stupid racist remarks about our men's team. I was so steamed, but figured calling them on it would just make it worse.

The other problem was that fans of another school got totally out of control yelling nasty stuff at the refs, particularly honing in on one female ref. We have good conference refs who do their best by all teams. I understand people yelling at an occasional bad call or just out of frustration because their team is losing, but this was absolutely awful. Two of the women personally threatened that female ref, and it was serious enough that I surely hope she didn't leave the building without an escort. There's just no place for that kind of behavior; I imagine their athletes and school officials were ashamed of them and I wouldn't be surprised if the conference penalized the school for it.

Meanwhile, I'm reading a good book and just before we left I was near the end where it was really exciting, characters were in danger, and I was about to learn whodunit -- but I haven't had a chance to read since last Wed.!!!! Time to get off this blog and finish that book before I die of curiosity.