Madness

So if we can't have football, I'm going to have to say that March Madness comes in a very close second. I first became engrossed in the Madness culture in 7th grade. My teacher had us fill out brackets and offered extra credit for the top 3 winners in the class. Always up for competition and extra credit, I started writing down names of schools using the incredibly scientific process of choosing teams that had a pretty sounding name and asking my teacher who was any good. She said that Duke was her favorite team, so I put them down and picked them to go all the way. That was the year of Christian Laetner's infamous last second shot against Kentucky. I came in second and have been a Duke fan ever since.
With Coach K out of it, I can now focus on cheering for my bracket. Last year I had the blessing of falling deathly ill on the Tuesday before Madness (104 fever for 4 days). While I normally wouldn't be so excited about infirmity, it provided a great opportunity for my sister Ashley and I to bond while watching an inordinate amount of basketball. This year, Ashley lives in D.C. and I'm unfortunately pretty healthy. Not nearly as much fun. :-)