Thank The Man

This story is a bit silly, and pretty dated. When Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan and his assistant Phil Johnson resigned on February 10, I was more than a little shocked. Being die-hard Jazz fan my entire life, Jerry and Phil have always been a part of the equation. Despite my sadness and all the rumors surrounding the event, I'm glad to see these guys get their much-deserved vacation. Which brings me to my story. A few days after they resigned, I was working out at the gym. (Still going strong, baby!) After a grueling set of lifting massive amounts of weight, I took a break to refill my Thomas the Tank Engine water bottle. While walking to the fountain, I noticed a familiar face standing by the front desk. It was undoubtedly this man, Phil Johnson:

Tall, mustached, and wearing a Utah Jazz T-shirt. It was him. I had to act quick. Should I talk to him? What would I say? He was asking the attendant questions about the facility and soon they started walking toward me as they looked around. I stuck my hand out and shook his and said the only thing that came to mind,

"Thanks for everything."

It's Over.

Every Jazz season begins the exact same way. Hope. We think about the way our team has grown and improved from the year before. We think that this could finally be the year the Basketball Gods smile upon us and grant us that elusive NBA championship. We stick with the team through all the ups (D.Will an All-Star!) and downs(Timberwolves? Kings? Really?). We throw down massive coin for game tickets, jerseys, and Dippin' Dots (Bad economy is not bringin' their prices down. No sir.). We get amped for the playoffs. We get ticked when Jerry gets snubbed for coach of the year. Sadly, the last three seasons have ended the exact same way. By getting bounced from the playoffs by the hated L.A. Lakers.

Don't get me wrong. I'm proud of our team. We faced adversity and injuries and had a very good season. But, it really sucks losing in the playoffs. It sucks worse losing to a team that already has over a dozen titles. And it sucks even more even you have to watch said loss in person with hundreds of their fans screaming and taunting from every direction. At least we had this one shining moment in our day of darkness-

It takes awhile to get over losses like this, but I am not giving up. I will cheer on the Jazz until I'm dead. I'll talk myself into our chances next season. I will watch the draft lottery with my fingers crossed that somehow we can land the missing ingredient to our title hopes. (Who might that be, you ask? No idea.) And when I think back on the 2009-2010 season there is one thing I will always remember....

Thanks Sundy!

Go Jazz! 2011 Baby!

The Big Finish

OK.....so this post is really really late and coming at a really bad time. But some stories just have to be blogged and this is one of them. Last week, my sister Shalane and I went to Game 6 of the Jazz-Nuggets series.

Here we are! The lady in the blue D.Will jersey texting behind us was sooooooo annoying. But this post is not about her.

Here we are again. Our mother hooked us up with pretty good seats. Also, my little arm looks quite creepy in this pic. This post is not about my creepy little arm though.

The crowd was electric. Going to a playoff game is an entirely different experience than any other game. You will see why in just a second when I get around to what this post is really about.

The Jazz pulled off the win and advanced to the second round. Past Cody was really excited about all of this. Current Cody is really frustrated that we are down 0-2 to the Lakers already. Future Cody will hopefully see a big comeback. But this post is not really about all the Codys.

So what this post is really about is what happened after the game. Two rows in front of us, there were three rowdy, drunk, immature Jazz fans. Eight rows behind us, there were three rowdy, drunk, immature Nuggets fans. Following the game, these two groups met each other. Words were exchanged. A Jazz fan pushed a Nuggets fan. Nuggets fan did not like that. Jazz fan pushed him again and it was on. Punches started flying. A valiant (and elderly) usher tried to break up the fight and got pummeled. A few people got into the mix to help out the usher and we soon had an all-out brawl on our hands. It was a big mess but I remember seeing a lady kick a guy in the head and another guy fell down four rows of seats. I literally thought he was going to fall out of the upper bowl. Instead of fight, flight, or freeze, I decided to record. (Unfortunately, a guy who looked the Big Show came and stood next to me during the filming and I got scared and stopped recording after a few seconds.) Enjoy....

The Great Update

OK, first of all, sorry. I love this blog. I love feeding it, nurturing it, and caring for it like the cute little plant that it is. For some reason, April has turned into a month without blogging. I don't like this one bit. Soooooo I think you all deserve an update and some sort of excuse for why Paper Badge has turned into Paper Nothing.

Save the Semester- The #1 use of my time for the past month (those who truly know me might want to sit down for this one) has been doing homework. I'm serious. Stop laughing. After falling behind in every class due to my vacations, concerts, laziness, etc. I implemented the Save the Semester program. STS is basically just a unique way for me to say that I am studying. The 2nd best part about STS is that I have been attending class, turning in assignments, and I should pass my classes! The best part about STS is that I had a T-shirt made to promote it.

The Week of Concerts- My original plan was this: Eight days, Five concerts, Three venues, Multiple sets of friends, lots of driving, great memories, and a heck of a good time. Great plan. Didn't quite get there. When all was said and done, I attended three concerts in eight days. Muse @ the E Center on my birthday. Miike Snow at the Urban Lounge on Friday and back to the Lounge three days later for The Big Pink. All the shows were awesome and well worth the time and money.

NBA Playoffs- It's really hard to sit down and blog when there are so many good games on. Go Jazz!

Intramural Ultimate Frisbee- Six years after Cap'n Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters went down in a blaze of glory in USU Men's Intramural Ultimate, I returned to intramural sports. The Disc Jockeys, as we called ourselves, finished off the Co-ed tournament with a 3-2 record. The two losses were really bad, but overall I would consider it a success.

Stake Conference Talk- For about a week, STS stood for Save The Stake as I was assigned to speak in the Saturday evening session of my stake conference. I spoke alongside my stake presidency, two recent converts to the church, Elder Condie from the Seventy and his wife. I was a little out of place and pretty intimidated. I thought I sucked but everyone told me I did well. (Lying? Maybe.) I also was able to cross off Be Made Fun Of By A General Authority off my list of Things I Never Wanted To Happen.

That's it! Do you forgive me???????