Catching Up: SCZA Fest

Celebrated Scott's 29th Birthday with a day of basketball and night of drinking. Here is an annotated blog of the day.

The Day of Basketball- Syracuse 71, Providence 67

-As Scott mentioned, the Dunkin Donuts Center is an outdated building. It is due for renovation to be ready in Fall of 2008 which is a cheaper alternative than trying to find space for a new arena in an already overcrowded downtown Providence.

-Scott's friend and co-worker Kristin Stanley and brother Kyle took my other two tickets. They are the children of former Red Sox Pitcher Bob Stanley. Both were very quiet and introverted which became even more conspicuous when we met up with Pizza Parlor KeriAnn. I wonder if having to grow up in Massachusetts during the time their father was a World Series goat contributed to their shyness. If so, I feel bad.

-Beer is sold at "The Dunk", very surprising for a Jesuit College game.

-There was a planned "Black-Out" which is 2007's overused College Basketball gimmick in the tradition of "Jersey Popping" and "Crowd Storming". This was ruined by the 1/8 of the crowd which was Syracuse fans wearing Orange intermittendly around the arena. Syracuse "travels well" in basketball around the Northeast it does not "travel well" to college football bowl games (they're the games after the regular season for you die-hard SU football fans).

-Providence has the whitest dance team of all-time. It's as if there is not one tanning salon in the entire state of Rhode Island. Which is entirely possible.

-Andy Rautins is your star of this game shooting 5-7 from 3pt range while Providence went 2-145 (or so it seems) from beyond the arc. Any win in conference on the road is a good win, even if you needed a little luck to get it.

Night of Drinking- Contempo Skank 1, Grant from Ch. 7 0, Pizza Parlor Derek Retired

-Start at Dillon's in Boston's Back Bay. Long line at 9:30pm would lead you to think this bar has some added ammenity like a dance floor, dollar draft specials, HDTV, or a Mechanical Bull (my favorite). Nope! Nothing. Just your regular in-line bar. Joined by a horde of Scott's co-workers from Ch. 5 in Boston and Scott's friend and SU Alum Grant Grenburgh (sp inc intentionally so he doesn't show up on Google like Scott's wife did after my blog for his wedding) a producer from Ch. 7. We are later joined by Rhianna, another Ch. 5 employee dressed in matching hot pink/orange one piece dress and necklace with black hooker boots. Rhianna is not popular among the Ch. 5 crowd already there. One girl called her a "Contempo Skank" which is nothing I will forget anytime soon. Rhianna's nice enough but no one you'd want to be sitting next to on a plane. Upon hearing about Rhianna's loose reputation in the Ch. 5 group. Grant knows immediately who turn his attention to. You can take the boy out of Syracuse but you can't take the Syracuse out of the boy. Grant lays it on super thick even following her to The Pour House down the street after she, myself and a few others leave. Eventually Grant let his intentions be known and admitted he had no intentions of talking to her afterwards doing himself in. Rhianna leaves, so does the Ch. 5 crowd, so does Grant. Scott and I get chinese in ChinaTown and the night is ended.

-Why didn't I try to hook up with the "Contempo Skank"? Like Jack Bauer in the first hours after coming back from China and a suspect braced for interrogation... "I can't do this anymore".