basketball and perspiration

Miss Muffet is working on her jump shot

Natalya played basketball with Coach Lauren yesterday. They played outside and it was pretty warm. On the way home Natalya said, "Mama — I think I'm sweating in places where a girl shouldn't be sweating!"

She really has a way with words sometimes...

It wasn't in the Cards -- again...

Stanford Seniors Jeanette Pohlen, Melanie Murphy and Kayla Pedersen fight for a loose ball

I can't believe it happened again... another trip to the Final Four (that's four years in a row!) and another loss. 62 - 63. Ouch! Of course there were a couple of bogus foul calls on Stanford in the last couple of minutes -- that didn't help matters. But the Cardinal blew a 10 point lead with 4 minutes left. What happened? The Texas A & M defense was more than the Stanford Women could handle. 

I'm so heartbroken... but to put things in perspective, I'm not as heartbroken as the time we lost the 1997 Finals to Old Dominion... that was the worst! It was also the first time Shmoopie ever saw me cry over a basketball game. This year's loss is probably just the second worst loss. 

Thanks for another (mostly) great year Stanford!

2010: What Happened?

I was woefully lacadaisical this year in posting to my blog so before I write about 2011, let me recap the year that was 2010.

We celebrated Shmoopie’s 50th birthday in March with a party at the beach in Aptos, CA. We stayed at a resort called Seascape. Andrea’s parents and their partners came as well as her sister Karen and her family. All of the planning was worth it because the weekend went off without a hitch and Andrea was really pleased with her birthday weekend. She ate her annual bacon and eggs breakfast surrounded by her loved ones. We got really fun party favors for the everyone who attended: reusable shopping bags with a cartoon drawing of Andrea printed on them and the phrase Would you trust your mental health to this woman? (She’s a psychotherapist.) Everybody loved the bags!

In early April my folks treated our family as well as my brother’s family to a week at a resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We celebrated my parents 50th wedding anniversary there. Everyone had a blast! The weather was great and we did lots of fun activities like jet skiing, zip lining, boogie boarding and just plain being lazy on the beach. The only down side of our Mexico trip was that it happened to coincide with the Women’s College Basketball Play-offs. I still can’t believe I told my parents that it was okay to schedule the trip during play-off season! I must’ve been multi-tasking when they asked me.

My brother Eric and me in Mexico

Shoreline Amphitheatre was my home away from home for the summer. I finished my 24th season there. Highlights of the season included meeting Elvis Costello, the return of Sarah McLachlan and Lilith Fair, and meeting the American Idol Finalists. Their publicist is an old friend of mine so she invited Natalya to hang out with the Idols before the show. When I asked Natalya if she wanted to hang with the Idols her eyes bugged out of her head. She was speechless (very rare). Needless to say, Natalya had a blast backstage with the gang (and so did Andrea and I). The Idols were really sweet to Natalya and talked to her about following her dreams etc.

Hanging out with the 2010 American Idol finalists

Natalya spent her summer days at school (Bowman is a year-round school). However, she did spend one week at the Stanford Women’s basketball camp. I was just as excited for her to attend the camp as she was -- maybe more so. She had a great time and got to meet and play ball with some of the Stanford players. The week of intense basketball definitely improved Natalya’s game.

Natalya and her favorite Stanford basketball player, Kayla Pedersen

We took Natalya to Disneyland for her ninth birthday and after that, began our search for a dog. We’d promised Natalya several years ago that she could have a dog when she turned 9 -- so we had to make good on our promise. After weeks of searching we rescued “Olive”. She was 4 months old; a Lab-Basenji mix. We really lucked out because she’s a fantastic dog. Very sweet and well-behaved for the most part.. We’re taking her to puppy classes and having lots of fun with her. Now if she would just stop chewing everything in sight life with Olive would be perfect.

Olive at the park

And finally, a moment I will never forget,  the Stanford Women's Basketball Team beat the UConn Huskies on December 30th at Maples Pavilion. The win ended UConn's record-breaking winning streak of 92 games. Shmoopie and I were so elated by the win that we opened our New Year's Eve bottle of champagne a night early to celebrate. Go Cardinal!

Stanford celebrates its big win

so close and yet...

I've been putting off posting this entry, enjoying my time as the Queen of Denial...but I must face finally the truth. My Stanford Women's Basketball team lost the NCAA Tournament Championship game to the University of Connecticut 82 - 73. We (yes "we") only lost by 9 points. A smaller margin than any team that has lost to UConn in quite a while. We were even ahead at half-time with a score of 20 - 12. But alas, it wasn't meant to be :(

No. 2 Seed Stanford played No. 1 Seed UConn in the Championship Game

The final game was even more excruciating because Shmoopie and I were in Mexico and Mexican ESPN didn't show any of the women's games. We had to "watch" the game by standing next to our new friend Alfonso in the hotel's Internet Cafe -- which was a line of computers at the back of the Sport Bar (singular). Alfonso found a game-feed on the web somehow and the three of us sat in front of a laptop and waited for the screen to refresh every 30 seconds or so. Like I said:  excruciating. The second half was much more painful than the first. That's when UConn pulled ahead of Stanford; Jayne Appel got hurt and then UConn put the hammer down. Andrea and I were SO disappointed -- so was Alfonso -- he was invested too!

Stanford Senior Jayne Appel throws a pass

Thanks for another great season my Cardinal Ladies and farewell to Jayne Appel and the other Seniors. It was awesome watching you develop as players over the course of four seasons. It's hard to say goodbye :(

We'll be back at Maples Pavillion next season ready to cheer you on and welcome the new players.

Go Stanford!!!

it's over and we're sad

Jayne Appel reflects after the loss to UConn

The good news: Stanford made it to the women's NCAA Final Four again this year. The bad news: they couldn't get past UConn this time. Stanford 63, UConn 84. Ouch! And UConn went on to win it all by beating Louisville in the Championship game.

We Stanford fans are sad and so is Jayne... her teammates had an abysmal game. They barely showed up to help her out. Such a bummer.

In the meantime, I'm counting the days till the opening game of the 2009-10 season :)

march madness: here we go again!

Stanford Center Jayne Appel - Pac 10 Player of the Year.
(Jayne also has the honor of being Natalya's favorite basketball player)

It's tournament time and the Stanford Women's Basketball Team got the number two seed again in their region. Last year we rode the two seed all the way to the final championship game -- where we were soundly defeated by Tennessee :( What will this year bring? Several sports writers and analysts are predicting another trip to the Final Four for The Cardinal. I just hope my nerves can handle it!

Go Stanford!!!

it wasn't in the Cards... Stanford 48, Tennessee 64

We lost and that sucks. What more can I say? Hmm.

How about: I'm really going to miss you Candice and I'm sorry that you didn't have a better game on Tuesday. Thanks for four years of (mostly) great memories...good luck in the WNBA!

candice is taking us to the championship!

Our girls played an AWESOME game on Sunday. They didn't let up on UConn even when the going got a little tougher. Candice was such a cool-headed leader... One more game versus the Tennessee Lady Vols on Tuesday. This just might be the year for Stanford Women's BB to go all the way!!!

our girls are going to the Final Four!!!

We did it!!! The Stanford Women's basketball team has made it to the Final Four for the first time since 1997. Yes, we did it. Andrea and I follow the Stanford teams closely year after year... we watch the players develop from Freshman to Senior level players... we get attached... and therefore what happens to our team happens to us. (Didn't someone use that line in an advertising campaign?)

Now we're preparing for our big game against UConn on Sunday, April 6th. We will be ready!!! Go Stanford!!!

stanford 73, tennessee 69

stanford's candice wiggins celebrates the victory

we did it!!! yes "we" did. we beat the Lady Volunteers from Tennessee for the first time in 11 years! the game was at Maples last night and andrea, natalya and i were there to witness the historical moment. it feel SO GOOD to post a win against Tennessee after so many losses.

jane apel and candice wiggins played well but it was rosalyn gold-onwude who really delivered after the game went into overtime. she scored 9 of her game total 10 points during the extra 5 minutes.

thanks for the early christmas present santa! :)

jane apel and kayla pederson block a shot by Player of the Year candace parker

a lesson in determination

We just returned from a trip to Michigan to see the family. Took the kids to a water park one day and Natalya had a blast of course. One of the pools at the park had 3 basketball hoops. Natalya grabbed a ball and her mom and jumped into the pool to shoot a few baskets. Natalya and I spent about 90 minutes total shooting baskets throughout the day. During that entire time she never made a basket. Never.

(Natalya & Cousin Joshua in the pool)

But my girl didn't get discouraged. She never wanted to give up and she never stopped having fun. I have a new appreciation for what a special little girl she is and am thrilled that I'm continuing to learn from her approach to life and living.

got dreams?

Yesterday morning I told Natalya that she could ride her bike to school (I throw the bike in my car and she rides from the parking lot to the classroom). She replied "oh Mama you're the best! You make my dreams come true!"

And Miss Muffet makes my dreams come true as well — she's going to be an awesome basektball player! Here's a picture of her playing while her proud mom looks on :)

perhaps it was a premonition?

Florida State 68, Stanford 61

I am in mourning. My Stanford girls lost to Florida State last night. And they lost at home. It's so painful! I wouldn't feel so bad if we'd (yes we'd) played a good game. But we didn't. We pretty much sucked. This is really testing my resolve to not see loss as disaster.








Stanford center Brooke Smith wipes her eyes after Stanford was upset by Florida State 68-61 during their second-round game in the NCAA women's basketball tournament.

loss & luck

As we head into basketball season's March Madness where one loss means you're out of the tournament — I've been thinking about loss and luck in general. I certainly had my share of losses and luck in 2006. And it's still difficult not to initially view every loss as a disaster — but I'm working on it :) Here's a little something from Elizabeth Bishop:

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost
that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day.
Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel.
None of these will bring disaster.

Even losing you (the lovely voice, a brilliant smile) I shan't have lied.
It's evident the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like
(write it!) like disaster.