Girls' Night at the Game

Izzypop and I went to the Jazz game tonight as a mommy-daughter date. Despite all odds, we had a great time as evidenced by the smile on her face at the end of the night.



The night started with Izzypop getting to choose where we went for dinner. She chose the "Star House" -- Carl's Junior. I tried my hardest to convince her to go somewhere else..."Don't you want to go to a restaurant and order from a menu like a big girl?"..."Nope! I want chicken stars!". I don't mind Carl's Junior all that much, it's just that the only Carl's that is close to us isn't exactly the best location to be hanging out after dark. But she was determined to dine at the "Star House".

As we got there, two homeless guys broke out into an argument in line in front of us and the on-duty police officer whose beat is the Carl's....No, I'm not kidding...had to throw one of them out. We took a seat in the booth next to the cop, just in case. Izzypop was oblivious. She enjoyed her chicken stars even as I was gently encouraging her to eat faster :).

We made it out of the Carl's alive and headed over to the Delta Center -- yes, I know, but it will always be the Delta Center to me. As we were walking, it seemed extra dead. Usually there were tons of people filing into the building by now. I had a thought that made my stomach lurch a little. I asked a security guard "The game starts at 7, right?". "Nope, 8:30.". Crap. Well, at least we were early.

We ended up having to wait outside for 15 minutes before they'd even let us in. We finally entered the building and I was happy to see it was giveaway night. They were giving everyone a little plastic Jazz bracelet -- perfect for a girls game night! They even had bright pink ones. Lizzy's eyes lit up..."I want a pink one!!!". The chick gave her a white one.

"Can she have a pink one?" I asked thinking who would deny this sweet little girl a pink bracelet, especially since they have about a million sitting right there and we are like the second person to get one since we're here so early. That's what I get for thinking.

"It is pink, see." The little (childless, obviously) blonde, said pointing to the pink writing on the white bracelet.

"Um, that's white with pink writing." I said totally confused.

"Well, the white ones are the smallest ones so I figured she would want a white one."

"Okay......can I have a pink one?" I asked. She handed me a pink one. Seriously? I handed it to Izzypop and she chucked the white one at me with disdain, "Here, you can have this one, mommy." What is wrong with people? LOL! The best part was I was holding Iz's pink bracelet later and thought, "I wonder how much smaller they are." They, of course, were exactly the same size. WTH?



Iz had a great time while we were there. She played on the indoor playground for an hour and a half until we got a bucket of popcorn, a large Orange Fanta and a ginormous bag of cotton candy and took our seats.

One trip down to go potty, one trip down to get a pile of napkins because Iz spilled her Orange Fanta everywhere, one trip down to wash her hands because they were sticky and blue, one trip down to get our picture taken, and one trip down to play on the playground again later it was only half way through the second quarter, it was 9:30 and Iz was laying across her chair on my lap.

"Do you want to go home?"

"Yeah." And so we took another trip down the stairs to go home...."But I don't want to go home!!!" she insisted....Huh? Didn't we just have a conversation in which she said she wanted to go home??? I was not about to climb those stairs again. :) We were home by halftime.

Izzypop's favorite part of the night was the playground...definitely the playground. My favorite part of the night was watching Iz put her little hand over her heart and look at the flag intently as the National Anthem was sung. At the very end, she turned around to me, winked and mouthed "I love you." What a perfect night with my girl. :)

As far as the game goes, even though I didn't see much of it at all, it was cool to be there for Ty Corbin's introduction as the new Jazz coach. It will be weird not to see those guys on the bench anymore...is that Jeff Hornacek sitting next to Scott Layden? And did ESPN just interview Karl Malone who said he wants to be coaching here someday? I guess the game will go on and it may even still be fun to watch.


P.S. I can also say I was there when D-Will was booed for the first time at home. Ugh.