Tuesday night my partner Jim's partner, L, stopped by with her partner, J2, who was passing through town on business. I'd never met J2, who lives in western North Carolina, but I'd heard tons about him. So, it was lovely to finally put a face and personality with the name. We extroverts especially love this sort of thing. For the record, L and I are dear friends and family but are not romantically involved. Such is the stuff of a polyamorous intimate network.
(WARNING: I'm a native of east Tennessee, and therefore my blood runs orange - if you have no interest in hearing me rave about the Lady Vols, click here for the rest of the post - even though you'll be missing a GREAT story.) That same evening the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team beat the Stanford women's team in Tampa to win the national championship for the second year in a row, making it coach Pat Summit's eighth during her tenure at UT. Thanks to Candace Parker's gifted teammates, a win in this game didn't hinge on phenom Parker (middle of the picture below).
Candace played most of the game but was hard pressed to contribute a top notch performance due to a recent shoulder dislocation. Pat Summitt's coaching magic was afoot, and the rest of the team - incredibly accomplished themselves - stepped up and did themselves and Vol fans everywhere proud. 5'2" Shannon "Little Bit" Bobbitt scored 13 points including two three pointers, and Nicky Anosike added 12 points, eight rebounds and six steals.
Fresh off winning her second straight NCAA title, on Wednesday Candace Parker was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks with the first pick in the WNBA draft. (Sorry, I just can't move on with the week without gushing some more about Candace Parker.) Two tourney Most Outstanding Player awards. Two Player of the Year awards. Three-time All-American. Academic All-American of the Year. And a spot on the 2008 Olympic team.
Off the court, the savvy 22-year-old has a Madison Avenue smile. Charisma and street cred. A slam-dunk title. A sports-marketing degree coming in May. A supportive family. A fiancé, Shelden Williams, who plays for the Sacramento Kings and an older brother, Anthony, who plays for the Toronto Raptors. Oh, and a spot in People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People. Whew! Yep, I'm a fan of Candace Parker. OK, raving over.
On Wednesday tall, beautiful, C and I had a lovely dinner at Luna Del Sea in Baltimore followed by the Carrie Underwood Keith Urban concert. Wow, what talent. Underwood is excellent, but Urban just blew me away - he is an incredibly gifted guitar player. It was well worth the $90 cost of a ticket. And of course everyone swooned when Keith dedicated a song to his lovely, lovely, pregnant (and alas, very absent) wife, Nicole Kidman, on whom I've had a crush or years. Now I'm crushing on both of them. Of course, I am a polygirl!
Today Voice of America is broadcasting a piece on the Eldorado, Texas FLDS compound raid in which I have a soundbite. I was contacted Wednesday morning with the interview request. See more on this with a link to the video in my next post.
So how much fun can a polygirl have if a polygirl can have fun??? Lots!
1 comment:
Hi! Regarding Candace Parker and the Lady Vols: my wife Sparkler sitting here on the bed said, looking at those pictures you put up, "Think Title IX. You would not be seeing that picture or hearing anything about Lady Vols without Title IX."
She herself is a pre-Title IX jock who helped lead her high school women's cross-country team to regional championships, yet they couldn't get the school to give them uniforms or any local recognition.
(Title IX was the federal law that required schools to allow equal facilities for male and female sports, football excepted.)
Cheers,
Alan
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