I Bleed Blue....At Least In March

I am from Kentucky, so naturally basketball was embedded in my X chromosome at birth. It is EXPECTED of you in Kentucky. You have to LOVE royal blue or you are frowned upon. You have to own at least one shirt, sweatshirt, coffee mug, beach towel, tattoo or bedspread that bears the wildcat emblem. I kid you not, I know someone that has a toilet seat cover with that darn wildcat on it.

Those of you from Tennessee will understand. I have seen you crazy fanatics that drive the orange truck with the big T in the back window, while wearing your orange hat and sweatshirt, with your coon-dog named Smokey riding in the bed of the truck….wearing his very own orange collar AND BANDANA!

Kentucky is kind of like that…….except we are blue and we think that Lexington is the center of the universe. Knoxville is just another town with a football stadium.

So, naturally, when the NCAA basketball brackets arrived on my desk last week, I filled them out with more vigor and excitement than my Girl Scout cookie order form! I will admit, it wasn't easy. Living in a football state, it is hard to catch a basketball game on television. This may come as a shock to my friends back home, but I didn't watch a Kentucky game all year. You can disown me now if you want.

Everyone at work was supposed to fill out their brackets and donate $2, but then someone complained and the money aspect was withdrawn. The actual reward of winning has yet to be named……but I have a feeling that the winner might be mentioned in the company newsletter. OH PLEASE GOD LET IT BE ME!!!

I made a copy of my brackets and diligently highlighted each win that I had. I even took my brackets home over the weekend and tacked them to my bulletin board for safe keeping. Each win of the first two rounds was carefully highlighted, even the one where Kentucky got beat. I didn't have very high hopes for them after looking at their stats. Sorry Kentucky people…I play to win! (Apparently a lot of you do to, hence the reason that Tubby Smith is going to coach Minnesota next year.)

At the end of the weekend, I had a lot of teams highlighted. I was proud of myself. I knew that I had done well and I was eager to see how everyone else at work had done. So when the email arrived early Monday morning, I almost fell off my chair. I was SECOND. Let me repeat that…..I was in second place. HOLY RUPP ARENA!!! And I was only behind by one stinkin' point! Darn those Duke Blue Devils…..they foiled my evil plan for getting my name in the coveted company newsletter. I was thrilled, as I was one of three girls that entered the contest. Then I realized that all the guys are football fans…..so I wasn't really beating anyone that knew what they were doing. (No offense Barry.)

Tonight is the start of the regional semifinals and you can bet your sweet sixteen that I have my highlighter ready. Keep me in your prayers. If I actually make headlines in the company newsletter…..I promise to send you a copy…..highlighted.