Day 3: Orange crush
ORLANDO, 12/29 -- Today was brought to you by the letter "B".
"B" is for Borders. I started off in Altamonte Springs this morning, rooting around for half-off 2011 page-a-day calendars. (I picked up "The Left-Hander's Calendar" and "Duh! The Dumbest Things Ever Said or Done.") But something I did on the spur-of-the-moment surprised even me -- I bought next year's Christmas cards, again half off. Now they're not the Shoebox cards I always get, but they can be adapted for humor.
"B" is for ballet. After lunch, I headed downtown -- half an hour early, as it turned out -- to see Black Swan at the Plaza Cinema Cafe. This is easily the most bizarre ballet-themed psychodrama out there. Even as the credits ran, I was left wondering what was real and what was in her head.
"B" is for basketball. I can't complain about a $15 ticket granting me in/out access to three basketball games, but that's what I got at UCF's Holiday Tournament. In addition, the university was in the midst of sponsoring Light Up UCF, a winter-type festival offering ferris-wheel rides, a carousel, and an ice rink!, so the place was hopping.
Game reports:
[Women] UCF 79-69 Tennessee Tech
[Men] #19 UCF 71-53 Furman
Princeton 65-63 Northeastern
The Princeton/Northeastern nightcap was a hoot because I talked myself onto "guest row" along the sideline. To one side of me were two scouts from the Washington Wizards, and on the other side of me -- for the first half -- was the beat writer for the Central Florida Future writing the game article for their website.
I was only found out by the older scout with about five minutes left in the game. He asked what I thought of the game -- "the first half looked like the low-scoring Princeton of old, running down the shot clock, missing, and rebounding, but things have picked up" -- and then asked who I was with. We negotiated my status to "independent, non-blogger".
"B" is for boondoggle. The new arena at UCF is part of an Arena Village project, surrounded by businesses, restaurants, and the university bookstore. I left the women's game early for dinner, aiming for Tailgater's but because of the crowd, ending up at Kyoto's Sushi & Grill instead. Fittingly, it was filled to the gills with the pre-game crowd, so I ultimately waited about half an hour for my Spider Rolls. (Soft-shell crab, avocado, cream cheese, asparagus, and spicy mayonnaise with white tuna.)
But I did feel accomplished by single-handedly eating five of the six with chopsticks. (The sixth? I used both hands.)
"B" is for Borders. I started off in Altamonte Springs this morning, rooting around for half-off 2011 page-a-day calendars. (I picked up "The Left-Hander's Calendar" and "Duh! The Dumbest Things Ever Said or Done.") But something I did on the spur-of-the-moment surprised even me -- I bought next year's Christmas cards, again half off. Now they're not the Shoebox cards I always get, but they can be adapted for humor.
"B" is for ballet. After lunch, I headed downtown -- half an hour early, as it turned out -- to see Black Swan at the Plaza Cinema Cafe. This is easily the most bizarre ballet-themed psychodrama out there. Even as the credits ran, I was left wondering what was real and what was in her head.
"B" is for basketball. I can't complain about a $15 ticket granting me in/out access to three basketball games, but that's what I got at UCF's Holiday Tournament. In addition, the university was in the midst of sponsoring Light Up UCF, a winter-type festival offering ferris-wheel rides, a carousel, and an ice rink!, so the place was hopping.
Game reports:
[Women] UCF 79-69 Tennessee Tech
[Men] #19 UCF 71-53 Furman
Princeton 65-63 Northeastern
The Princeton/Northeastern nightcap was a hoot because I talked myself onto "guest row" along the sideline. To one side of me were two scouts from the Washington Wizards, and on the other side of me -- for the first half -- was the beat writer for the Central Florida Future writing the game article for their website.
I was only found out by the older scout with about five minutes left in the game. He asked what I thought of the game -- "the first half looked like the low-scoring Princeton of old, running down the shot clock, missing, and rebounding, but things have picked up" -- and then asked who I was with. We negotiated my status to "independent, non-blogger".
"B" is for boondoggle. The new arena at UCF is part of an Arena Village project, surrounded by businesses, restaurants, and the university bookstore. I left the women's game early for dinner, aiming for Tailgater's but because of the crowd, ending up at Kyoto's Sushi & Grill instead. Fittingly, it was filled to the gills with the pre-game crowd, so I ultimately waited about half an hour for my Spider Rolls. (Soft-shell crab, avocado, cream cheese, asparagus, and spicy mayonnaise with white tuna.)
But I did feel accomplished by single-handedly eating five of the six with chopsticks. (The sixth? I used both hands.)