Love from the inside

I thoroughly enjoyed Petra's post today on Pasadena Daily Photo. Petra has a great way with words, and her post today hit home with me.

My husband, E., and I found each other when we were in our 40s. If we had known each other as younger adults, it just wouldn't have worked. Somehow, now it does. No one makes me laugh like he does - no one can shoot a trivial zinger out of blue air and make my sides ache with laughter.

And no one except E. has ever said "Oh, wow!" when I successfully throw a trivial zinger back.

E. proposed to me one afternoon before we were headed to a Phoenix Suns game. So that is now our anniversary event. However, we celebrate it on the day he asked me wed him, not on the date of our anniversary. Suns are in 'pre-season' on our wedding date anniversary - so there's not a decent game around.

I think E.'s enjoyment of the Suns started during the Charles Barkley/Suns era, which would make it about 1993. It was an exciting season, but I'm not a real Barkley fan... My Suns enjoyment started in 1976 (yikes - I was a teenager), with the 'shot heard around the world'. The Sunderella team was in my heart. It also helps that my dad played basketball through high school, army deployment, college, and for his company team.

He was a pretty damn good player, too. It helped that he was 6'6" when most players weren't. He did play against and with the likes of George Mikan (Mr Basketball) and Bob Kurland (one of the first 7 foot players).

I always loved my dad's basketball stories. How against Kurland, dad jumped as hard and as high as he could - only to tickle Kurland's armpit. How because of Kurland's vertical leap and shot blocking ability, defensive goal-tending was banned. How because of Mikan, the shot clock was introduced and the lane widened from 6 feet to 12 feet (this is called the Mikan Rule). My dad loved the game. His enthusiasm for it trickled down to me.

When we moved to Tennessee, I was in high school. Our house had a long driveway with an apron turn around area at the end of it. Dad put a basketball hoop here. The kids next door (ok, they weren't kids - they were college aged guys!) would come over and play a pickup game almost every afternoon. My dad would shoot around after work, if it was still daylight. A couple of the fathers on our block used to 'drink and shoot' until wee hours of the morning.

So, E. and I have 'shared' season tickets to the Suns. This is the view from our seats.

Eddie Johnson ('EJ'), the announcer on the left of this photo, is a former Suns player. My brother ended up with a pair of Eddie's game shoes - long story, but the gist is that they both wear size 16 shoes...

And here are a few shots from a game last week. Everyone knows Steve Nash,
but a crowd favorite is Lou Amundson (#17 below).
And Channing Frye is new to our team - he is from Phoenix and then attended college at University of Arizona - and now is home again. He has proven to be quite the 3 point shooter! I call him Chanel # Frye. It just sounds right.

I cherish having a delicious spouse who enjoys the game as much as I do... and he doesn't laugh at the inner me for being a fan!