Another week (and another round) is almost behind us in this, the 2014 May Mayhem Tournament of Champions! At the end of today, the final four members of the 2014 Smooth 16 will be identified and be ready for their respective show-downs next week.
But, before we get started, as always, let us honor America with our National Anthem, as performed by the lovely Carrie Underwood....from the 2007 Word Series.... the first time that Denver hosted a World Series game....
AND NOW, the final match-ups of the Thrilled 32 round of the 2014 May Mayhem Tournament of Champions:
7) Boone "Diggity" Langston vs. 15) Sam Hendrick
World Men's Region
Probably my favorite story (or at least most memorable, right now) with Boone was when he worked down the hall from me, in the IT department. He had a random printer set up in his office -- named Printy McPrinterson -- and, one day, he was getting upset because someone in the organization kept printing to Printy over and over again, and it was annoying him quite a bit.
Because I am more inquisitive than he is, I wanted to see what kept getting printed. It turns out, that it was a rather risque love poem, of sorts, that someone (I imagine) was printing repeatedly not understanding why it wasn't coming out of the printer that they thought that they were printing to. Anyway, after I got about half way through the poem (it was somewhat lengthy), I asked Boone if he had read it, and, of course, he had not -- he's not as inquisitive as I am in regards to these sorts of things. Haha, oh man, his facial expressions as he reacted to reading the passages was priceless. It was hilarious - more so than the poem itself.
We never found out who the author was, but, I think, after the 10th or 12th print attempt, they realized that they had the wrong printer, because the copies stopped printing. Boone was fun to have in the office and, while I have had a lot of fun stories and memories with him from our days working together, that is the story that sticks in my mind, right now.
Meanwhile, I don't really have any one specific story or memory with Sam, as I don't think I have seen him since high school. I do vaguely recall, one time, during freshman year, I got a drunk text/IM/phone call from him -- he was in Boulder at the time, and I don't recall the specifics, but that is probably the best story that I have to offer, haha.
That said, I'll advance Boone to the Smooth 16 round of the Tournament.
2) Chris "Maui" Taketa vs. 7) Michael Agosta
Portland Men's Region
It was the end of our sophomore year (so Maui, who was known as the Silent Ninja, in those days, was wrapping up his first year) and so we were moving stuff into the building's storage rooms for the summer. Because Maui's roommate --cough, John Herboth, cough-- was a local kid, he disappeared pretty quick, leaving Maui to fend for himself. Now, as we all know, Maui is not built to move things -- not even himself....as we learned from when Janelle whipped him in a foot race -- and so Agosta and I, being good neighbors, offered to help him move his stuff to the basement storage across the building.
Anyway, I grabbed a stack of boxes, and asked Agosta to get his mini fridge -- it was one of those tiny cube-shaped ones. Now, the whole time Agosta is complaining about how heavy it is and I keep mocking him because it's just a tiny mini fridge. Well, after we get his stuff across the building and into the storage room, we get back upstairs to our rooms and Agosta makes the comment about how the mini fridge was really heavy. To which, Maui -- in a manner as nonchalant as possible -- then says: "Yeah, I packed a bunch of books inside." Information that would have been nice to have known upfront, indeed.
Well, just as Maui got the best of Agosta back then, he will continue to get the best of him this night/morning as well; as Maui advances to the Smooth 16 round of the 2014 May Mayhem Tournament of Champions.
2) Nicole Ison vs. 10) Cadence Powers
World Women's Region
I have a lot of great memories with Nicole. Probably my favorite story or memory with Nicole, though, was when we playfully argued over a silly thing; silly because I am 100% right and, deep down, she probably knows it. Now, I know that it's expected for me, as the guy, to just defer to her (or a woman, in general) as infallible........but, that's not always as much fun. I like a good meaningless argument over silly things from time to time.
Anyway, she was telling me this story about how she was on a trip to some mountain top in deep Eastern Oregon, and, from that mountain top, the guy operating the visitor center (or providing the tour) told her that she the Pacific Ocean was visible from the top of the mountain. Now, I could have/should have just went along with the story, but, instead, I said: "That's not true." So, we playfully argued over this for awhile, with my counter being that, not only was this mountain hundreds of miles from the coast, but also separated from said ocean by not one but TWO mountain ranges. Even on the coast, with no obstructions, you can't see hundreds of miles before the Earth's curvature gets in the way. Sure, with the right altitude maybe but I am pretty sure that this mountain top in Eastern Oregon was not tall enough to meet that requirement.
My belief-- and she didn't fight it too much, either--is that the guide was hitting on her. Who knows? Maybe by distracting her with this fallacy he was able to get in some quality ogling? I can dig it. Regardless, Nicole then said one of the funniest things that -- even as I write this now, years later, still makes me laugh aloud -- "I said the ocean was visible, not the families on the beach!" Fair point. I still don't think the Pacific Ocean is visible from this mountain top in Eastern Oregon, but it is a great memory to recall.
I am fairly confident that I have only seen Cadence socially about....*counts in head*....6 times -- only 4 of which I actually interacted with her. This story, though, comes from a few years back when she (and Theresa) was fundraising for her mission to Latin America (Ecuador, I believe, where she was going to be working in rural villages). The method that they elected to use for fundraising was this "comedy" troupe who were performing in the basement of the Red Lion at Jantzen Beach. Being that, at the time, I lived just down the road from Jantzen Beach (in Kenton), that it was only $20, and that I was supportive of the goodwill that they were undertaking abroad, I decided to attend.
Upon arriving, it was a bit confusing navigating down to the basement where the show was set up (I was thinking, initially, that it was in the large banquet hall -- but there was a corporate "gaming night" going on in there, instead....more on that later). In fact, it kind of reminded me of that scene from "This is Spinal Tap" when they get lost in the tunnels of the stadium and can't find the stage -- yeah, it was a lot like that. Eventually, I find my way to the basement and there was a few tables lined against the wall with a variety of raffle prizes - we each getting 2 raffle tickets.
Now, the really cool prizes (I forget what they were, but I remember them being cool, and thus popular) had a bunch of tickets in them, and so, I figured that I didn't have a chance at winning those. Then, I noticed that the raffle for a Shari's Gift Card only had one other ticket in there, and so, right before the raffle portion ended, I put my two tickets in there, giving me a 2/3 chance at winning: incredible odds.
Anyway, so the "comedy" troupe were terrible. I mean, really, very bad. Had I missed submitting my raffle tickets (or just didn't care about winning anymore), I would have left. However, the raffle was being done after the show..... of course......and so I decided to sit through it. After all, I had 2/3 odds in winning that gift certificate.
If you ever had doubt on whether or not I am void of luck, this story is really the best example: not only did I have 2/3 odds of winning.....and lose....but, my raffle prize, as bizarre as it may be, was the LAST prize to be raffled....which means that I stayed ALL of the way just to come up empty handed at the end. I could have left early (or not gone at all) and been better off. THAT is how my life goes.
HOWEVER, while I may be void of luck most of the time, I also will tend to make the most of my misfortunes. On my way out of the hotel, I walked past the aforementioned corporate "gaming night" in the large banquet hall and decided, why not? And hung out there for a little bit, just walking around and watching the games. I believe, that in environments -- like that -- where there was easily 100 people, there is no one person who knows everyone there. Ergo, so long as you're not being memorable -- one way or another -- no one is going to ask who you are or what you are doing there; they're just going to figure that you're one of the dozens of people that they don't know and leave you be. It's the tried and true method of party crashing.
How Cadence ties into this story (aside from being the hostess, I suppose) is that, it turns out, that the "comedy" troupe kept the bulk of the money raised that night -- which was bogus, because they certainly didn't earn it; they sucked -- and we all would have rather had just given her the $20 directly and called it good. However, Cadence was really kind about it (or so I recall) and she ended up being able to go on the trip and help those people out who needed her help. So, that was really good, and I am happy to have been able to have contributed to that cause.
I'm not sure who will advance from this match-up....it's a tough call..... I'll come back to it later. [some time has passed] Since I haven't seen either Nicole nor Cadence in a long time, and it's uncertain when I'll see either of them again, it's more likely that I see Cadence again first (simply due to proximity) and so I'll advance Cadence to the Smooth 16 round of the 2014 Tournament.
AND NOW, the Round 2 Finale "Marquee Match-Up" presented by the Foster Family Care Network...
...who invites you to attend a screening of the award-winning* documentary "From Place to Place", which follows the lives of three young adults who have aged out of the US foster care system, and who are on a quest to change the system that raised them. The screening will be at the Clinton Street Theater (2522 SE Clinton St), on Thurs., May 29th, from 6pm-8pm.
I would attend the screening, however, the 29th is slated for the second Famed Four showdown, so, unfortunately, I will be unable to attend. If you happen to be one of the 61 already eliminated from the Tournament, I'd encourage you to check it out, if it is of interest to you.
*Awards at the 2012 Montana Cine Film Festival: Best Social Political Issues Documentary; Best Made In Montana Award
2) Tara Walsh vs. 7) Katrina VanSooy
Portland Women's Region
I have had a lot of fun times, great stories, and fun memories with Tara. In fact, upon hanging out with her and Greg not too long ago, we realized that this year (in October) will be the 10th Anniversary of the famed "Price Is Right" road trip!! There had been talks of doing a reunion tour to commemorate the milestone, however, I'm not overly confident that it will occur -- due to life and geography getting in the way over the course of the past decade. Anyway, that was a fun trip.
It was an interesting road trip because we split up at the beginning, with Tom Watson and Tyler Luckey heading down a couple of days ahead of the rest of us (me, Shane, and Schubel), to visit folks in the Bay Area, and then we met up with both of them in LA. Meanwhile, the three of us (me, Shane, and Schubel) drove down to Eugene to pick up Tara, who was sort of rebelling by going on the trip with us (while we didn't witness it, apparently, her mom was wildly opposed to the idea of Tara going on a multi-day road trip with 5 guys. When considering how good we all looked, I can understand her concern, but we are all gentlemen.)
Shortly after picking up Tara in Eugene, we got hit by some rain (in Oregon in October, shocking, right?) and Schubel's windshield wiper either came loose or otherwise malfunctioned, and so we had to pull over, where we took a break from the storm while Shane fixed whatever the issue was; I forget the details. Anyway, we ended up making it to Northern California (Redding-area, I believe; Tara remembers the specifics much better), where we had a motel for the night. Now, I don't know how strict the motel was on their guest policy, but I remember that -- being in our late teens/early 20s -- we were taking no chances and hid in the car, so as not to tip the motel manager that there were actually 4 adults staying in the room, instead of 2 adults. I know, we were a wild bunch on that trip.
The only thing I really remember about that motel was that the shower was designed for someone much shorter than me (and most guys). Hand to God, the shower head was mounted at collar-bone-height on me, and was probably the worst shower that I have ever taken. Although, Tara always says that it was the perfect shower height for her, so, ladies, if you're interested in the perfect height shower, let me know; I can ask Tara for the name of the motel, since she remembers it (I think it was like Red Wagon or something Wagon).
Anyway, so we get into LA the next day and one of my favorite times in college was spent camped out for the "Price is Right" (and, yes, if you want to be on TV -- like we were amply featured -- you have to camp out). Then, at around 9am (or so) when the CBS Studios opened up, we were able to get inside to get our tickets that determined our seating order. Then, we had a bit of a layover, because the filming for our episode wasn't until that afternoon. So, I think we went and got some food or tried sleeping, but I remember that -- knowing we were going to be on TV a lot -- we figured we should get cleaned up a little. Now, having no hotel or obvious place like that, we just took bottled water showers in a parking garage. A practice that, nowadays, would probably be highly frowned upon in LA. Yet, it was still a better shower than the one at that tiny motel.
Long story short: while none of us became contestants, we were seated right behind Contestant's Row, and the studio is actually way smaller than it appears on TV; oh, and Bob Barker was really a rather mean, old man.......during the commercials, haha. He put on his game-face when the tape was rolling, though. He was a professional, for sure. We then went to a comedy club after filming, before heading to Irvine, and that was the extent of our Californian Adventure. It was a great time. Even if the reunion tour doesn't happen, I have my shirt mounted on the wall and so I see it regularly as a reminder of the awesome trip.
While I have known Katrina for a number of years, I don't see her all that often, and so, probably, my favorite memory or story with her is from the after party of Tara and Greg's wedding. You see, I was put at the Island of Misfit toys (first time in my wedding-going career...but it would not be the last), with Cooper and James (when not doing groomsmen duties), and so I didn't see or talk to Katrina much during the reception. However, I do remember talking to her at the Whiskey Bar after party for a little bit and, as always, I can't say anything bad about Katrina, and I don't think many people can.
After all, the most common reason as to why I don't see Katrina all that often is because, as a nurse (and a UP nurse, the best of the best), her schedule keeps her from many of the antics and such that I end up doing. However, while I'm not aware of her kickball abilities or such of that nature, I am rather confident that her kindness and caring nature are much more necessary and valued at the hospital than on the kickball diamond, or Safeco Field for a Mariner's game.
In most of my mock brackets, before the Tournament began, I had Katrina advancing past Tara because, while Tara is surprisingly very competitive, Katrina is probably one of the only people that Tara wouldn't get too mad at me about being eliminated by; plus, it would make for a great storyline if they were to meet, again, in the 2015 Tournament (Tara eliminated Katrina last year in the opening round...I believe, on a Marquee Match-Up as well). However, I reckon that Katrina may not have the time to get too actively involved in the closing rounds of the Tournament and so I'll advance Tara to the Smooth 16 instead.
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And there we have it: the Smooth 16 are now set, and I'll send out the game play for the Smooth 16 and subsequent rounds of the 2014 May Mayhem Tournament of Champions.
-Ryan.
Commissioner
May Mayhem Tournament of Champions
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