The Jayhawks lost, I am sad.
I felt my daughter move, I am glad!

The downside to getting so much joy and satisfaction out of your team’s successes is you generally crash with them when their season ends. You spend five months planning your life around when the next game is and suddenly there’s no next game. I’m pleased to say I was able to get out of bed this morning, unlike April 8 of last year when I used the excuse of getting my truck serviced to stay in bed staring at the ceiling for about three hours. I did charge outside as soon as the game ended yesterday to assemble our new lawn mower and give the yard its first trim of the year. The activity, the noise, and the isolation were a good buffer. Then I sat rather quietly on the couch the entire night.

It was sometime around 9:30 when I put my hand on S’s stomach and for the first time felt our little girlfriend moving around. There wasn’t a lot of force behind it, but she was definitely pushing her legs out, or throwing her arms forward, or somehow letting her presence be known. My hand jumped with her movements, so I guess she’s more forceful that I thought. Over the next 30-40 minutes, I felt her move at least ten times.

March 28, 2004 will go down as the day KU pissed away a chance to get to the Final Four by only playing a B+ game rather than the A+ that was required the last two years. Unfortunately, they played with B- efficiency and let the chance slip away (For the astute followers, this reminds me greatly of the 1996 loss to Syracuse. Far too many missed lay-ups, fumbled passes, and stupid decisions over 45 minutes to not think this was a game we let get away on our own, regardless of how the other team played, how the game was officiated, etc.). However, I’m always going to remember the day for being the first time my daughter let me know that she was around too and I should stop worrying so much about a basketball game I had no control over.