Today was enjoyable in the most unexpected ways. That makes it one to remember.
I was given four gifts today.
The first gift was some time to myself. Living with my extended family is a joy, but alone time is more rare than I'm used to. I relish my solitude. Some folks need constant interaction. Not me. Working overnights in a building by myself as I did for so many years before, I learned to appreciate time by alone. Sometimes I feel selfish for taking that time when I can.
Having a few hours with just my dogs asleep on the arm of the couch and time to watch my favorite mindless TV while playing on the puter was the first benefit today.
The second gift was from the most unexpected place. Titans radio man Mike Keith was in town for a speaking engagement at a luncheon and one of our feature writers had the assignment. When I finally got to the office this afternoon, Sara, the writer who covered the event, said Mike told her he had, hanging in his office, a framed story I did for my newspaper following a visit he made to our town prior to the Titans' Superbowl season. That floored me. I remember the interview and he requested I send him a copy of the story. I did and never expected it to hold a place in his office. That made me feel pretty good to know that my work is on the wall of an NFL broadcaster.
My third gift came directly from Sara. She got me a Mike Keith autograph. I don't usually request them for myself, so it was special to me that she thought of me and then to have the connection with him through our earlier interview was even more of a plus.
My fourth gift came after I covered the Skyhawks basketball games tonight. Talking with Skyhawk broadcaster Chris Brinkley, he told me I was number two in his lottery of people to be stranded on a deserted island with due to conversational skills, common interests, etc. Chris is one smart, curious, personable person and, coming from him, I take that as an extreme compliment.
The only downside to the day was missing my partner, asleep before I got home from the games.
Speaking of the games, the Skyhawk women were miserably awful the first half against Samford, bricking shot after shot. The second half was a complete turnaround, with Tennessee-Martin working harder than Samford on both ends of the court, taking a lead and earning a win.
The men's game was exacerbating for Skyhawk fans. The men allowed Samford to dictate the tempo, slowing things down to a crawl and shooting an incredible percentage from the floor. Samford built a lead and then frustrations mounted for UTM fans when, in the second half, a foul for an elbow resulted in the ejection of a Skyhawk. The play was on the opposite end of the floor from where I was, so I honestly can't say it was a good or bad call. I do know it's the second time this season the Skyhawks have had a player ejected, thus losing that player for the following game.
That hurts in the long term.
It was good to see former Westview product Jason Black getting some quality minutes in the Samford lineup as a redshirt freshman. Black knocked down shots from the outside and was as smooth as he was in high school. I miss seeing him perform in a Westview uniform. The Westview boys could use a player like Black today, confident and able.