Leap Day

It’s a once-in-four-years opportunity to post on Leap Day, so here goes. I had some errands to take care of, as well as some things I wanted to do, plus a couple more things that kind of needed to get done (like cooking dinner), so I was occupied all day, and now I’m writing this at 11:30 at night.

After breakfast, my day started at the grocery store. I didn’t find anything good in the clearance section, but the chicken I usually get was buy one, get one (of equal or lesser price) free, so I saved 37% on my grocery bill. I returned to my apartment to drop the food off, then immediately headed back out to catch the bus to central campus to return a movie to the library. Michigan’s spring break officially started at noon, so central campus was relatively quiet and I passed by a number of students with suitcases heading toward the transit center to catch the Michigan Flyer to the airport.

At the library, I exchanged my DVD for Captain Marvel and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (a rewatch) and borrowed a couple of books as well. I didn’t buy anything at the Friends of the Library book sale last week, but this week at the bookshop I found a Pixar movies puzzle and picked up a couple mass market sci-fi/fantasy paperbacks from the 1980s. I was looking for ridiculous, so one of them is about breaking Newton’s Third Law with a nice dose of conspiracy and the other is about slaying Morkeleb the dragon. I was really tempted to get the one about a space delinquent in space jail solely because the blurb on the back ended with “but then the space pirates arrived,” but I resisted.

Back at my apartment, I had a grilled cheese sandwich and mandarin oranges for lunch, then baked up a batch of banana walnut muffins both because the bananas were too ripe to eat and when I baked banana muffins a few weeks ago I meant to add walnuts, had the walnuts on the counter, and forgot to put the walnuts in. By the time I finished baking and cleaning the kitchen, it was about 2:45 pm, around time for the Revolution’s first game of their 25th season. On the same day that the MLS season started, the men’s teams of ECAC hockey were finishing their regular season. So I watched the Revolution starting their season, followed by the Cornell men’s hockey team ending theirs, both on ESPN+, where for just $4.99 a month, you too can watch obscure sports that 15 other people care about.

One of those teams gives me high blood pressure. The other is currently USA Today’s number two ranked men’s college hockey team in the nation. Guess which is which. If you need a hint, the Revolution got right back into disappointing their fans by losing to the Montreal Impact 1-2 and Cornell men’s hockey enters playoff season in good form, having defeated Clarkson (ranked #7) 5-1 on senior night. In between games, I practiced for an upcoming concert. In between hockey periods, I cooked/ate dinner, and though the broadcast cuts to commercials during the period breaks, I did hear the Cornell pep band play the first three (of six) verses of the Alma Mater for senior night. After the hockey game, I did another round of dishes, put together a bit of my puzzle, and wrote this post. Good night, and Happy Leap Day.

The Year in Ann Arbor [2019]

Another year in Ann Arbor. For the first time in three years, I did not start January at the airport. Instead, I was already back in Ann Arbor following my Singapore trip. I baked pecan rolls, began my fourth round of TA’ing (second time as a grad student), wandered through the arboretum, practiced for the second band concert of the season, and did research, that thing I’m paid to be doing.

In February, I continued my TA duties and baked a lot – snickerdoodles, brownies, lemon bars, pumpkin cranberry bread, and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. The Revolution began preseason and got ready to disappoint all their fans as usual, though we didn’t know it for certain then.

March was the month that my family got Netflix. With hundreds of exciting shows and movies to choose from, I have thus far mainly watched The Office and the Great British Bake Off. Things started warming up so I went out on a bike ride on the border to border trail. I also filed my taxes, gave a presentation on COMSOL, and went to see the Detroit Pistons play the Orlando Magic at Little Caesars Arena (they won, 155-98).

To celebrate lab members graduating, we had a lab party in April where we played Pandemic and again saved the world. I attended a harp recital, a piano recital, and a men’s glee club concert. As the weather improved further, I went on bike rides to the botanical garden and along the river, and continued stomping through the arboretum.

I began May by grading the heat and mass final. As soon as I finished, I went downtown to celebrate the end of the semester with lab members and alcohol. In research news, I finally put something in the rheometer. The rest of this exciting month included building a LEGO robot, the first trip to Blank Slate of the season (I got peanut butter cone crunch ice cream, would recommend), mandatory gender/sexual harassment training, a trip to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) to hear the Haydn horn concerto, a rugel-off (two of my coworkers and I all made different versions of rugelach), and a Memorial Day picnic. There was also barn soccer, barefoot soccer, bad soccer (thanks, Revolution), better soccer (thanks, Mike Lapper), and the beginnings of Bruce Arena soccer. The last three are because the Revolution decided that starting the season 2-8-2 (2 wins, 8 losses, 2 draws) was really not good, fired their coach, fired their general manager, and hired Bruce Arena. For a team that never fills up their roster because “roster flexibility” and likes to find “good deals” in the Slovakian fourth division, this was . . . revolutionary. You can read more about spring here and the Revolution here and here.

In June, I went to see Beauty and the Beast put on by a local theater group, it was peony season at the arboretum, and I walked across a pool of cornstarch and water. At the end of the month, friends from Cornell came to visit and we spent four days catching up while also visiting the U of M art museum and natural history museum, escaping from an escape room, making the rounds through Greenfield Village and the Ford Museum, hiking at the Pinckney Recreation Area, and walking through the botanical garden and arboretum. And eating. There was plenty of eating.

Days after my Cornell friends left, another Cornell friend came to visit in July. After spending a couple days in Michigan seeing the DSO and fireworks at Greenfield Village and the Meijer sculpture garden, we headed off for a whirlwind tour of Toronto, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. In Toronto, we saw the Scarborough Bluffs and walked along the lakeshore through Coronation and Trillium Parks, then headed back to the United States via Niagara Falls and viewed the falls from both the Canadian and American sides. We stopped briefly in the Allegheny National Forest before driving on to Dayton to see the prairie where the Wright brothers developed their flyers. Following all the excitement, I returned to research.

August marked the end of summer, but not before I biked to all corners of Ann Arbor because that’s what I do in summer. At the end of the month, my mother came for a visit. We did all the free Ann Arbor things and hung around my apartment. Plus there was research. In case my advisor reads this, I worked very hard every day and did lots of research. End of summer recap here.

Classes started again in September. I enrolled in my last required class, which required coding in Matlab, which I hadn’t touched since my Intro to Computing class my freshman year at Cornell, because real engineers engineers stuck in the 1970s code in Fortran. I made (yet another) trip to Greenfield Village for fall flavor weekends with a friend and her family. With one game to spare, the Revolution clinched their playoff spot. In May they had a 1% chance to make the playoffs.

October was more of the usual. Research, class, band rehearsals, baking, watching TV. There were trips to the arboretum in search of fall colors, bike rides, and a Michigan hockey game against Cornell's ECAC rival Clarkson.

For the first time since I graduated from Cornell, I got to see Cornell hockey when they came to play Michigan State in November. They won. Let’s go red. We had our first band concert of the season, and then I headed to Orlando for AIChE, the annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. My coworker and I presented, listened to talks, looked for free food, met up with former labmates, classmates, and professors, and when the conference was over, went to Disney World (Epcot).

Finally, we made it to December. I finished my class, went to Tuba Christmas at the farmer’s market, and took off for home. Once home, I did a lot of sleeping and eating. There was also Jeopardy!, Wegmans, a day trip to Castle Island/Boston, Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker, jigsaw puzzles, reading, and baking – cranberry/white chocolate/macadamia nut cookies, cream puffs, and a cake. And that was 2019.

Big Red Hockey

For the first time since graduation, I saw my favorite hockey team play live. It started when I got the Michigan athletics email offering staff discounts on select (i.e. out of conference, not popular) Michigan hockey games. That made me think about Cornell hockey, so I went to look up the team and see what they would be up to this season. In the back of my mind, I was wondering if any of the games in New England would be near when I was going home for Christmas, or if there was any way I could structure my break to see a Cornell hockey game. Instead, what I found out was that Cornell men’s hockey was coming to East Lansing, Michigan, to play Michigan State. East Lansing is a mere hour’s drive from Ann Arbor. 

One of my friends, a fellow Cornell graduate, didn’t take any convincing to agree that we should go to the game. I bought the tickets, we dragged along another friend (who had never seen a hockey game before), and headed out for Lansing on a Friday evening. Munn Ice Arena is the sixth hockey arena I’ve been to, after Lynah Rink (Cornell), Madison Square Garden, Thompson Arena (Dartmouth), the Bright-Landry Hockey Center (aka Lynah east) (Harvard), and Yost Ice Arena (Michigan). It was a lot like most of the other rinks I’ve visited – lots of plastic and metal, video screen, weird prize games during the period breaks. The band was pretty good though. They at least looked like they were having more fun than the Michigan hockey band, and I strongly approve of their second period break set – “Everybody’s Everything” (Santana, 1971), and “Sell Out” (Reel Big Fish, 2010). Nothing like some classic rock and ska to go with your hockey. And I played both of those songs regularly with the Cornell pep band, so I was happy to hear them.

Cornell hockey!

I was also happy with the final score. Based on the rankings, odds were that Cornell would probably win, but they were on the road for their first weekend of NCAA-counted play, versus MSU’s second or third. The rankings carrying over from the previous season also sometimes don’t mean that much, depending on the amount of team turnover from graduation. All of that is to say that Cornell started very shakily. The whole team kept giving up the puck directly in front of their own goal, they couldn’t pass out of their own half, and when they were in MSU’s half, they weren’t getting shots off.

End of game.  Final score: Cornell 3, MSU 2.

Shortly after the start of the game, MSU went on the power play, and before Cornell could get organized, scored. They got a goal back, also on the power play, to go into the first period break tied. In the second period, Cornell started looking a little better, but their penalty kill unit still looked questionable, and MSU scored on a 4-on-3 power play. Again, they managed to tie the game, this time by a lot of hacking and bashing in front of the net that somehow ended with the puck sneaking over the line. The next goal of the game came on another Cornell power play near the end of the second period. With that, Cornell went into the third period up a goal and had twenty minutes to either hold on to their lead or extend it. They didn’t score again that night, but neither did MSU, so they got the 3-2 win. During the rematch the next night, they picked up the scoring (final score, 6-2), leaving Michigan with a pair of wins and an encouraging start to the season. I can’t say Cornell ever looked great at their game Friday night, but they looked better as the night went on. The defense got themselves sorted out and the offence started to string passes together. Their goals were of the “puck is in the net” variety rather than the “great play/shot” kind, but in the end what matters is the number of goals, not the quality. They got the job done, and I got to see them do it. Until next time. Let’s go red.

Birthday Hockey

Part of my birthday celebrations this year included hockey, because after four years in pep band and dozens of hockey games, the sport grew on me. It was only the second time I’ve ever paid to go to a hockey game, but I did get a slight staff/faculty discount. One of the few perks of being a grad student is that we’re considered both students and staff, so we get all the discounts.

The reason I chose this game was not just because of the discount tickets, but because Clarkson was coming to Michigan. Clarkson, like Cornell, plays in ECAC hockey, and finished directly behind Cornell in the standings last year, so I figured I’d watch some conference friends(?) and get an early indication of how the ECAC season might shape up. With that in mind, I headed to Yost Ice Arena on a cool fall Friday night. Yost Arena is probably nicer than Cornell’s Lynah Rink, but I like Lynah and its wooden benches, low rafters, and no video replay screen. Yost, like a lot of things about Michigan, is almost too polished. Life is messy. It has rough edges. It’s not all shiny and sparkling chrome and glass. But Michigan hockey is better than no hockey at all, so I forked over my money and entered the high-ceilinged, aluminum-clad arena.

Near the end of the third period, tie game

It was early in the season, which usually means teams are still getting back on their skates, so to speak. This game was no exception, with players falling and more crossed signals than typical. Clarkson ended up scoring near the end of the first period on a power play, then conceded an even-strength goal midway through the second period, and that concluded the scoring for that game. ECAC plays a single five-minute sudden death overtime period during the regular season. If no team scores during overtime, the game ends as a tie, which is what happened on this night. Apparently for Big Ten conference games, the tie stands for NCAA records, but after the first overtime, they play a second five-minute sudden death overtime, except 3-on-3, and if the game is still tied after that, there’s a shootout and the winner receives an extra point in the Big Ten standings. For this out of conference matchup, however, the game ended as a 1-1 draw after a single overtime.

Third period, student section and hockey band in the background

There was a rematch the following night, and Clarkson came away with the win, which is what I would have expected. Michigan had home ice, but Clarkson (and Cornell) started the season ranked pretty highly. Overall, neither team was particularly inspiring, but Clarkson’s defense looked more organized, and though their offense wasn’t as active as Michigan’s, they had more dangerous fast breaks. All said, it wasn’t a bad game to watch. I brought my DSLR and experimented with shutter speeds, and I got to see what might be my favorite penalty¹ – too many men on the ice.

¹Hockey penalties are great. While most cards in soccer are for “unsportsmanlike conduct,” in hockey you get penalties like boarding, hooking, slashing, cross-checking, charging, high-sticking, holding, holding the stick, elbowing, interference, roughing, tripping, and playing with a broken stick. And of course, too many men on the ice.

Christmas in July?

Billed as Christmas in July and The Best Thing that will Happen to you this Summer (not really; I made that up), the pep band made a one weekend only appearance at two hockey games in July. Cornell alumni, former NHL players, Olympic medalists, current hockey coaches, and other minor celebrities made their way to Lynah Rink on two warm summer evenings, and so did the pep band.

The band had a surprisingly good turnout, with several dozen people showing up both nights. Friday night was the alumni game, featuring former Cornell hockey players from decades past. Lynah hadn’t advertised the game at all, whether to encourage people to attend the game on Saturday or to keep the rink a little much quieter than usual I don’t know. Either way, I’m not sure if anyone not related to a hockey player or in the band attended.

The game was casual, with no penalties, checking, or violence in general. The final score was something like 10 to 9, which sounds more like the score at one of my high school football team’s games than a hockey match. But the really strange thing was leaving Lynah and 1) having it be warmer outside than inside and 2) having the sun still out. I packed up my clarinet and music and walked into the sunset back to my apartment in shorts after a men’s hockey game.

Cornell vs. Cornell

On Saturday night, the game was a charity match for the Racker Center. Several past NHL players and Olympians came back and were joined by current hockey coaches and players. The rink was reasonably full, for summer, and the game was refereed closer to an actual competition, though there was still minimal contact. I think the only penalty called was on the current men’s hockey coach for a pretty blatant trip. Unfortunately, they didn’t go make him sit in the penalty box but awarded a penalty shot to the other team.

Again, the final score was in the realm of 10-12, and at the end there was a penalty shootout, just for fun. One of the players scored during his turn using a lacrosse stick. Another highlight (I can’t remember from which night) was a player coming out for warm-ups wearing a Viking helmet. Definitely appropriate head protection.

We didn’t play as much as usual, but we got a decent number of songs in, and people seemed to like having the band there. I had fun, anyway.

Road Tripping: Havahd, a Not-Love Story

After we got to the hotel, we checked in and found our rooms on the eleventh floor of the hotel (the executive level). Although most of the rooms had four people assigned to them, I only ended up sharing a room with the other female clarinetist on the trip.

In the morning, we woken up by one of the previous inhabitants of the room who had set an alarm for 6 am. We heard the alarm go off, didn't know where the sound was coming from, couldn't see anything, and hit buttons on the clock and phone until the noise stopped. A few hours later, when we actually woke up, we found out that the hotel did not provide breakfast, but there was a Dunkin Donuts across the street. Welcome to New England.

After a lazy morning, and being asked by housekeeping twice(?) if we were checking out yet, we collected our things and returned to the bus. We then drove to Downtown Crossing where we were performing. I had told my parents it would be too cold for us to play outside, but apparently not. We put on layers, and gloves, except for the clarinets, which is the only open holed pep band instrument and thus the only one that you physically cannot play with gloves on.

I have fingerless gloves, but even with those on, my fingers were freezing within three songs. Plus, the pin on my B natural over the break (B4) freezes up when it’s cold. I should probably get my clarinet tuned up two years ago soon, but I also shouldn't be playing outside in twenty degree weather.

When the concert was over and I could feel my fingers again, I met my parents and they took me for lunch (chicken rice and noodles – it was very good). To try and get us and the hockey team back in Ithaca before a(nother) storm hit Boston, the game had been moved up to 4, so right after lunch I returned to the bus for the drive to Harvard’s rink.

We hit traffic (and almost a road sign) on the way over, but we made it into the rink with two minutes to spare before the team came out onto the ice. Attendance at this game was higher (3,095) but still not at Lynah levels, and only because of the number of Cornell fans at the game. Harvard’s band came as well.

If you look closely, you might be able to see that the conductor is conducting with a baton.
At a hockey game.
You know what that is/
Pretentiousness.

And so, after travelling hundreds of miles, we came to the Bright-Landry Hockey Center to watch the dance cam during the period breaks. Instead of playing our instruments, which is kind of the point of having a pep band there. We did get to play some, but at Lynah, besides a few announcements, the pep band provides all the entertainment. We play during warmups (Harvard has “warmup music”),  we play the anthems, they don’t do contests during the breaks, and we play at stoppages.

One thing I will say for Harvard’s rink is that they have a digital scoreboard that can show replays. Lynah’s scoreboard is up against one end of the rink and they don’t even keep track of shots in real time. I wouldn't want Lynah to have something exactly like Harvard's scoreboard because it wouldn't fit with the wooden seats and beams, but it was nice to get to see goals and plays you missed.

The game ended in a 3-3 tie, which was better than we might have expected but not as good as it could have been. Cornell opened the scoring but Harvard came back and midway through the third period scored on a badly marked play to make it 3-2 in their favor. Fortunately, Cornell answered with the last goal of the game.

We left Boston after overtime around 7:30 and drove for seven and a half hours (with a half hour stop in the middle) to return to Ithaca at 3 o’clock in the morning. So after two days, sixteen hours on the bus, sleep and nutrition of questionable quality, and two hockey games, we departed from New England with one point out of a possible four. Would I have liked to see Cornell win a game? Well, yeah. But the trip was still a lot of fun, and if I have the opportunity to travel for another hockey weekend, I’d do it.

Road Tripping: Big Red visits the Big Green

In my two and a half years in the pep band, I had not gone on an overnight trip with the band until a few months ago. There were a variety of factors that led me to this decision. One, I’d never been on an overnight trip before and it would overlap with February break so I’d have time after the trip to relax. Two, I would only be missing two lectures (and production lab) instead of three or four lectures and a recitation. Three, it was the Harvard-Dartmouth trip. Four, I would be able to meet my parents in Boston in the middle of the trip. And five, I wanted to go.

I signed up and got on the trip and so I found myself hauling myself, Hezekiah, and a blanket, among other things, up the slope at 8:15 on Friday morning. The blanket was in case we got stuck in Boston after the Harvard game on Saturday night, which should give you an idea of how bad the weather in the northeast was this past winter.

We left Ithaca by nine and stopped for lunch at noon, kicking off two days of minimal nutrition healthy foods like pizza, burgers, and donuts. I had a sandwich and returned to the bus to finish reading Walden for environmental history. We watched Dodgeball and pulled into Hanover around five. Based on the minimal time I got to spend in Hanover, it seems like a nice town. It feels New England-ish.

From dinner, we walked back to the rink, where we arrived not only in time to play for the team as they came out of the locker room but also before the Dartmouth band. As far as the rink itself, it’s pretty nice, though I was doing some research on Thompson Arena and I have a couple points from Dartmouth Athletics’ official website to refute. For one, their statement that “Crowds of more than 4,000 regularly attend Dartmouth men's hockey games and the atmosphere can be electric . . .” The box score reports attendance at the game as 2,673, and this was on a Friday night in the midst of a six-game win streak for Dartmouth. Also, on our way out, we were informed that the 25+ people with the pep band outcheered the other 2,640 Dartmouth fans in the arena. Second, “One of the toughest arenas for visiting teams in all of college hockey, Thompson Arena’s design has been replicated by other schools trying to the create a similar feel.” First of all, good job proofreading. I’m interested in how other schools try to the create a similar feel. Next, Lynah is older; its first game was played in 1957 compared to 1975 for Thompson Arena.

You know what those things are at the back?  Empty seats.

As for the game itself, the first period saw Dartmouth jump out to a two goal lead only to be matched by Cornell. The second period was scoreless, and we thought we were heading into overtime . . . when Dartmouth scored with eight minutes left in the third period. Cornell couldn't come up with another goal, and so we left Hanover with the loss. On our way over to Harvard, we watched Love Story, and arrived at the hotel around midnight.

Road Tripping: The Frozen Apple

Once again, I remained in Ithaca over Thanksgiving break to enjoy its beautiful weather. I was fed plenty of Thanksgiving food on Thursday, on Friday I didn't leave my dorm, and on Saturday I went to New York City with the band for the Cornell-Penn State hockey game at Madison Square Garden. The game is called the Frozen Apple, I guess because it’s in New York City and it’s cold?

Anyway, we left at a decent hour instead of 5 in the morning like the time we took a day trip to Maryland. We stopped for lunch at the exact same place we stopped last year, watched two and a half straight hours of season two of Community, and got to Madison Square Garden (MSG) with plenty of time to spare before we were expected inside to play pre-game sets. We were allowed to roam the streets of New York City for a couple hours; I ended up with a group of people who walked over to the public library, then got dinner before returning to MSG.

Back at MSG, we got our instruments and tickets and headed inside. After riding over half a dozen escalators we reached the bridge level where we waited for awhile before walking out into the stadium playing Davy. Then we played a couple of sets and went to hunt down our seats where we would get to watch Cornell take on Penn State.

Less than half of the Cornell fans.
In contrast, the Penn State fans didn't even fill two sections.

As for the game itself, it was great, in large part because Cornell ended up winning. The first period, Cornell could barely get the puck out of their own half, and it was just a matter of time before one of the Penn State players jammed the puck into the back of the net. Then in the second period, Cornell finally started getting shots, and during one of their forays into the Penn State half, one of the Cornell players took a shot from distance that somehow got past the goalie.

From there, Cornell looked a lot better right up until the game-winning goal (which was assisted by Cornell’s goalie, who also scored a goal in his first start last season). Following that, the game shifted back toward Penn State, but when they couldn't score again with a couple minutes remaining, they pulled their goalie, leading to the third Cornell goal on the empty net. So we walked away from MSG with a 3-1 win and boarded the bus for the four hour ride back to Cornell, which featured bad movies, neck pain, and a return to everything ChemE, namely, lack of sleep and brainache (it’s kind of like headache, but is caused mainly by ChemE problem sets). All. The. Fun.

First to Five

Yesterday, for the fifth time, the New England Revolution found themselves playing for the MLS Cup, and for the fifth time, they found themselves in second place after two hours of soccer. And it hurt.

Why, you may ask, do we care about grown men and women chasing after balls and waving sticks in the air? Why do we find ourselves overly emotionally invested in games that are, after all is said and done, exactly that – games?

Maybe we see something when we watch players gut it out, grit their teeth and get down to work to get the ball moving away from their goal to the other side of the field. Maybe there’s a little bit of magic in watching the soccer ball leave a foot and a puck leave a stick and knowing they’re going to hit the back of the net. Maybe the celebrations and pain and everything else we feel as a result of those hundreds of square meters remind us of the best and worst of the rest of the world out there. And maybe we just like watching a good hockey fight or grown men head butting each other.

One of my favorite movies is Miracle, which is about the 1980 United States Men’s ice hockey team. Besides the fact that the games were played at Lake Placid, a few hundred miles from Ithaca; and Ken Dryden, arguably Cornell’s best goalie ever, was the color commentator at the Olympics; and Mike Eruzione, the captain, was born and raised in New England; it’s about a team that nobody thought could win. But they did. It took months of hard work, but they finally turned into a team that beat the best in the world and went on to claim an Olympic gold medal.

I guess I was hoping for some of that for the Revolution, who now have sole possession of the most number of times losing MLS Cup. I listened to the thirty minutes of extra time on the radio, and they didn't give up or bunker down to make it to penalty kicks. They fought for a goal, left it all out on the field. After following the Revolution through the past five or six years, I thought this might be the year they finally got the cup. They’d been building up a team of college kids from the drafts and local academy products, backed by Revolution veterans and coached by a player who had played in every minute of the Revolution’s previous four MLS Cup losses.

I followed the stories as they started out hot, then lost eight straight games in the summer, then started – and kept – winning up until losing MLS Cup yet again. They didn't have the high budget roster or international signings to match their opponent, but they had a team.

I've been on the other side too. Sometimes we weren't quite the underdogs that the Revolution were, but sometimes we were. I watched Cornell score an overtime goal against Harvard in the last home game of the season, which was also the last game the seniors would play in Lynah. I spent two weekends watching the women’s team become ECAC champions on late goals in four consecutive games. I saw Cornell come from behind to beat Penn State at Madison Square Garden and fight to a win against the nationally ranked University of Denver at Lynah.

Do I wish the Revolution had one of those happy endings? Well, yeah. But they went further than a lot of people thought they could, and they did it with their usual low budget roster (plus one major signing from the USMNT) while playing in a cavernous football stadium in the miserableness known as New England weather. So here’s to you, Revolution. I’ll see you next season.

Much Excitement

After using column chromatography to separate a mixture of two chemicals, I turned in two solids that appeared to be different in my orgo lab practical. I recovered 0.064 grams of my original 0.17 gram sample for an overall percent yield of 37.6%. I’ve done worse.

My bruise is fading. From the center out, but hey, it only took two weeks. I suspect it was from rock climbing but I don’t recall hitting anything hard enough to cause the subsequent explosion of purple and red on my kneecap.

It’s hockey season. The women’s team is 0 and 3, and they’re already playing ECAC games, which is concerning. I haven’t seen them play because they were away last weekend and their game yesterday was at 3 pm. I have class until 4:30 pm. On a Friday. It sucks* is suboptimal. The men’s team opened with a pair of 3-2 wins in exhibition games last weekend, then tied the University of Nebraska Omaha 1-1 last night. Rematch is tonight. Things might get violent.
*Not a Lynah approved word

Surprise package:

I have a thing about penguins. And also applesauce, peanut butter, and hats. And also against tight pants, half naked Halloween costumes, and finely chopped celery.

This is happening.

From MLSsoccer.com:

The No-Longer-Hypothetical List of Exciting Things That Have Happened to me at Cornell, Spring 2014 edition

As it turns out, this spring was busier than last fall. Attending class and doing problems sets was already the equivalent of a full time job with overtime, except I had to pay to do it. On top of that, I continued working for Cornell Productions, going to pep band and AAIV, and rock climbing in my spare time. Sometimes I even got to do fun things like eating and sleeping. As always, however, it was indeed exciting. Here’s the list:

1. Slope Day: My Slope Day experience involving the slope consisted of this:

The stage seems to be missing some parts.

The slope seems to be missing some people.

This was actually the day before Slope Day. On Slope Day itself, a couple of friends and I went to Cornell’s Hoffman Challenge Course, which is a ropes course about five miles off campus. They have high wire traverses (multivine, lily pads), a 64-foot replica of the clock tower with different ways to climb to the top, a zipline and swing out of the clock tower, and a trapeze, among other elements. I ended up doing a couple of the traverses, climbing the clock tower, and ziplining out of the clock tower. It was fantastic. [Thanks to Alternative Slope Day for organizing the event!]

The multivine

2. Going solo: I was sent to the Bear’s Den for Cornell Productions alone a couple times. Which meant that I was completely in charge of setting up, sound check, making sure nothing went catastrophically wrong with the sound during the show, and packing everything up nicely at the end. Besides the time that half the outlets weren't working, doing the shows alone wasn't too bad. At least I knew beforehand what the events were, unlike the time I showed up to work with another person and we were informed right then and there that a seventeen-piece live band was coming in. Thankfully there were several shared microphones.

3. Summer research: There’s a story behind how exactly I was offered my summer position, but the general idea is that I’ll be making models that demonstrate fluid mechanics (yes, I did spend the entire semester complaining about fluids; no, I did not actually hate the class – more about that in the next post). Besides getting to spend the summer in Ithaca when the sun exists, the project sounds like it could be pretty interesting.

4. Fancy hockey: For the last regular season home game of men’s hockey, the pep band members have the option of dressing up in fancy clothes. To make things even more exciting, this year the last home game was against Harvard. Wikipedia has an entire article on the Cornell-Harvard hockey rivalry, so it must be legitimate. To start off Harvard’s night, the pep band plays the theme from Love Story when they come out onto the ice for warmups. In Love Story, much as in real life, Harvard plays Cornell in a hockey game and loses. Later, when Harvard comes out for the lineups, the Cornell fans (excluding the pep band) throw fish onto the ice. And on this particular night, Cornell managed to come back from two goals down to put the game into overtime. Then with thirty-six seconds to go, a Cornell player scored the winning goal. How’s that for the senior hockey players’ last game in Lynah?

5. Penguins: I will very soon introduce the penguins that you may have met in my Mother’s Day post. They have been travelling across campus with me and are part of a photo project. As an added bonus, I got them on sale.

Cornell wins, Jenny dies, end of [Love] Story

Super Bowl Sunday

The big sports news of the week seems to be that the Portland Landeagles and the Salt Lake City Hippos will be playing in Supper Bowl extra large VI aye aye captain. This event appears to be happening sometime later today, to be played in the breaks between beer and car ads. It features grown men headbutting each other and fighting over a prolate spheroid.

So yes, I have a mixed relationship with football. On one hand, I’m from New England, so I’d like the Patriots to win. On the other hand, I’m from New England, so I would appreciate it if Patriots All Access didn't displace Jeopardy! to 2:37 am and if the Revolution didn't have to trample flying Elvis’ face for the final couple months of the MLS season. Contrary to popular belief, a team playing on football lines and FieldTurf in a giant empty stadium isn't what most fans enjoy seeing.

In other news, the Revolution escaped the confines of the field house where they were practicing . . . and promptly went to Florida. I don’t blame them. After days of subzero windchill in Ithaca, the temperature finally crawled over freezing, allowing it to snow and rain at the same time. The Revolution played a preseason match against Malmo FF (from Sweden), got most of their uninjured players some minutes, and ended up tying 1-1. Not a bad result, especially for preseason. [Also, Marko Perovic, who played for the Revolution in 2010 and 2011, is back training with the Revolution. A lot of fans weren't happy to see him leave, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.]

It was an eight point weekend for the men’s and women’s hockey teams at Cornell, meaning they went undefeated against Yale and Brown (men were away, women were at home). I stayed in Ithaca and spent seven hours in Lynah with the pep band. My other option was homework that our professor informed us we probably wouldn’t be able to do yet. I found out what one of the women’s hockey players has been up to with the Canadian National Team, namely, getting ready for the Olympics. She assisted on or scored almost every single Cornell goal in the ECAC playoffs last year, so I guess she’s pretty good. . . . In this video she’s number 19, the one who gets illegally body checked to start the fight that sends twelve players to the penalty box. Good thing they made the box big enough. One final note: I’m pretty sure the song in the background is “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky, which the pep band plays before third period of every hockey game.

Sports!

To kick off my first weekend back at Cornell, I went to no less (and no more) than four pep band events for a total of more than fourteen hours of sports. As usual, Cornell athletics did not fail to disappoint, and even went undefeated at the events I attended.

During winter, there’s a hockey game pretty much every Friday night. This past weekend, the men’s team was at home, so we started with a game against St. Lawrence University, which is in Canada even further upstate New York than Cornell. Cornell started the game by scoring two goals within the first five minutes. Then St. Lawrence came back with two goals within a couple minutes. To end regulation time, Cornell and St. Lawrence traded goals twice, leaving the score tied at 4-4.

In overtime, Cornell had a penalty shot with half a minute to go. They missed, extending their streak of not scoring on penalty shots to 26 years, 9 months, and 27 days. (Not so fun fact from the game report: Cornell hasn’t scored on a penalty shot since February 27th, 1987.) St. Lawrence and their three fans were thrilled. The other 4,264 Cornell fans in Lynah, not so much. About 20 seconds later, to finish off the game, there was a fight. A St. Lawrence player was put into the penalty box, then taken out to be escorted off the ice by a ref. That, Cornell was happier about.

And then, to truly cap off the night, another fight almost broke out . . . as the teams were shaking hands after the game. Good sportsmanship, guys.

On Saturday, I went to my first women’s basketball game of the year. Their record is slightly above 0.500, but they managed to get their revenge dominate Columbia after a (relatively) close loss the week before. At one point Cornell was winning by 40 points, and the final score was 76-51. After a break to read my fluids textbook in the band room, I went to the second men’s hockey game of the weekend.

That game was against Clarkson, and they brought their band. Any time there’s another band, the general goal is to outplay them by being 1) louder, 2) better, and 3) generally more amazing. We were definitely the better band, as evidenced by the overwhelmingly unbiased opinion of Lynah.

As for the game itself, Cornell began not by scoring two goals, but by letting two goals in. It did not look good, especially when Cornell’s best shots in the first period both hit the post. Then in the second period, they started coming back and tied the game. About fifteen minutes into the second period, Cornell scored again, to make the score 3-2, which is how the game ended.

On Sunday I finished out the pep band weekend by attending wrestling. The first time I saw wrestling last year, I was extremely confused. This time, I was just confused. As it was my third time at wrestling, I did manage to follow along with most of the matches, but the finer points of scoring go under the general category of Sports!. I’m working on it. In the past couple of years, Cornell has seemed to have very strong wrestling teams, and Sunday did not prove the exception, as they beat Rutgers 29-6, winning eight out of the ten matches. It’s interesting to watch how the wrestlers increase in size as the meet goes on. They start out smaller than the coaches and end up looking down at the coaches. The heaviest weight class (285 lbs.) is also more than twice the lightest weight class (125 lbs.).

To conclude, there were some dominant performances from wrestling and women’s basketball. There were a couple crazy normal hockey games in Lynah, including a high-scoring tie and a come from behind victory. It was a good weekend for Cornell athletics. [Well, except maybe for men’s basketball, who are now 1 and 15. But hey, they finally won a game over winter break.]

The No-Longer-Hypothetical List of Exciting Things That Have Happened to me at Cornell, Fall 2013 edition

In case I haven’t said it enough, this fall was really, really busy. Between AAIV, Cornell Productions, pep band, rock climbing, and, oh yeah, actual classes, I didn't have a whole lot of time to sit around staring at the walls. With all the eventfulness came a fair amount of excitement, which leads us into this semester’s list of Exciting Things That Have Happened to me at Cornell.

1. Madison Square Garden: My first time at Madison Square Garden, I not only got to see Cornell’s men’s hockey team play, but I also got to play with the pep band at the game. It was quite an adventure.

2. Unsupervised baking: As the semester wound down, some friends and I managed to get together and do some baking. So far we've made lemon bars and mini apple pies, and I made (not very cheesy) cheese crackers all by myself. The main thing about cooking in college is that you want recipes with as few ingredients as possible. Everything also has to be done by hand with basic tools. Pastry cutter? Don’t have one. I don’t even have salt, but flour has taste by itself, right?

Mini apple pies

3. Mariinsky Orchestra: This was part of the Cornell Concert Series at Bailey Hall, and I was working backstage for Cornell Productions during the concert. They played Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Isle of the Dead by Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 5, and they were very good. Besides putting away the hundreds of chairs and stands, we also helped to load their truck. It takes a lot of wardrobes to clothe an entire orchestra.

4. Small group: Here’s how the story goes. At the end of summer one of my friends emailed me and asked if I’d be interested in being a core member for her small group. To be a core member I “just had to show up.” I said okay, because showing up isn't too hard once you commit your time to it. Sometime in the middle of the semester, my friend asks me if I’d like to prep for small group with her. I said, yeah, sure, because it would be good to see how preparation for small group goes. As we’re going through the passage, she asks me if I’d like to lead that week. Well, then. So much for just showing up. [I did end up saying yes and leading. And it was a good experience.]

5. First ChemE presentation: At the end of Mass and Energy Balances, we didn't have a written final, but we had to make a group presentation about our efforts to reduce the flow rate of carbon into the atmosphere. I was working with my Intro to ChemE group from last year and my current roommate. Apparently it isn't enough for chemical engineers to take all the same classes. We also do homework together, have meals together, and live together. It’s great.

Quite frankly, I can’t narrow down an entire semester to a few events and call them the most exciting things that happened to me in the past four months. I went hiking and saw waterfalls, helped to plan several AAIV events, got to use the very nice sound board the Bear’s Den has while working for Cornell Productions, spent hours yelling at Cornell sports teams, spent more hours hanging upside down at the bouldering wall, stayed up past midnight way too many times arguing with Mathematica or writing essays the morning they were due, trekked a couple hundred miles across campus, complained about anything and everything, and generally had a phenomenal time. And I get to do it all over again next semester.

Road Tripping: Madison Square Garden

I left off after we did the Walk of Waiting for Traffic Lights and the Obstacle Course of Stationary People and made it to Madison Square Garden (MSG). Once we got to MSG, we had to do more waiting, first to get our tickets so we could go up an escalator, then in a hallway outside what turned out to be the Delta Sky 360 Club. We went in to play the Alma Mater, which is probably the only way I’ll ever get into a Sky Club. There is, however, a sky lounge in each of the high rises at Cornell.

After the Alma Mater, we walked over to the rink. The stadium was massive compared to Lynah. We were in the second level of seats behind the Cornell goal. The view wasn't bad, but it was starting to get far enough away that there were a few “where’s the puck?” moments. Of course that happens occasionally at Lynah, even if you’re on the ice . . . funny moment at Lynah from last year: the band was at the rink when it was mostly empty so It must have been during warm ups or the red-white game (when Cornell scrimmages itself). Either way, it was quiet enough so that when things got a little heated we could very clearly hear one of the players scream “where is the ******* puck?” Don’t worry, we told him where it was.

MSG before the game

Back at MSG, we didn't get to play our usual pre-game sets, and not just because Boston University’s band was there. MSG had announcements straight up until they announced the players and played the National Anthem. And then they had ads for BU and Cornell throughout the entire game, which was nice, but honestly, if you were there, I think you knew about both schools in the first place.

The game was a slight disappointment. It was mostly evenly matched until BU scored their first goal. Then Cornell could not get their offence started. Third period saw Cornell losing 3-0. It was not good.

In the end, Cornell came back for two goals, and there were a few times in the final minutes where it looked like they had a shot to tie the game. It turned out they couldn't, but they gave it a try. I still had a fun time and it was pretty cool to see this on the screens when we walked in:

Of course, even without overtime, we left New York City at 11:30, an hour later than we were scheduled to. I slept most of the bus ride back to Ithaca. MSG was a cool experience, but I was excited to be playing in Lynah again. Everyone’s close to the ice, it’s loud in a good way, and (almost) everyone’s a Cornell fan. Also, after navigating the seas of people, I was thrilled to be going back to Cornell in general, because 1) it’s in the middle of nowhere and 2) I get to see the same people (ChemEs) every day.

The Mystery of the Penalty Box Door and the Case of the Empty Net

For the pep band, winter is our busiest season because on top of weekly rehearsals, we play at men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s hockey. This leads to stretches where we have games three days in a row, or, like last weekend, four games in five days. [Let’s face it; this is a good thing because otherwise I’d have no good reason for leaving my dorm room.] There was a rare Monday night basketball game against Radford, which exactly no one in the pep band had heard of. Turns out Radford really is a college in Virginia. For whatever reason they were in the area to play Binghamton and Cornell.

As for the game itself, let’s just say it’s not a good thing when you’re glad your team only lost by 15 points. Cornell looked okay right up until anyone had to shoot, at which point they would drop the ball, throw the ball in the general direction of the hoop, or just flat out miss. Let’s hope this was a Monday night anomaly.

The other three games were all men’s hockey games. The first two were typical ECAC games on a Friday and Saturday night. Friday night Cornell played Brown and at first it did not look like things were going to end well. A few minutes into first period, Cornell had a penalty shot called against them. I saw exactly none last year; this is already at least the second of the season. Brown scored. Cornell managed to tie the game before the end of first period, then picked up two more goals in the second period. And then things got crazy.

With less than ten minutes to go, play stops. The refs and players are focused on our penalty box, which usually means that someone’s gotten a penalty. To see if that’s the case, we wait and see if our penalty box door opens, except that the penalty box door is missing completely. As it turns out, it’s not really missing. It’s just shattered into a million pieces all over the ice. After the glass was cleaned up, play continued. Near the end of the game, Brown pulled their goalie so they could have an extra attacking player on the ice. Cornell scored an empty net goal, and then just to cap off the night, scored one more goal shortly after to make the final score 5-1.

Cornell vs. Yale

The next night, Cornell played Yale, who happen to be last year’s NCAA champions. As it turns out, that didn't matter, because we beat them 2-1 in a game in which Cornell’s only penalty was “too many men on the ice.” Which brings us to the last hockey game.

Following the rare Monday night basketball game was an even rarer Tuesday night hockey game. Not only was the game penalty heavy but there were also some lesser heard penalties called. Including “unsportsmanlike conduct” against a Cornell player for boarding a Niagara player way after the play had been whistled dead. Well, if that’s what they want to call it. Then there was “diving” at least twice, something about “contact to the head,” and “playing with a broken stick.” The last is a penalty because broken sticks can be dangerous, so hockey players are supposed to drop their sticks as soon as they break. In the case of the Cornell player whose stick broke, not only did he not drop his stick, but he then also tried to play the puck with his broken stick. Two minutes in the penalty box, no questions about it.

At that point the score was 3-2, so it was close. Cornell had a two goal lead earlier, but they blew that and were only ahead thanks to a late second period goal. Anyway, they managed to kill off the penalty and make it to the final minutes of the game when Niagara pulled their goalie. The normal frenzy ensued, and the puck bounced around awhile before being saved by our goalie, who, by the way, was not our normal goaltender but a freshman making his first start. (Cornell’s usual goalie had played Friday and Saturday and should be playing again on Saturday, plus the game against Niagara wasn't a league game so I guess the coach was giving the freshman some experience.)

So our goalie drops the puck, lines up a shot, and shoots straight through all the players to score an empty net goal. This is only the third time in NCAA history that a goalie has scored. [Here’s the video. It’s kind of blurry, but you can hear the pep band in the background.] All in a day’s night’s work at Lynah.

Are You Gonna Be My Girl?

As strange and unlikely as it may sound, I get asked this question every few weeks. Sometimes twice in a week. My top answers are “Only Time Will Tell,” “Call Me,” and “Hold On, I’m Comin’.” If you’re thinking that my capitalization needs work, good catch. All of the above, including “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?” are songs in our pep band folder. I have never been asked “Are you gonna be my girl?” in real life because I do not live in a bad 80s sitcom, contrary to what my pep band folder may indicate.

Though I would take bad 80s sitcom over most of what’s on TV today, notable exceptions being Jeopardy!, Sherlock, The Legend of Korra, anything involving the Revolution, and the Spanish channel. Just for fun, last year I calculated the average release date for most of the songs in our pep band folder and it came out to be around 1978. The oldest song we have, not including the Alma Mater and “Anchors Aweigh” (which we play when Army comes to Cornell), is “Basin Street Blues,” from 1926. The newest that I found was “Some Nights,” released in 2012 by Fun.

So hockey season is in full swing, meaning that the band will be busy pretty much every weekend from now until post-winter (known in more southern climates as “spring”). This past weekend we had two women’s hockey games and the men’s basketball home opener.

The women’s hockey team beat RPI 3-1 and Union 8-1. I discovered I can put my pep band shirt on over my fleece jacket, which is nice because it’s cold in Lynah when we’re not surrounded by 4000 other people. The crowds were decent for the games, but for women’s hockey the band stands on the opposite side of the rink from the main crowd. The point is, it’s cold.

The RPI game was either a little lacking in offense or the teams were evenly matched, because the score was pretty low as far as women’s hockey goes. The Union game, on the other hand, was a fairly high-scoring affair for Cornell. One of the most exciting goals from the weekend came in the first period of the RPI game. Cornell had a 1-0 lead and as the clock was counting down, one of the Cornell players took a shot. The puck hit the net just as the buzzer sounded. This was closer than the time Cornell scored with one second left in a playoff match to win the game.

By this point, the band had already played Davy (the fight song) and the teams were leaving the ice. The goal, which had been up on the scoreboard, was taken down and the referees went to review the play. Well, then, did the band play Davy for the end of the period or for the goal? Both. Because as it turned out, the puck crossed the line with one tenth of a second left on the clock. We knew it was a goal the whole time. Really.

Women's hockey vs. Northeastern a few weeks ago

Sunday afternoon we went to the men’s basketball home opener against Loyola, and other people actually showed up, unlike that one women’s basketball game. . . .  The team started out well, but throughout the game the score stayed close. Cornell actually went into the final minute of the game down by several points. They made a basket, bringing them within two points. In Cornell’s last play of the game, one of the Cornell players goes up to shoot, and misses . . . but gets fouled. Two free throws. Newman Arena is getting excited. The player makes the first shot, then makes the second. Loyola has time for one desperation shot, which they miss, sending the game into overtime.

Basketball overtime rarely happens, due to the nature of the game, but it happened on Sunday. Cornell stayed with Loyola until the final minute, but in the end, they missed a couple shots, didn't block a couple others, and lost 89-93. Definitely ranks as one of the craziest finishes to a game I've seen. Between basketball overtime, a couple slam dunks, and hockey, it was an exciting weekend for the band.

And I did this to my clarinet mouthpiece:

Fortunately I have a spare.

(If you don't know what a clarinet mouthpiece is supposed to look like, here's my spare.  Specifically, look along the top edge of the mouthpiece. That v-shaped dent in the top picture? That’s where it chipped off completely.)

Let’s Go Red, and Viva the Revolution

It seems that all my favorite sports teams had a pretty good weekend a couple weeks ago*. At Cornell, women’s hockey beat Harvard to win the ECAC Hockey championship.  Men’s hockey beat Princeton in a best of three series to move on to the ECAC quarterfinals.  Women’s basketball picked up a win against Dartmouth.  Over in Bridgeview, Illinois, the New England Revolution started their MLS season with an away win against the Chicago Fire.

It started Friday night with women’s basketball, but I was working and couldn't attend the game.  On Saturday, Lynah [Cornell's rink] was scheduled to host any and all of the ECAC action, so the first game (Cornell vs. St. Lawrence) started early, at one.  (If the men had gotten home ice for their first round games, the early start would have allowed games to be played at one, four, and seven – both women’s semifinal games followed by the men’s game.)

The women continued the trend of not jumping out to a 4-0 lead (like they sometimes did in the regular season) in the playoffs.  They scored two goals in the first period, but were matched by St. Lawrence in the second period, so we went into the third period tied.  Midway through the third period, Cornell got called for two penalties, leaving the team to play some 3 on 5 hockey and me, and the band, and probably a lot of Lynah, to think “we’re in trouble.”  But the team managed to kill the first penalty, and with less than two minutes to go, scored the winning goal.

After the game, since it was still early, I had a couple hours in the afternoon to do nothing get caught up on homework.  Later that night, I may have been simultaneously checking the score to the men’s second game against Princeton, watching the live comment feed of the Revolution vs. Fire game, and trying to Skype with my parents.  Turns out the Cornell men’s hockey team secured their second win to move on in the playoffs, and not only did the Revolution’s Jerry Bengtson score a goal, but the Revolution held on to their late lead to secure the win.  (Bengtson is fairly well known around MLS circles for scoring Honduras’ game-winning goal in the US-Honduras World Cup Qualifying match while also being seemingly unable to score for the Revolution.  Let’s hope he proves otherwise.)

Sunday, the women’s hockey team took on Harvard for the ECAC final.  It was similar to the St. Lawrence game, except with less goals.  Cornell scored first, then Harvard tied the game in the first period; nobody scored in the second, and we were down to the last minutes of the third period.  Once again, Cornell scored their game-winning goal with less than two minutes to play.  They almost made it 3-1 with an open net goal, but the puck hit the post and didn’t end up crossing the line.  And with that, the women move on the NCAA playoffs, the men take on Quinnipiac in the ECAC quarterfinals, and there may yet be hope for the Revolution.

(For anyone who doesn't understand why the title seems to be applauding a color and making marginally correct English sentences like “Live the Revolution”:  Cornell teams are often referred to as the Big Red, and fans often shout “Let’s go red” to cheer them on.  Last year, the Revolution’s home goal song was “Viva the Revolution.”)

*Blog time tends to move anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks behind real time. Since that weekend, a few somewhat demoralizing events have transpired; they will probably be featured sometime within the next weeks.

19:59, Third Period

The referee dropped the puck onto the ice.  It was slapped backward to a Cornell player.  The rink was still buzzing with excitement from the tying goal we had just scored in the last minute of the third period.  Then before anyone knew what was happening, we saw a shot fly toward the goal, past the goalie’s arm, and hit the back of the net.  Amidst the yelling and cheers, we looked up at the clock and read 1.0.  With exactly one second left in the game, Cornell had scored the winning goal.

To say that the women’s quarterfinal playoff games against Colgate were exciting is a slight understatement.  On Friday, Cornell had to come from a goal down three times to force the game into overtime.  After thirty-nine seconds of overtime, we came away with a 5-4 win.  On Saturday, the team went into the third period trailing 2-0.  A minute into the third period, they scored a goal.  At that point, the band started hoping they could at least push it into overtime so that it wouldn't go to a third game that we would have to play at on Sunday.

With less than a minute left, Cornell scored the tying goal.  The band started hoping we could win in overtime, again, so we wouldn't have to come back on Sunday.  I guess the team didn't want a third game either, because they scored within the next forty seconds.

We encountered a similar situation a few weeks ago at women’s basketball.  We were playing Brown, and we were up by eight or ten points at halftime, but the team hadn't been playing too well after the first few minutes.  Brown continued to eat away at Cornell’s lead throughout the second half until they were leading.  Somehow, Cornell managed to stay in the game until the very last minute.  With about half a minute left, we were down a point, and we had possession.  After some ridiculous number of timeouts, a Cornell player took the ball to the basket and went up for the shot.

This was a shot we had to make, and the entire gym was watching as the basketball fell through the hoop.  With the additional foul shot, we had a two point lead.  Possession went to Brown, and they immediately sprinted down the court.  They took one shot that bounced off the rim, but they caught the rebound.  With seconds left, they took one final shot that once again, everyone was watching, this time hoping for a very different result.  When the ball crashed off the rim and to the ground, the crowd went about as crazy as I've ever seen at a women’s basketball game.

Apparently our teams have a flair for the dramatic.