Monday, April 04, 2005
This year IS different
Tonight, the Tar Heels take on Illinois for the national championship. Twelve years ago, I watched the boys from UNC win it all at the sports bar in the Grand Hyatt in downtown Washington, D.C. So much has changed since 1993...that really should go without saying, but I do marvel at how far I've come literally and figuratively since then. I mean, this time, I actually have a bank account! I think this habit of "looking back and thinking about where I was/what I was doing on this day last week/month/year/decade" is a Taggart tradition, but I can't really say why. It's just something I do, and I think it's something that my sister and father do, so that's enough to call it a Family Tradition, right?
In late March/early April 1993, I was living in Silver Spring, Md., in a house with either four or five women: high school friends Jocelyn, Cathy and Katherine, Cathy's friend Bridget, and maybe a woman named Holly in the basement. Can't remember when she moved in/out - her stay was brief and painful. It was a 4 bedroom rental house, and my room was basically the converted porch off the back, where I slept on a foam-rubber mattress on the floor (said mattress having been a free throw-in to a dresser I purchased from a friend in Chapel Hill two years earlier). I did have a nice hat rack, and an armoir (?) from Home Depot (yes, I was too poor even for Ikea). I was a reporter for the Northern Virginia Sun, a smaller-than-small daily newspaper that covered Falls Church and Arlington. I bet we had fewer than a couple thousand readers, but damn, I felt like the work I was doing covereing the Arlington schools and everything Falls Church was important. I suppose when your competition is the Falls Church News Press you should not take yourself too seriously. But I did, and I was earning every penny of the $18,000 I was paid (paychecks cashed weekly and stored in my sock drawer -- no, really). I don't think I had a car...but I can't remember. I totalled one Jetta in September (?) 1992 on a highway in North Carolina, and I later bought another lemon Jetta, but not sure when. In the interim, I borrowed Jocelyn's car or rode the Metro to work -- how the hell I worked as a reporter without a car, I'll never know. I was dating a woman named Lorrin Freeman, who had moved from North Carolina after her graduation and was working at a bank (?) and lived in a townhouse somewhere in Northern Virginia. The details have been forcibly removed from my memory by the wretched aftermath of our break-up in the late summer of 1993. Was the break-up wretched, or was the state of my life wretched? Some of each, I think. In hindsight, I don't blame her for dumping me in favor of a law school beau -- I was kind of a mess.
So, that's the glorious state I was in as the 1992-93 Tar Heels took on Michigan for the national title. It was only UNC's second Final Four since the 1982 championship -- the first was my senior year, 1991, when the Heels lost to Kansas in the semifinals...followed by Duke's upset of UNLV and two nights later winning the title...ugh, that sucked. I believe I watched that game at Bub's.
But I digress, mightily. Twelve years ago, I watched Carolina's victory with, among others, Justin McGuire, a UNC grad, former Daily Tar Heel colleague and a Chi Psi. (Tonight, I will watch with Eric Gribbin, a UNC grad, former Daily Tar Heel colleague and a Chi Psi. Hmm.) I was so excited after the George Lynch-led Heels won...very emotional. This run, I've been a lot more reserved and circumspect -- perhaps being 14 years removed from graduation as opposed to two is the difference, or having kids (=perspective?), or maturing? Likely all those.
I no longer live and die by my athletic team allegiances -- no, really! A Red Sox World Series Championship has calmed my most rabid anxieties, and I sweated through that stretch with the "This Year is Different" mantra. So tonight, it will be different -- Roy will get his win, the Tar Heels will be back on top (thereby different from all the ridiculous Dook worship of late) and I can stop wearing this long-sleeved Carolina T-shirt that has served me well karma-wise (except for the Santa Clara game -- that was an aberration).
And as far as I've come, look at how far the Heels have come since the 2001-02 season: 8-20; losses to Ohio, Hampton, Davidson and Charleston; started 5-5, then went 3-15 the rest of the way; a 1-point win over Binghamton; led by Kris Lang and Jason Capel; Adam Boone and Brian Morrison would transfer after the season; 7-6 Neil Fingleton played in his only game (?) for UNC; etc. etc. The ugliness is rampant -- you could go on and on.
But let's not. The Tar Heels are back, This Year is Different. And wouldn't it be nice to have a reason to look back on 2005 and an NCAA title and catalogue my life at some point in the future?
I can think of no logical way to conclude this post. Go Heels!
In late March/early April 1993, I was living in Silver Spring, Md., in a house with either four or five women: high school friends Jocelyn, Cathy and Katherine, Cathy's friend Bridget, and maybe a woman named Holly in the basement. Can't remember when she moved in/out - her stay was brief and painful. It was a 4 bedroom rental house, and my room was basically the converted porch off the back, where I slept on a foam-rubber mattress on the floor (said mattress having been a free throw-in to a dresser I purchased from a friend in Chapel Hill two years earlier). I did have a nice hat rack, and an armoir (?) from Home Depot (yes, I was too poor even for Ikea). I was a reporter for the Northern Virginia Sun, a smaller-than-small daily newspaper that covered Falls Church and Arlington. I bet we had fewer than a couple thousand readers, but damn, I felt like the work I was doing covereing the Arlington schools and everything Falls Church was important. I suppose when your competition is the Falls Church News Press you should not take yourself too seriously. But I did, and I was earning every penny of the $18,000 I was paid (paychecks cashed weekly and stored in my sock drawer -- no, really). I don't think I had a car...but I can't remember. I totalled one Jetta in September (?) 1992 on a highway in North Carolina, and I later bought another lemon Jetta, but not sure when. In the interim, I borrowed Jocelyn's car or rode the Metro to work -- how the hell I worked as a reporter without a car, I'll never know. I was dating a woman named Lorrin Freeman, who had moved from North Carolina after her graduation and was working at a bank (?) and lived in a townhouse somewhere in Northern Virginia. The details have been forcibly removed from my memory by the wretched aftermath of our break-up in the late summer of 1993. Was the break-up wretched, or was the state of my life wretched? Some of each, I think. In hindsight, I don't blame her for dumping me in favor of a law school beau -- I was kind of a mess.
So, that's the glorious state I was in as the 1992-93 Tar Heels took on Michigan for the national title. It was only UNC's second Final Four since the 1982 championship -- the first was my senior year, 1991, when the Heels lost to Kansas in the semifinals...followed by Duke's upset of UNLV and two nights later winning the title...ugh, that sucked. I believe I watched that game at Bub's.
But I digress, mightily. Twelve years ago, I watched Carolina's victory with, among others, Justin McGuire, a UNC grad, former Daily Tar Heel colleague and a Chi Psi. (Tonight, I will watch with Eric Gribbin, a UNC grad, former Daily Tar Heel colleague and a Chi Psi. Hmm.) I was so excited after the George Lynch-led Heels won...very emotional. This run, I've been a lot more reserved and circumspect -- perhaps being 14 years removed from graduation as opposed to two is the difference, or having kids (=perspective?), or maturing? Likely all those.
I no longer live and die by my athletic team allegiances -- no, really! A Red Sox World Series Championship has calmed my most rabid anxieties, and I sweated through that stretch with the "This Year is Different" mantra. So tonight, it will be different -- Roy will get his win, the Tar Heels will be back on top (thereby different from all the ridiculous Dook worship of late) and I can stop wearing this long-sleeved Carolina T-shirt that has served me well karma-wise (except for the Santa Clara game -- that was an aberration).
And as far as I've come, look at how far the Heels have come since the 2001-02 season: 8-20; losses to Ohio, Hampton, Davidson and Charleston; started 5-5, then went 3-15 the rest of the way; a 1-point win over Binghamton; led by Kris Lang and Jason Capel; Adam Boone and Brian Morrison would transfer after the season; 7-6 Neil Fingleton played in his only game (?) for UNC; etc. etc. The ugliness is rampant -- you could go on and on.
But let's not. The Tar Heels are back, This Year is Different. And wouldn't it be nice to have a reason to look back on 2005 and an NCAA title and catalogue my life at some point in the future?
I can think of no logical way to conclude this post. Go Heels!
// posted by Bill @ 8:49 AM 
