Dateline Stanford: Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving break is over... and there's lots of news. Some of it is old...

So what am I thankful for this year?

Improving health:

For any of you who haven't heard, I broke my left collarbone about a month ago biking in the foothills. I was going down a steep bumpy hill, lost control and flipped sideways and landed on my shoulder. Anyway, I've been gradually regaining range of motion and function in my left arm and doing much better. I haven't been wearing any support or taking any pain medication for the past couple weeks.

Stanford football:

I must admit that after we lost our the opening game of the football season to UT by a score or 69-17, I really wasn't expecting much. But here we are, capping off an 8-3 season, winning the PAC-10 championship for the first time ever, and going to the Rose Bowl. Unbelievable. Oh yeah, we're also ranked #22.

I went to the Big Game last week which was a cool experience. We won of course (31-13), for the fifth year in a row. Berkeley students are starting to forget what the Stanford Axe even looks like. :)

Halfway through the third quarter about 100 police officers paraded in with billy clubs in hand and stood in front of the student sections for both sides. The announcer mentioned that there would be "zero tolerance" of anyone trying to rush the field after the game. Twenty Berkeley students were arrested for throwing bottles, rocks, and eggs at the officers, and no
one managed to rush the field. (I heard that two or three years ago some Berkeley students beat up the Tree and/or the band after Big Game, but it still felt a little totalitarian.)

Saturday, we beat Notre Dame on national TV, with a field goal on the last play. 40-37 isn't a pretty win, but we were on the other side of quite a few of those last year and it was great for us to pull it out.

Stanford athletics in general:

At halftime of the Notre Dame game, we were presented with the Sears Director's Cup for the fifth consecutive year. This award is presented to the NCAA Division I school with the best overall athletic program. Although we only got two national championships last year (compared to a record six in 1996-97), we had 6 teams finish second in the nation, and many more in the top 10. After the presentation of the award, the Temptations showed up in a double decker bus and sang a few songs, including "Rose Bowl" to the tune of "My Girl". And there were fireworks of course...

Friday night I caught the tail end of the women's basketball game vs. Tennessee. We had a two or three point lead with under four minutes to go, but Tennessee started a full court press and we couldn't get the ball past halfcourt. It was a close game, but Tennessee prevailed 79-73. Even so, I thought we gave the defending national champions a pretty big scare... and Maples Pavilion was totally full. People were standing in the aisles. I've never seen that for a women's basketball game before. Very cool.

Friends and Family:

(This means you...) Thanks for being there... don't be a stranger.

Quarter is almost over:

I managed to stay fairly busy with my TAing and keeping up with classes and the occasional fun. Less than two weeks to go until the break...