Going to the Gahh-den

Two posts in two days, what’s gotten into me?
Today’s going to be a bit of a long day, but it should be a fun one! In a few short hours I’ll be riding a fan bus from State College to New York City, to watch the NIT Championship Game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Baylor Bears at Madison Square Garden! Penn State defeated Notre Dame 67-59 on Tuesday night to earn a trip to the title game. Penn State led comfortably most of the way, including by 19 at one point in the 2nd half, before the Fighting Irish suddenly trimmed the lead to just four. PSU fortunately regained control at the end to win by eight. No win is ever easy with this Penn State team, they always seem to like to give their fans a heart attack. Anyway, I decided I simply didn’t have time to make two trips to New York this week, so I stayed home for the semifinal vs Notre Dame, in the hopes that they’d make the final, which they did!
For the Notre Dame game PSU filled 16 fan buses that went to NYC, and today I’ll be surprised if there aren’t even more buses that get filled. When I got my ticket at about 4pm yesterday afternoon, the ticket lady said that they’d sold nearly 1600 of Penn State’s current allotment of 2000 student tickets, and that they were going fast. And my ticket to the game and a round-trip bus ticket cost only $20 total! What a deal! The bus leaves at noon, and will get back to State College probably close to 2am. The game tips off at 7pm EDT and will be nationally televised on ESPN. It should be a raucous home-away-from-home atmosphere, with a White Out being declared for all Penn State fans in attendance. Not only am I excited to go see a game for the first time in Madison Square Garden, the “mecca” of basketball, but it’s a game I actually care about, and with a national tournament championship on the line, no less!
WE ARE… PENN STATE!! BEAT BAYLOR!!
And as much fun as it’ll be to go to the Penn State game in Madison Square Garden this evening, I’m looking forward far more to this weekend when Alex comes for a visit!! He’ll be getting here very late Friday night, and staying through Monday evening or Tuesday morning. I’m so excited for his visit!! The main purpose of his visit to Happy Valley is to meet with some faculty members in the department on Monday, since he’s applying here for grad school (and no, he doesn’t have an offer yet, but I’m sure hoping and praying that he’ll get one soon!). While he’s here he’ll be also playing with us on the worship band at church on Sunday (Ben leading on guitar, me on keys, Alex on bass), and Alex & I will be leading worship at PSCG Bible study on Sunday night too. I can’t wait!!