Do you think we can get tickets to the Hawks game?

It's not every year you get to celebrate Grammie's 102nd birthday. Or Balcony Baby's 2nd (which happens TOMORROW, eek). But the Balcony Family packed up our things and headed to Arkansas last week for a grand visit with a wonderful old woman in the middle of nowhere. The visit was great and I won't get into it except to say that where we were pretty much looks like this.

And this.

And a little of this.

And though I know Atlanta is so last round, the irony of the way the Celtics sneak into my life at odd moments must be discussed. Balcony Guy and I managed to watch game 6 against the Hawks on the tube. They did get ESPN out there, miraculously. And I'm sure this has been much discussed (but I've been away, see, and haven't had a chance to catch up on the almost 30 posts over at Red's Army or 15 at Perk Is A Beast, or 13 at BostonSportz or the 10 at I *Heart* Celtics or the hundreds of other blog posts cramming up my Reader, so I'm bringing it up) but ESPN's broadcast of the game was very Hawks-centered. VERY. It was disgusting, making the loss that much harder to swallow. They even had a reporter with a grin on his face interviewing people down at Fenway who had nothing nice to say. One Bostonian said that Redsox Nation doesn't care about the Celtics. Ouch, man. Ouch.

I digress. This seems to happen often but I'm a busy gal and have a lot to tell you so let's see if I can get it all in. Ok, Balcony Guy and I were sad to see the loss but knew we'd have a blast watching the Cs finally kick the Hawks right in the...wings...on Sunday night as we were sitting in our Balcony Seats. And on Saturday morning we completely changed our minds when we discovered that the game was at 1 in the afternoon and not 8 at night. Our flight wasn't going to land in Boston until 1:30. Ouch, man. Ouch.

So Balcony Guy calls his co-worker, Suldog, and offers him the tickets. Suldog hems and haws. Heem hee, not really. I'm sure he was over the moon about it but he's a pretty mellow guy. You'll have to go over to his blog, I put the link right up there on his name, and read about his experience. The funny part here is that Suldog and I are in the same profession. We are both professional voice over artists. For me that means that I need to watch my trap during games so as not to hurt my voice. Clients don't look too kindly on voice artists that can't voice, you know? Anyway, I've mentioned to Suldog in the past about how good I am during the week about not yelling but Friday night games I get loud. He's always laughed it off and told me I shouldn't worry about it because I'm young and he's never had problems with his voice. Then the man spent the entire game yelling and lost said voice. If I knew how to put an audio sample up here then I would. I'll figure it out and get back to his funny voice another time.

See, Suldog, I told you to be careful. And because I have to work tonight he lucks out and gets to sit in my seat AGAIN for the playoffs. I sure hope he watches that voice this time.

Now, back to the trip. Of all the ironies, our plane had a layover in Atlanta. OMG. Get out the Celtics gear for travel and prep the girls on their "Let's go Celtics" chant. We got funny looks for our green shirt and hat as we walked through the airport but not as many as I would have expected. As a matter of fact, we weren't the only people in Celtics gear. And I didn't spot any Hawks-clad folks. And if they had wanted to be wearing their favorite Bibby Baller shirt they were crap out of luck because no where, and I mean NO WHERE in that airport was there any sign of Hawks merch. I would add the pics I took but they don't show anything. It was shocking and strange. Oh so strange.

Funny interaction: as I was getting onto the plane I had to stop at the first row in first class. Two men were talking across the isle and one said, "Do you think we can get tickets to the Hawks game today?" I laughed out loud because that is what I do. And I couldn't stop. I told him the game was at 1 and it had probably been sold out since Friday night. His pal said the game was at 12. I just laughed some more and walked off to the back of the plane with Balcony Baby. I think my favorite punchline will forever be, "Do you think we can get tickets to the Hawks game?"

As usual I have much more to say but I'll end here with this final image for your brain. As the plane landed, folks around us checked the score (we're not as high-tech with portable gadgets) and cheered along with us and smiled at the girls as they called, "Let's go Celtics." All through the airport. Through baggage claim. Into the car. And onto the Mass Pike toward home. Good job, Green, and all of those fans that had a voice that night. You all get 30 Balcony Points for making this mama proud.