My Valentine's Day Story February 14, 1995

To: Mike Driscoll From: Dennis Crowley Date: February 17, 1995 Subject: My Valentine's Day Story Ok champ, have a seat. Here's my Valentine's Day tale. So it's Monday night (the 13th) and we're sitting around at Syracuse talking... just about random stuff. The conversation shifts to how my girlfriend Amy (who goes to Villanova) was coming up that weekend, (which she did... but thats another story) when someone asks what I gave her for Valentine's Day. I sent her the traditional card and some pictures I had lying around, a few pieces of gum... the normal shit. No flowers or anything. It was then that my friends Josh gave me quite the idea. "How cool would it be to go down to the SU vs. Villanova game and surprise her on Valentine's Day." Afterall, the game was on Tuesday the 14th and the Syracuse Band was going down there to play... This was 11:00 at night, mind you. Okay, so I called some of my, lets call them aquaintances, who are in the band and asked what the odds were of getting on the bus. Most said zero, but some said I had as much as a 5% chance... no one has EVER gotten to ride the band bus for the hell of it. So, I prepared all my stuff that night: my sad story, my delivery - all that jazz - and set my alarm for 6am. At 6:15 Tuesday morning I trudged down to the Carrier Dome and presented myself to the band leader (a Senior) with my sad story and all... "Well, I don't know... go ask the Advisor," he said. So I asked the Advisor. "Well, I dunno... you'll have to ask Mr Clarke, the band director." My chances had gone to zero. So, pretty soon, Mr. Clarke arrived, and as all the freaky people got on the bus to Philly I confronted Mr. Clarke with one question: "Mr Clarke," I asked, "in all truthfullness, what are the odds of me getting on this bus to Villanova." He laughed at me.. "Zero" he said. "Then listen to my sad story at least..." So I told him the story... no reaction. There were no seats left.. until the headcount was done and someone muttered they had three seats left. "Its a question of legality, isn't it." "Yup" "Then take this.. I prepared it last night." Out of my pocked I pulled the legal contract which I had typed up on Word 5.0: a disclaimer for Syracuse University against my liability. Yeah dog. "Oh my God," he said as he glanced over my handiwork. "Have a seat." So I was on my way. The first non-band EVER to ride on the band bus. To make a long story short, I left SU without a ticket to the game and a wallet full of credit cards. I ended up spending 5 hours on S. Street in Philly with the band members killing time. Oh yeah, I called my girlfriend Amy from S. Street.. "Make sure you're going to be at the game," I said "I'll be watching." I also went as far as to say how we'd spend Valentine's Day together next year. Anyways...at 5:00 we left downtown Philly and the bus dropped me off at the Spectrum at 5:50. Now I had called Amy the previous night telling her I'd be watching on TV, so I knew where she was sitting. I just didn't know on what side. Ok, 5:50 and I go and buy 2 tickets; one on each side of the stadium (I heard the Spectrum was really strict about seating). With my two tickets in hand, the lady tells me the game doesn't start until 7:00pm. Ok, thats two hours to wait outside - in the cold - with nothing but a t-shirt and sweatshirt. Nevertheless, I found a bus terminal and killed some time there. Ok, 7:00pm... I was one of the first 100 or so in the building and picked a side (east side) where I pretty much knew Amy would be sitting on. I waited and watched and finally saw her come in from the "I-section" entrance. I raced down to the floor begging the security member to let me into the Student Section to hand her the flowers in time (before it got too crowded). "If I let you down, I have to let everyone down." "Come'on man... I came from NY.. I haven't seen her in 2 months (a lie I also fed to the band director)." "You'll have to speak to the supervisor." "Then call him.. I want to speak to him." Ok, so down comes the supervisor of security (this is all within the time Amy's coming down to her seat). "What's the problem?" I told him my story... blah, blah.. and he grabbed my arm and escorted me across the floor to the student section where Amy was just turning into her 3rd row seats. She hand't seen me yet. "Amy," I yelled. She turned around and I handed her the flowers I had bought on S. Street, "Happy Valentine's Day." And that's the end, basically. I was able to sit with her during the game (I borrowed someone's ticket) and as you know, we lost in OT. I also travelled home on the band bus (a horrible experience), but hey, I made some incredible "mackin-ladies'" points. Isn't that a great story? The whole trip cost me $60 bucks, about the same amount to send roses. Yeah dog... This story painfully edited by Mike Driscoll