Some March Madness in April

...and just like that, the excitement of Final Four weekend has come and gone. Isn't that how life works? You get so excited about something in the future and then it happens and it's wonderful, but you're left feeling somewhat empty now that the anticipation is gone? All you have are pictures and memories (and maybe a few extra pounds) to remind you of what you spent months building up in your mind? This may or may not be a cloaked reference to wedding planning. I'll let you decide.

Fortunately for my tiny corner of the universe, this weekend actually lived up to the hype that surrounded Indy's Final Four celebrations. It started on Thursday night when Wheat and I met up with two of our former grad school classmates and their wonderful wives (and two precious children) for dinner. We caught up on each other's lives, held babies, and followed dinner up with even more talking and some frozen yogurt. We admired the world record-breaking, illuminated March Madness bracket and even ran into former Pacer Lance Stephenson, who was standing somehow unnoticed at a busy intersection downtown.

After dessert, Wheat and I trespassed into White River State Park to check out the gorgeous, multi-colored ferris wheel that was set up for the weekend music festival. Loud music was blaring from speakers, but with no one in sight, I felt like we had stumbled upon a magical, abandoned carnival.

Mommles arrived early the next afternoon and we had lunch at Tin Roof with Wheat before spending several hours on the couch, listening to the rain and talking about everything under the sun. We opted to skip Imagine Dragons, Cold War Kids, and Weezer due to the rain and cool temperatures and instead walked down the canal for dinner. We settled on Burgerhaus, where we promptly rebelled against the place's namesake and ordered pesto grilled cheese sandwiches.

The next afternoon, we ate a quick lunch at The Stacked Pickle before I took my mom to Cancer Survivors Park. I forced her to pose for a picture and we cringed at some of the gloomy plaques with advice for those newly diagnosed with the disease. My advice to those diagnosed with cancer? Skip the park until you can laugh about it. It's a dark place, but I was proud to check it out with my hero.

Next, we set off down the canal to White River State Park for the music festival. We were expecting huge crowds for the Rihanna show that night, but we arrived early enough to lay down a blanket and stake out a perfect spot. We missed Bleachers, but arrived in time for Passion Pit and I was happy to hear my favorite song of theirs, "Take a Walk."

Seemingly overnight, the park had been transformed into the perfect venue for a music festival. There were phone charging stations, food and merchandise booths, a BW3s lounge, smaller stages for other acts, and plenty of TV screens to watch the games. My personal favorite was the Coke Zero area, where you could get free Coke from a bartender or Coke Zero that traveled through a huge sign before dispensing into your cup. We didn't even bother with the long line for the ferris wheel, which was also free, but we did get our picture taken with the NCAA men's basketball trophy that was awarded on Monday night.

As the sun went down, the temperature dropped and we shivered cuddled together to watch Duke beat Michigan State on massive screens around the stage. As soon as Game 1 finished, the lights went on and Rihanna took the stage. Her set was short, but incredible and I was thrilled that I knew every single song. She shortened many of the songs so she could blitz through her impressive catalogue and I even caught my mom singing along to a few hits. This was her setlist:

A Night (Intro)
Rockstar 101
American Oxygen
Rude Boy
Umbrella
Live Your Life (hook on TI song)
Run This Town (hook on Jay-Z song)
All of the Lights (hook on Kanye song)
Pour It Up
Bitch Better Have My Money
FourFive Seconds
Where Have You Been
We Found Love

Stay
Diamonds

She was hilarious, commenting on the cold with expletive-laden exclamations, and super entertaining. After a quick walk home, we watched Game 2 and celebrated Kentucky's loss to Wisconsin with Peep cupcakes.

The next afternoon, we met the same group of grad school friends for Easter brunch at First Watch. After breakfast, we took a walk around the city, checking out the Indy cars personalized for each school on the Circle and the festivities on Georgia Street. We posed for pictures, spotted Doug Gottlieb, Mateen Cleaves, and Wally Szczerbiak (a fellow Miami alum!), and my mom had a heart attack when she was nearly smashed by a Coke Zero vending machine with someone inside of it.

We still had some time to kill before the Pacers-Heat game, so we decided to stroll through March Madness Fan Fest for a bit. We bypassed all the games, spotted Christian Laettner and Reggie Wayne signing autographs, witnessed a surprise proposal, and enjoyed the chaotic atmosphere.

The chaos continued as we found our seats at Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the Pacers game. It was Paul George's long-awaited season debut after his horrific leg injury last summer, so the excitement was palpable in the arena. Everyone was given a 'Welcome Back, PG' sign to hold up during his entrance and the raucous applause when he finally took the floor gave me chills. The Pacers also beat the Heat, 112-89, so we celebrated the best way I know how: with frozen yogurt.

Indy doesn't host the Final Four again until 2021, so I'm glad we took full advantage of the opportunity, but man - I'm still dragging. Is it Friday yet?