My birthday is usually a quiet day, with my family planning a get-together usually one or more weeks late just to lump the other people who have birthdays this month into one party. That day is tomorrow, so I spent today at work (which was not as bad as you might think -- we had a mini-party on Friday, a co-worker brought me cookies AND lunch on her day off Saturday, and we're having a family party tomorrow night). Some years, there's a specific person I'm hoping posts a birthday message on my Facebook wall, and I got that one this year -- early. Additionally, my Facebook friends set a record in the number of friends posting birthday messages, so GO you guys! The Denver Nuggets game was later in the evening, and this was an interesting game, as it seems that no one in Oklahoma cared to see this team. It was a smallish-crowd and I got a front-row spot to graph. I didn't have to share it with anyone other than Jeremy, who's there most of the time anyway. For this game, my manager has "connections" and was able to get the-Thunder-powers-that-be to put my name on the JumboTron(TM) under the birthday announcements. I had both my camera and phone queued up, zoomed in and ready to go, but the couple to my left picked a HORRIBLE time to get up and top off on their beer (they really could have gone down the left instead of the right), and so I just barely got video footage of my name on the JumboTron(TM) on my camera alone. If I didn't get the footage, this would mean a bit more, but I'll stick it here anyway: Jerkfaces! Gary Harris was signing as I was coming down the steps. I could have hurried down and gotten him, but I didn't have anything for him and would have gotten him on the logo photo anyway. I was still sorting through my photos when Will Barton snuck by. Oops, no one was paying attention! Would have have signed anyway? I don't know. The other side had a few more people that could have stopped him, too, but didn't. My last game was almost two weeks ago, so you'll have to give me a pass on this next one. I had a mini-brain fart. I had a photo for Jameer Nelson but didn't pull it out for him to sign as he and Wilson Chandler came by at the same time, and my brain thought, "Hey, I can get them both on the same photo!" I didn't realize until minutes later that I actually DID have a photo for Jameer. Chandler skipped around and I didn't get him. Oh well. Darrell Arthur was next and he seemed like a pretty nice guy. His stats look pretty decent too. Talk about an underrated guy! It sort of makes me wish I had something more than a logo photo for him to sign. I recognized Emmanuel Mudiay when he came by, and the only thing that struck me about him is that he seemed, well, rather short (he didn't look like the 6'5" he's listed at). Maybe it was because I'd just seen Darrell Arthur (6'9"), or maybe one or both of those guys is lying about their height. There was a bit of a lull before Danilo Gallinari came off, and while he was out shooting, I thought about asking him for a selfie. I always play this by ear, depending on the player, his popularity, and whether or not I see him taking pictures with other fans. Usually if he obliges for someone on the other side and he doesn't appear to be pressed for time, I'm more likely to ask. I don't recall seeing him taking pictures with anyone on the other side, but there was something about him that seemed, I don't know, a bit cold -- so I let him be. He signed my photo with Jeremy's gold marker, which I still haven't been able to figure out what brand it is. It's a black-barrel marker with a gold cap. The only thing I've seen on Amazon that matches this is a Gundam marker, but that has a crap-ton of Japanese writing on it and Jeremy's appeared to have no writing on it at all. Jusuf Nurkic signed for everyone as far as I could tell, but he didn't strike me as the type to take a selfie although he may have obliged if I'd asked. At this point, the only guy left was Juan Hernangomez, so Jeremy left to go get the remaining Thunder players and it was really just me and the out-of-towner couple from Denver. Juancho took his time and I was getting a bit concerned that he would pull a Novak. I also thought he'd be willing to take a selfie with me, but at the end he almost skipped me but I managed to catch him after he was through signing for the Denver couple. The Nuggets are a pretty good signing team, and while I'm not sure I'd be as excited to graph them again, it was a good experience and I'd recommend this team if you are graphing for the first time. Arthur 1/1 Barton 0/1 Gallinari 1/1 Hernangomez 1/1 Mudiay 1/1 Nelson 1/1 Nurkic 1/1 The next game on the docket is Wednesday against the Memphis Grizzlies. I've seen this team before and they're all pretty good about signing as well. I've yet to see Mike Conley, and Zach Randolph is pretty hit-or-miss, but regardless, this should be another good outing as well! Until next time, J.R.
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