The Road to 40 Day 141/365: Go USTe!

The UAAP Men’s Basketball Tournament is back, and my alma mater is off to a good start.

We slept late on Friday night, so I wasn’t able to wake up in time to play Saturday morning basketball. Che and Vino also got up a bit late, so our day started a bit late.

Che didn’t have breakfast, and she was off to go somewhere for a couple of appointments in the afternoon. So I thought it would be good if she had a filling lunch – her favorites, salted egg with tomatoes, as well as fish.

I got her to eat a lot, but I also had my fair share.

Vino and I stayed at home, and he asked me to play with him. My eyes couldn’t stay open long enough to play with him too much. Meanwhile, he was getting different snacks while he played.

He also got to play with a couple of other friends during this time.

I saw that a UAAP game was on, as we went up against De La Salle University. I naturally cheer for UST, but I also have a soft spot for DLSU because my uncle was a key sponsor for the school a little while back.

For my first three years in UST, we were bottom feeders who were lucky to have a win or two in a season. However, we always watched the games and hoped to steal games.

In our fourth year, things changed. We had a magical run that went all the way to the finals. We beat Ateneo, one of the powerhouse teams of that time, in three exciting games.

Interestingly, it was a season where DLSU did not participate due to a suspension.

Over the next few years, I would be offered tickets to watch the games courtesy of my uncle. It would be on the DLSU side, so I could cheer for them and later cheer for UST in the next game.

I stopped watching UAAP for a bit when I got constantly frustrated by how our team was run. I did get back into it a couple of years ago, but I don’t know a lot of the players already. Back then, I would know even bench players of other teams, but there’s so much movement of players now that it’s hard to keep up.

Last year, UST had a good run, but we fell short in reaching the finals. This year, we have a kinda revamped team with several veterans and a strong import.

We beat the team that eliminated us from the Final Four in our opening game last week, as we defeated UP easily. This week, we took on DLSU and we had to fight for a win.

After trailing for much of the game, we were able to wrest control of it late and come away with an 93-84 win. I didn’t realize how big the win was until I read that DLSU had a 16-game win streak over us.

With the game over, Vino and I went out to follow Che to meet with Steph and James for dinner, as they were in the same area where Che was.

We later walked around Tiong Bahru to find ice cream, but ended up at Drips, where we got some cake and bingsu.

Throughout dinner, Vino quietly ate and watched on his tablet. We understand that it’s how kids play now, so while it’s not too enjoyable for us, we do try to play with him when he asks. At least he still wants us to be part of his world somehow.

We all played Grow a Garden because there was an event happening. Later, they asked me to play Restaurant Tycoon 3. I played this with Vino before, and when my restuarant was bigger than his already, he stopped playing it already.

So this time around, I kept putting off joining him and Che so that my restaurant won’t be bigger than his so quickly. On this night, I tried it out as we all played together.

Che asked to sleep already, while Vino continued to play until he fell asleep. I took it as a chance to expand my restuarant.

I slept at around 1am, and I’ll just show Vino how big my resto has grown.

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