A Steak 'n' Shake Interlude

Monday night, April 4, 2011.

A night of almost unfathomable heartbreak.

If you've read my previous post, you'll note that I've been delayed in my recent posting because I've been recovering from this heartbreak.

The heartbreak of the Butler Bulldogs getting to the national championship game for a second, consecutive year, and losing again.

It was a sad night. A really sad night. I watched the game in Hinkle with Fiance and Molly, my old roommate and my honorary bulldog friend because we've converted her effectively.

(Though I don't know how hard that task truly was, given she's an IU alum.)

Jay kay. I do appreciate that Molly likes our team. These last two years have earned our team a lot of fans that we didn't have before, that are not necessarily affiliated with Butler or Indianapolis even, but who recognize a good group of kids when they see one.

As the game crept closer and closer to the end and the outcome was looking more and more bleak, Hinkle started clearing out. There were two and a half minutes left, and my heart fell not only because our team looked like it might resort to what I consider terrible desperate playing tactics, but because fans were already clearing out of the fieldhouse. We were down so much that they didn't think it was worth it to watch the rest.

I don't know at what point I myself started accepting that I was probably going to watch my team lose that night, again, but it wasn't that early. It's Butler basketball, and I believe in last-minute miracles. At least, I did this season. Most of our games in the tournament this year, we survived by last-minute miracles.

And when the clock finally wound out the last second, put the time at zero and declared UConn this year's champs, I turned to Molly with just one suggestion. (Fiance had left just after halftime, not due to a disbelief that the Dawgs would win [his attendance at Butler basketball events is purely an act of significant other support; he does not really care about Butler, or basketball, and frankly surprises me when we attend games and he doesn't have to ask me what color uniforms we're cheering for], but because he had to leave town early the next morning.)

My suggestion, my request: a trip to Steak 'n' Shake.

Not just any Steak 'n' Shake, though. Our Steak 'n' Shake. The one in Nora. It had seen me through many other trying times, including one of my first true heartbreaks, one that had drawn out of me real tears, and I knew it would see me through this difficult time as well.

I apologize. I'm sure the last thing anyone comes to this blog for is a description of me in my most emotionally vulnerable moments. Picturing me crying is probably pretty awkward, and definitely not pretty.

But the good news is, on Monday, April 4, no tears were shed.

Yes, it was a sad end to the season, but Molly and I had a chance to talk about the positives of the year.

Like how Butler made it to the tournament again.
Like how we made it to the Final Four in back-to-back years.
Like how we were the first team in Indiana to make it to the Final Four in back-to-back years.
Like how we made it to the championship game in back-to-back years.
Like how we were also -- it could go without saying but I'm going to say it anyway -- the first team in Indiana to make it to the championship game in back-to-back years.
Like how we did all this even without Gordon Hayward.
Like how we both want to have Matt Howard's babies.

And as we talked about all these positives (Fiance may disagree with that last one being a positive; he's just going to have to accept that I want a kid who can play basketball, and given my height deficit, my best chance is going to be reproducing with someone monstrously taller than me, no matter how awkward it may be getting through it), slowly, more people trickled into the Steak 'n' Shake.

Every one of them wearing their Butler gear.

One Frisco melt and order of fries later, I was feeling better. Yeah, our team lost in the championship game, again. But how many teams even get the chance to say they had the CHANCE to lose in a championship game, a year after they had already lost in the championship game?

In spite of the loss, I am still proud to be a Bulldawg.


And Molly is still proud to be associated with those that are Bulldawgs.


And of course, Steak 'n' Shake is still the best place to go, in happiness, sadness, celebration, or disappointment.