Jill and I just got home from the home opener of the new WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream, and we had a blast.

When we first settled into our seats, we were surprised that the other people in our group weren’t there. The seats were amazing! They were on the first level, Row M, stretching from the center court line 7 seats towards one of the baskets. We knew that 2 of the seats had been sold, and the people who bought them were very nice, and obviously very knowledgeable fans.

A number of celebrities were identified and announced on camera — other than the Mayor of Atlanta and the Chair of the City Council, I’d never heard of any of them. Which was fine with us until Jill ran into Emily Saliers in the ladies room on an unsuccessful hunt for paper towels. Saliers was not identified or announced on camera.

During the first few minutes of the game, people continued filtering in, but none of the people we expected to sit with — their seats remained empty. As the game progressed, Jill filled in details about various players and coaches, which was fairly entertaining. I might have a little WNBA crush on Katie Smith of the Detroit Shock. (She’s on the right.)

Maybe half an hour into the game, a woman came over to our seating area, bearing a tray of food, and politely explained to Jill that she was in the woman’s seat.

Jill and I explained that the group we were in had all 7 of these seats, but that if she really wanted seat #4, we would move over.

This engendered a nearly who’s-on-first level of confusion as the woman insisted that she’d been sitting there for the last 30 minutes. They compared tickets, and indeed, she had a ticket with our party. But we had been sitting there since before the game began, and indeed, had not seen her, or her girlfriend, or a little boy. We were certain.

Eventually we determined that the missing portion of our group inadvertently sat in the next section over. The friendly lost woman took the food back to the hungry child and girlfriend, and we hope they’ll find the right section for the next game.

About this time, the Dream were up by 14 points. This was a major, er, shock, since the Shock are a great team, and this is only the Dream’s second game as a team ever.

The halftime show was a performance by “18 year old pop sensation Sean Kingston” who Jill asked me 3 different times if I was excited to see. Every single time, I had no idea what she was talking about. Judging from the ear-splitting shrieks — especially during this song — of the teenage girls a few rows behind us, this was clearly a factor of my age. (And also my fundamental musical ignorance.) (But mostly my age.)

A minute or two into the second half, the extremely perky blond woman who ran the time-out contests that appear on the jumbo-tron appeared in the aisle next to us. In a fit of enthusiasm, I yelled “Whoo-whooo!” in her general direction.

The next thing I knew, I was agreeing to play a WNBA trivia game. On the jumbo-tron. In front of a “sold out” crowd of more than 10,000 people. A. Sports. Trivia. Game.

The better you know me, the more hilarious this is.

I am one of the least sportual people I know. I go to WNBA games because it makes Jill happy, because back in DC it was usually with a fun crowd of friends, and for the people watching and eye-candy. On Jill’s list of 47 things she was looking for in a wife, I got 46 — the one I missed was “sports fan.”

You too can watch me on the jumbo-tron, thanks to Jill and Flickr.

On the video, you can hear dozens of people screaming out the answer. But in my own defense, I actually knew the answer. REALLY.

Also, in case you were wondering, they did ask me the question in advance. I still had to answer it, but the on-camera version had been rehearsed off-camera. I won a 20 trip MARTA card and a “recyclable Dream goodie bag,” both of which they’re going to mail me.

The only slightly discomforting thing was how excited the Dream staff were that I was pregnant. (”Oh great! She’s pregnant — that’s fantastic!” x 3 of the 5 people.) It had a little whiff of homophobia to it. Nothing overt or rude, but a vibe.
Between the time that I sat down and the end of the game, not only did the Dream give up their 14 point lead, they ended up losing by almost the same margin. Other than that, the game was a unbelievably fun.

And I suspect we will crack up every time we think about me winning a sports trivia contest on the jumbo-tron. It’s already happened a dozen times, at least.