Next Weekend Will Be Hella Busy

I am so distracted with what is going to happen next weekend that I probably will forget something I should be doing this weekend.  Things are always crazy for me around this time for me, and it usually has to deal with sports, mainly events I want to see.  But my alma mater's women's basketball team will start NCAA Tournament play next weekend, and that pretty much upends everything I have in place next weekend.  I have to organize game-watching events for that team, I just have to.  But that pushes aside pretty much anything I want to do if there is a time conflict.  Is there a conflict?  That's the problem.  I won't know until game dates and game times are determined, and they won't be determined (by ESPN) until, probably, some time Monday.

That's bad enough, but even if my alma mater's women's basketball team weren't in The Big Dance, next weekend would be plenty busy.  To wit:

• Friday: I have designs on attending the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff -- basically the conference men's college hockey conference tournament -- both Days, with the Semifinals beginning late in the afternoon.  This is important to me because this will be the last NCHC Frozen Faceoff at The Xcel Energy Center ever, or at least for a while; starting next season, the conference is switching to campus sites only.  For nostalgia reasons, I want to be here ... but since it's the Semis only, I can skip it if my alma mater is playing in the late afternoon or evening.  It would help matters a lot if they played in the early afternoon; I checked tipoff times for the First Round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament last Year, and the first one started at 10:30 Central Time.  I doubt that I would get that break, however; my alma mater is out west, so I really doubt that they'll have my team play at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time.  (Moreover, even though I asked for this day off, my boss scheduled me to work all day on this day.  I think it's a mistake, seeing that he authorized the day off about six weeks ago.  However, it is a type of special day where everyone who can work is supposed to work.  There is a non-zero chance that my request not to work on this day is taken back for this reason.  I'll know when I come into work and check my e-mail ... some time today, since my boss has authorized overtime for a Sunday, which is quite uncommon.)
• Saturday: The most important day.  There is a big volunteer event at noon that I am spearheading, and I cannot move it and I sure as heck can't cancel it.  If there is any one event that supersedes watching the Game, it's this one.  Beyond this volunteering event, which will end around 2, MNUFC plays at 3:30.  I want to go to the Match, partly because I (duh) have a season ticket for it, but also because it neatly fits into my day, even with the huge driving distance, and my OCD likes the order this brings into my schedule.  Saying that, I have skipped at least a couple Matches every season, so if the Game happens after I volunteer, that's fine.  Beyond that is the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Final in St. Paul at 7:30.  It would suck that the Game could be scheduled then.  But since it's a time when people watch sports on TV, I can also totally see the Game scheduled exactly then, so that would bum me out.  The only, and I mean only, thing I would consider about not holding a game-watching event is the fact that it's the First Round.  My alma mater is going to have a #1 Seed, so they almost certainly will beat the crap out of the poor #16 Seed it draws.  Seeing that it'll be a curb-stomping, do I really, really need to hold an event at our place in downtown Minneapolis?  Probably I do, but maybe I'll be selfish and say no, I want to go to the hockey Game in St. Paul instead.
• Sunday: There is probably the second-biggest thing going on that day: The Women's Frozen Four Final.  The NCAA women's college hockey national Semifinals and Final are being held in town at Ridder Arena.  (The Semifinals are on Friday; they're happening around the same time as the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semis, and so I decided that if I had the time, I would go to the X instead of to Ridder.  The Women's Frozen Four will probably come back here in 5-7 Years' time, whereas this is the last time the NCHC will be at St. Paul, or at least that's what they say.)  I already bought a ticket to the championship Game.  Monetarily it's not a loss; as an aside, paying only about $15 for a top-flight collegiate title Game in any sport is a pretty good deal.  But it's at 3, a really bad time if, including getting to and fro, my alma mater's Game begins any time from the mid-afternoon to the early evening.  Another wrinkle to all this: Sunday and Monday are the Days for the tourney's Second Round Games.  If my alma mater plays on Friday, I won't know when they play on Sunday until after the last women's tournament Game Friday night finishes.

My team is not only one of the best teams that'll be in the field but also one of the glamour teams.  Most of the Games will be on ESPN, but ABC, the over-the-air network that will get a bigger audience, will probably showcase a pair of Games Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  I don't know for certain, but chances are my alma mater will play then.  And if I am thinking along those lines, I really am hoping my team plays Saturday at around high noon so I have an excuse not to have a Game-watching event.  I then can go about my day of volunteering, then going to the Loons Match, then going to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Final.  Then the Second Round Game is on Monday night, when I have no conflicts.

So you see my predicament?  The verdict comes in about, oh, 36 hours from now.