My Moment with the Cup (now with local news video) Courtesy of Adam Burish

Watching via computer, reading stories online, and listening to reports on the radio about the day the Hawks came back to Chicago with the Cup, I was jealous.  "Dammit.  Today is the kinda day I really wish I still lived in Chicago,"  I grumbled to myself.  But alas, I'm a resident of Madison, WI.  Obviously, I was excited and joyous beyond words the night the Hawks won it all, but the following day, seeing all these people have their cool moments celebrating with the Cup at various bars & restaurants, again, I was jealous.  I really hoped I'd get my moment with the Cup the year my Hawks won it.  I thought about possible times I could drive down and see it in the Chicago-area...but, I remembered, it should appear in Madison, as luckily for me, Adam Burish called Madison "home". 

I found out when his day with the Cup would be, and knew immediately, "It's on Wednesday, huh?  Feels like that day is gonna be a sick day."  Even when I had a moment of pause thinking I shouldn't take Wednesday off, as I actually just took Monday as an actual vacation day.  But, my wife, bless her freakin' heart, said promptly, "No.  This is once in a lifetime.  We're going to see it."  The girl is from fucking Omaha, and never watched a single Hawks game in her entire life until three years ago...and now, she's the one practically pushing me out the door.  I married the right girl.  The Cup was at the Kohl Center in downtown Madison yesterday, and we waited in line for about an hour.  Burwood was signing autographs at the table just before the area where the Cup was, and we did get a couple signatures.  We told him congratulations, and when he handed our autographs back to us, I said, "Good luck in Dallas," he replied, "Thanks."  And as we started walking over to the Cup, I said, "Take it easy on us, okay?"  It looked as if he paused for a second not knowing the identity of "us" in that statement (we were donned in Hawks gear, I assumed he would know what "us" meant) Perhaps I should've thrown in "us Hawks"?  Meh, whatever.  Doesn't matter.  My time with the Cup was here.  So, myself, my wife, and our 10-month-old daughter, had a great moment...

Pictured:  My wife, 10-month-old daughter, and my stupid giddy ass...

Now, I'm jealous of my daughter, I mean, she got to sit in the damn thing!  I'm kidding, obviously, but what a story for her for the rest of her life, any time she sees it..."I sat in that!"  After the picture was snapped, I reached to get her out, and planted a kiss on the Cup.  Mission fucking accomplished!  I got to see, touch, kiss, and sit my daughter in the Stanley Cup two months after the Blackhawks won it.  To add, we were shown on the 6p and 10p news on the local Madison CBS channel.  And apparently, although I have yet to see it, according to a buddy of mine, we were on CSN Chicago 'Sports Nite' as well. 

To say this has been a memorable summer, is an understatement. 

Thanks for letting me share my Stanley Cup moment, SCHers...hopefully we will all get more chances at more moments with the Cup! 

Here's the report from Channel 3 in Madison...