Every winter, Gary and I go to a Chicago Bulls game. I should say, we attempt to go to a Bulls game after last year’s massive debacle.

As I have said, Gary and I are an impulsive duo. Mid-week of my freshman year of college, three years ago already, dang I’m graduating. Wow.

Anyways, that is beside the point. My freshman year on a Wednesday we decided to buy tickets to a 7 p.m. St. Louis Cardinals vs. Milwaukee Brewers game. Yes, we had class the next day, but as the overused term goes, YOLO.

Freshman year winter comes. Gary and I were one heck of a duo that year. He has since moved on to ISU.

We bought Bulls tickets so we could meet up over break and have some fun. The same thing happened the following year. There is just something about going to Chicago in the winter. 

That year we trekked it from the Trump Tower to the United Center— about a 45-minute walk.

Junior year comes, maybe it was our lack of impulsiveness, or the fact that the Bulls jacked their prices up to an unreasonable price to watch a mediocre basketball team that had problems every day.

So no tickets. We’ll scalp them, we think. We drive down to Chicago together and walk all around the United Center in hopes of finding someone selling tickets for a price that the people of planet Earth would spend their money on.

We’re thinking in the ballpark of $30 or even less. That is how much we perceived the Bulls to be worth.

One scalper wanted $60 for the ticket. Excuse me, sir, what planet are you from? One guy was more reasonable in around $45, but he wanted to pull us aside and get our emails and we’d pay with credit card over the phone.

Yea, man, here’s my credit card number, PIN, Social, anything else you would like to give you? My address, bet, here you go.

That guy did not sell his tickets. But we were determined to make it three years in a row of going to a Bulls game over winter break. It was a tradition that could not be broken.

Maybe most importantly, if the Bulls scored 100 points and won, free Big Macs. If you’ve ever been to a game, you can feel the anxiousness of people and the energy in the Madhouse on Madison as the Bulls inch closer and closer to 100.

Free Big Mac, and if you are lucky, free ice cream day at McDonalds, too. Sophomore year’s game was solid.

Long story short, we took a lap around the United Center and only found the two weirdos we saw before. Have a good night, guys.

So we went to West End, a bar near the United Center, had a couple beers, and watched the Rose Bowl. USC vs. Penn State. Did not even watch the Bulls.

Bulls won 118-111 and Jimmy Butler scored 52 points. Free Big Macs, just not for us.

Two things. Plan much further ahead, and be ready to pay stupid high prices for the Bulls.

Sean Hastings is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or smhastings@eiu.edu.