“Our seats have improved since we’ve been married.”

That’s what the wife said when we took our seats to watch the Denver Nuggets take on my favorite team, the Boston Celtics.  We’ve been to about 5 or 6 Celtics games since we’ve lived in Denver.  For this game, we bought 100 level tickets.  I think we were row 18, seats 19 and 20.

We took our seats and looked around the arena.  The court was right there, the players looked huge, and the upper deck looked so far away.  Looking up, I said to the wife, “Hey, remember sitting way up there when we first got married?”  She replied, “I do.  A lot has changed since then,” and we began to talk about what life was like almost 10 years ago.

Our wedding took place in August of 2008.  The Celtics had won their 17th championship that June, so when the next season rolled around, we went to go see the defending champs when they came to town.  At that time, I had just started my management position at my current job, the wife was in the first year of her new job and moonlighted as a server at Red Lobster.  We were newlyweds, we had spent a lot of our savings on our wedding, we were deep in debt because of our student loans and cars, and we had a medical bill to pay off.  We were broke, but we didn’t know it.  About two weeks after the game, the engine on my car would blow.  We found out just how broke we were.

We reminisced about our nosebleed seats in the 300 level that year.  The game was a Celtics blow out.  The defending champs routed the helpless Nuggets 114-76.  The boys in green were up by 28 points after 3 quarters.  The arena cleared out, the ushers quit checking tickets, and the wife and I snuck down to the 100 level for the final 12 minutes.  We weren’t alone.  The Boston faithful invaded the lower bowl and about 2,000 of us reveled in the already decided outcome for the entire 4th quarter.

That would be the last time we’d buy tickets in the 300 level.  After the motor on my car blew a couple of weeks after the game, we decided to change our life.  We spent the next 20 months getting out of debt.  The wife had heard of this program called “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey.  After a week of heavy convincing, the wife talked me into taking the challenge.

It was a huge step.  We’d have to make sacrifices.  We cut all kinds of expenses.  We gave up cable.  We got rid of our internet.  We sold our new cars and bought old ones.  We sold a few other things.  We had to swallow our pride (me more than the wife).  We had to tell our friends we couldn’t make plans because we couldn’t afford it.  We didn’t do much of anything.  We waited 3 years to go on a proper honeymoon.  And, we did it with the wife’s hours being cut back at work.  She took on extra shifts at Red Lobster while finishing her master’s degree.

After 20 months of clawing, scratching, and saving, we made our last student loan payment; our last payment on what we owed.  It was time to celebrate and how did we do it?  We got Celtics tickets right behind their bench…row two.  We could see the sweat drip off the players, hear Doc drawing up a play, and hear KG’s colorful language in the huddle.  The Celtics lost that game, but the wife and I had won.  We were free and life wouldn’t be the same.

Fast forward to 2018.  I’m 10 years into my career.  The wife has started her own business and her days of slinging crab are long gone.  We’ve moved out of our apartment and bought a home.  We have two little girls.  We sold those old cars and have upgraded.  I’m purchasing tickets online for this year’s game.  I ask the wife, “Where do you want to sit?”  She replies, “Just get good seats.”  Click, click, boom. Done. 100 level.  The game was great.  The Celtics won a nail-biter 111-110 and we went home happy.

About a month later we’d go to another game with some friends.  We chose the Nuggets versus the Detroit Pistons because our friends are fans of the team from the motor city.   We won the tickets from a contest at our chiropractor’s office and our seats were almost identical to the ones we had at the Celtics game.  Our friends commented on how great the seats were.  I just smiled and agreed.  They were great and it was an awesome time.

We have a lot for which to be thankful.