Thursday II

I'm giving this a go while in-flight to Dallas, where I have a brief layover before hopefully making my connection to PHX. My skill set with this Blogger app is suspect. As is Blogger in basic form. My two previous efforts to recognize 3 for her birthday were both hampered by a combination of poor Internet signals at work, and the out-of-datedness of the Blogger platform.

This trip is kinda for business, but I scheduled it several weeks ago when I read the tea leaves and knew that a get-away after 10/15 was going to be needed for a mental health boost. I have some meetings tomorrow for sure. Maybe some tangential stuff on Saturday.

The hat made the trip, of course. I mean, I am passing through Texas, pardner!

My string of pre-approved TSA boarding passes ended this time. Maybe I'm OK just with Delta. Whatever. Minor inconvenience at MLI. I just have a duffle bag for carry-on...and I swear that the hat makes me friends with the TSA minions. But I think I will look into getting the Full Monty TSA clearance for the future. Taking off the shoes, etc. is just a pain in the posterior.

I feel badly that I haven't been able to do a better job recognizing 3 for her birthday this week. Another example of business getting in the way of my LLYWD mantra. And with her on the road herself this week, we'll just have to do something before year end at a time and place where we are both less-scheduled.

Now on the plane to PHX....

Here's a little factoid from my past: I don't think that I went to a high school football game when I was in high school until my senior year. (Keep in mind that my high school didn't play football...we were way too small.) My HS girlfriend was a cheerleader (of course she was!) at the public school and I would go over to their game towards the end of it to be there to pick her up for whatever there was post-game to do.

The public high was a fierce rival and even though I played baseball with many of those guys in the Summer, during the school year, we didn't pal around much. If my gf wouldn't have been at the game, there's no way I would have gone just to watch. My freshman year at ND would have been the first football season that I was actually invested in a team and went to the games.

ND always had a Friday night pep rally before home games. They were pretty well organized and EVERBODY attended. The band would parade around campus and each residence hall would fall in tow behind the band. The destination back then was the Old Fieldhouse, dirt floor and all. There was a raised balcony at one end with a few rows of stadium-seating where the football team and featured guests would sit, facing the standing throng of students on the dirt floor. (I think maybe I passed on the scene senior year, and maybe even as a junior.) It could get pretty wild.

As for the games, the students at ND always sat in the northwest corner of the stadium, with the St. Mary's girls immediately adjacent. (Ergo the chant, "Go back, go back, go back across the road".). I'm not sure when the end-of-game protocol changed to include the team facing the student body from the field, holding hands, swaying and everyone singing the alma mater before heading for the exits. Who actually knew the words to the alma mater? I wonder if NBC came up with that schstick? Back in my day, it was game over? Let's get back to the tailgating or other post-game party.

Present day, whatever the points are with FSU, it won't be enough. Irish won't cover. (If they don't let the FSU quarterback play, ND would have a chance.)

Just to close, Top Five great memories from 3...not a complete list.

1. Wipe-out on the yellow bike near Mercy Park. Circa 1993-4.
2. Organizing the Christmas play at OLOTR. Circa 2000.
3. Wandering away at the Rapid City mall. Circa 1990.
4. Shelly Cotton.
5. All the great visits...C-town, Boston, NYC, IC, Tahoe.

More from the road tomorrow.

BCOT




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