- Friday night, Andy, Dave, and I met at The Backer. It was an odd mix of people there. The father/grandfather-aged guys, who normally leave around 10 or 10:30, stayed there the whole night. They were joined only by us and swarms of college-aged girls. Apparently, to those college-aged girls, I fall into that "old guys" group. But, perhaps surprisingly, I wasn't one of the old guys who was creeping out said college girls. Besides the many awkward "Is he dancing with her because he's her father, or because he's hitting on her?" moments, I'm also told that someone overheard a guy say, "This is one of the times that I wish I wasn't married." After a large beer and a trademark Long Island, we stumbled over to Bookmaker's. Good times, good times.
- Saturday morning, I was introduced to the replacement to the band dorm rep, the phone chain. Paul Epstein, one of my gracious hosts, initiated the chain by leaving the following message on three voice mailboxes: "This is Paul. Initiate band wakeup sequence." Notice that, by this third home game of the season, Paul was talking to three voicemails and not three people.
- Random Fifer-worthy quote: "I can't get enough of the Bones." - Sarah Paulson. Yes, that is what she said.
- Andy and I walked over to Dave's brother's apartment for my first ever Kegs and Eggs, sponsored by KankaNation. When I got there, Dave and Michael were controlling the beer pong table. After a win by Dave and Michael, Dave's dad stepped in for Dave. What a ringer - Mr. Schmitt hit 50% of his shots. "That's better than Shaq at the free throw line!" Andy quipped. After a win by Michael and Mr. Schmitt, and another by Michael and Dave, I stepped in for Mike. Big mistake there. I got a whopping 4 cups, only if you count the one that bounced into a cup on the next table. "That was awesome! I'm drinking that one just for you, man!" said one of Michael's very fired up friends.
- Best exchange of the weekend: Mrs. Schmitt just had to find "mini-Klondike." When she tracked him down, here's how it went: "You're mini-Klondike!" "How did you know?!" (While we're linking to the Bone page, I didn't know that Seth Green was a freshman.)
- If you're by the library, be sure to check out the new statue of Frs. Hesburgh and Joyce. Unfortunately, the statue is not of Fr. Hesburgh's near run-in with the Bones at the library entrance. Now, that would be a great statue.
- Random shout out to the former Bones in attendance: Dave, Andy, Aflac, Scovil, Bob, Cathy, and Amber (allegedly). If I missed you, feel free to chew me out on the message board.
- At the game, I sat in section 106, behind the band. I was next to two rather fired up older alums, and in front of a dad/uncle family friend and his daughter/niece. The older alum asked when I graduated and replied that he "graduated so long ago that he didn't even want to think about it." He also advised me to join the Sorin Society as soon as possible so I could get tickets to all home games.
- Before the game, former ND player Mike McCoy was honored with an award. Now, not only did he wear his own retro jersey, but he also gave it up for Joe Yonto (and Johnny Ray) and Jesus.
- The dad/daughter (or whatever) behind me were very fired up about football. Good times. The best part, though, was when the girl saw the Charlie Foxtrot that was the band trying to go from their seats to their halftime positions. Now, as you may know, almost everyone in the band sits on the opposite side that they need to be on, forcing the entire band to cross paths with each other. The girl asked, "Why don't they just switch seats to make things easier?" I turned around and replied, "I tried to tell the directors that about 10 times, but they just don't listen."
- After halftime, Andy, Aflac, and I met up to buy nachos for the current bones. Oh, those poor girls who scrambled to put together 10 trays for us. They surely weren't expecting it. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us just take the bag of chips and cheese machine with us.
- Immediately after the game, someone walked up to me and asked if I used to be on the team. He had spotted my team-issue Fiesta Bowl jacket. As it turns out, he was a walk-on freshman during the Fiesta Bowl season who had torn his ACL that year. So, he thought I was perhaps a senior that year that he just didn't remember. I don't know what position he thought I played (possibly explaining part of his confused look), but this incident was one of the highlights of my weekend.
- After dinner, Dave, Aflac, and I met with the Schmitt and Bradley families, and others at the mysterious Granger Tavern. The Granger Tavern, as some may remember, is right next to the "Sports Page" bar. Now, where was my spray paint?
- Saturday night basically consisted of Dave, Aflac, and me (the Eastern Time working men), and Scovil (who generally doesn't sleep enough) standing around Corby's and yawning at each other for 90 minutes. How exciting.
- Sunday morning, I got to the Basilica 30 minutes early, thinking that would be plenty of time to get a seat. Nope. The place was almost full already. Fortunately, Sarah was there with her family, and they temporarily adopted me for the mass. Sarah said that they had gotten there at 9:05 and the middle pews were already half full. Out of control. Besides the great company, we were also spotted on the Hallmark Channel's showing of the mass.
Not bad for a weekend that almost didn't happen.
