Buckeye Birthday

My sleep was interrupted a few times after the irrigation system kicked on, but each time I fell back asleep until waking once and for all around 730am. I’d be lying if I said I felt perfect, but felt surprisingly well considering the amount of beer I drank the night before. I'll call it groggy. But I’ll take groggy any day given the alternative. For that reason alone, I was grateful. Like any other day, I spent the first half hour making coffee, exercising, and tending to Frankie. This day was different, however. It was my birthday! I fooled around on the PC ahead of Mindy waking up and also before heading out for my run. I did my run at roughly 9am. It was cool but sunny under clear blue skies. I ran just three miles. The run went fine. I was back at home shortly after 930am. Mindy was awake and asked how I was feeling. Good! She was surprised. Sometime around 10am she called Chrissy to confirm our plans for the game. C&K decided to hang out at home until noon when we wanted to leave. Originally, they talked about heading to campus to tailgate around 8am. Yikes! And that’s for a 330pm kick-off. I ate a little something and even tried taking a short nap before we headed out, but sleep was hard to come by. Two of my daughters, Lindsey & Ashley, phoned to pass along b-day well wishes. Didn’t hear from Courtney. We packed a cooler with beer, ice, and water and walked down to Kenny & Chrissy’s around noon. We left for the game a few minutes later. We took Lane Ave all the way across and parked on west campus just west of the old intramural sports fields. The tailgate party we were targeting was set up just east of 315 off Lane Ave. It was about a mile away from our parking spot. By the time we arrived at the tailgate party the skies had completely clouded over. In fact, there was a chance for rain during the late afternoon, something we’ve had very little of in the last month or more. Mindy & I brought jackets just in case. Kenny picked up four inexpensive ponchos at the dollar store, too. It’s Chrissy’s cousin who hosts the tailgate party. Must’ve been about 100 folks. They had two big screen HD TV’s, tons of food, and lots of drink. I was starving so not a minute after John reviewed the menu, I fetched a plate of food – pulled pork, corn pudding, green beans, and more. It was delicious! While tailgating I drank three of the four beers I brought. We walked over to the stadium, which was another ½ mile or more, at 230pm, or an hour before kick-off. We had to wait at the stadiums entrance as the band and cheerleaders passed through. Mindy spotted Tyler, a former student and presently a band member. She hollered his name. He didn’t flinch. Don’t think they’re aloud to. We made our way around to our section – 30A by 3pm. It was quite the struggle getting through the throngs of fans. Kenny & Chrissy chose to bolt ahead. They were already in their seats. Good view! We enjoyed the pregame ceremony, including a 9/11 tribute – moment of silence. The stadium's changed a lot since I was last there. Lots more visual/audio technology. Can’t recall if the Buckeyes or Hurricanes got the opening kick-off. Thinking it was us. I do remember the Buckeyes taking a 3-0 lead. However, the lead didn’t last. The Canes scored on both a punt and kick-off return in the first half. They even had a 10-3 for a short while. Not to be out done, the Buckeyes rattled off 17 straight points to take a 20-10 lead. They had several chances to really pile it on Miami but couldn’t. Miami made it as close as 20-17 before the Buckeyes added two more field goals before half. Late in the first half and early second half, we contended with a few brief, light rain showers – enough that we had to break out the ponchos. The rain eventually passed and the sun even shined again, however briefly. The Buckeyes won 36-24 in a game that could have easily been a total blowout were it not for the two special teams TD’s we allowed. It’s a different game watching live. Without question, TV provides a much better feel for the flow of the game. But then again, the energy in the stadium is surreal. The game ended around 700pm. At times during the game I wondered if they might turn on the lights as the cloud cover thickened. They never did. After the victory, we walked back to the tailgate to fetch our coolers and have a drink. I drank only water. Kenny & Chrissy enjoyed another beer or two. I volunteered to drive us home. The walk back to our car seemed much longer. I was already tired from Friday night’s antics. The long walk only acerbated it. But it was still my birthday, so there was no way I was going to bag it. Instead, we planned to order pizza and subs from Sporano’s once home. Kenny & Chrissy said they’d be down in about an hour. Mindy paid Kara, our sitter, on Friday night for both Friday & Saturday. She decided to give her an extra $20 or a total of $100 for the two night/day package. Mindy ordered the pizza while the kids showered. I took Frankie out. I changed into my comfy clothes before the food and neighbors arrived. Mindy ordered hot wings especially for Jacob even though I warned him that he wouldn’t like them. My rule is you never order wings from a pizza shop. Anyway, he complained about them right away, and that was by sight alone. Go figure! I ended up trying them. They weren’t terrible, but were super hot! Not believing me, both Jake and Jacob tried ‘em. Both whined about the heat! We watched the Penn St Alabama game while enjoying our pizza and subs. I drank two beers and started fading fast. The neighbors left as the game ended. Penn State got smoked. We headed to bed not five minutes later.