Cheer for the Irish, you will!

We headed up to Notre Dame yesterday morning for the Navy game. The ND-Navy game is a longstanding tradition, with plenty of mutual respect. It's always fun when the Midshipmen come to town.

What a glorious day for a game! It got up close to almost 70°, with a clear blue sky. A little on the windy side, but for Indiana in November? You couldn't ask for a better day. We met up with a guy that Ken works with, the guy who gets us tickets for various games. Randy told us not to worry about bringing anything, but we took a few beers along for the walk to campus. When he met up with us, he started setting up tables, and had sandwiches, munchies, brownies, a cooler full of beer and one full of soda. What a spread! I want to get his address so I can send him and his wife a thank you note. It was incredible!

Lots of people showed up for Randy's tailgate--I'd say a couple of dozen. His wife didn't come, because she doesn't like sports at all, but she got all the food and made a bunch of stuff. He said something about how if you don't have someone like me who loves sports, it's good to have someone that doesn't mind making the food. Ha! I got to talk to some interesting people. There was a guy who is a bigwig at the company, and went to the Naval Academy. We were talking about how we don't like watching games around other people...he said, "Yeah, don't call me, don't talk to me, just let me watch this game." I had to laugh, because I've mentioned here that you wouldn't like watching a game with me! I talked to his son, a nice young man going to college, and his friend from Penn State. I talked to a guy who was there with his Dad, a Korean War Navy veteran. We were talking about the military, and my Dad being a WWII veteran, and I gave a "HOO-HA!" The guy said, "Hey, you've got that down!" So I gave another "HOO-HA!" Did I mention that Randy had a cooler full of beer? Haha. Yeah, I was a happy girl by the time we headed out to the stadium! Dozed off in the car on the way home, too. Ha.

Well, any of you who are friends on Facebook know that the Irish lost, and I was not a happy camper. But as I wrote over there, you can't hate on the Midshipmen. I noticed plenty of Notre Dame fans congratulating the cadets on their win, shaking their hands, generally being good sports about it all. That is one reason I am proud to be a Notre Dame fan! And wow, everyone was just so happy. Maybe it was the beautiful day, maybe it was the money rolling in because of game day, maybe everyone was just madly in love or had won the lottery...hell if I know, but how fun was it to walk along, smiling and nodding to everyone I passed? "Hey, how ya doin'?" "Go Irish!"

We had great seats in one of the end zones, and got to see #23 Golden Taint Tate (yeah, I went there) catch a touchdown pass right in front of us. Awesome! There was also a scary moment when our quarterback, Jimmy Clausen, got his bell rung, and stayed down way too long. A guy behind me said, "Who cares if we lose the game, just be okay, Jimmy, we can't lose you!" So I am not alone in my rather unhealthy obsession with sports. (My Indianapolis Colts went 8-0 today, by the way. Yeah, baby! Too bad the Super Bowl isn't in Indy this year, because the Colts could very well be going. I'll keep my fingers crossed for their appearance there in 2012, because just like Tom Joad, I'll be there. Ha! I cracked myself up with that one.) And if way too many of these pictures in my slideshow are showing the rear view of the players, I can't be held responsible for the photo ops I was presented. That's just the way it is, folks. Deal. And enjoy.

Here are a couple of videos for you. Pre-game in the stadium (which seats 80,000+), and a slideshow. ::sigh:: I love you, Football. It's a special love, filled with good things like downs and shoulder pads and puke-inducing hits and cradling that ball like a tender li’l babychil'. It's all about good hands and fast legs and a keen eye, a quick mind and an ability to see what's coming, being able to read the defense and adjust accordingly, penetrating and running it up the middle. And it's all so, sooooo good. Yeahhhhh.

I'm sorry...I think I went away for a moment there.

I also wanted to mention how pleased I am that the House passed the health care reform bill. It's not perfect, but it is a good start, and can be tweaked as we move forward. I am thrilled that my Congressman, the Honorable Joe Donnelly, voted "Aye!" I will be sending him a note of thanks and affirmation, and then I'm going to start working on my Senator Evan Bayh. Look out, Evan. Here I come!