On Saturday, March 31st I had the great idea of getting up at 5AM to drive down to Columbus. I had four main goals that towards which I had been looking for a very long time. Those goals were to, attend a Michigan Rowing Regatta, find an Ohio State Hockey Puck, attend a wedding where the lovely AJC becomes AJJ and catch the garter at said wedding. I accomplished two and a half of those goals. I had a couple of side goals as well.
Anyway, I always feel that Ohio is always in the way of whe9rever I am going. Even when I am going to a place in Ohio, Ohio is in the way. The same is with Indiana. (Go figure since I live in Michigan) Coincidentally, Bowling Green always appears to be on the way of where ever I am going in Ohio. I enjoy a good morning drive, even when I am running on about three hours of sleep and I could feel my brain shutting down before I got to the freeway. Thank God for coffee and doughnuts. I wonder if I am the first person to ever have that thought.
Well, I got to the park, and I was a bit late. I thought it was supposed to start at 9AM, but looking on the schedule the night before revealed a 7:30 start time. I was fine with showing up a little before 9 and just catching the second half. The problem with a 2000 meter straight race is that there is really nothing to do except listen to the announcement until the final stretch, and by then the race has pretty much been decided. Ug. Well we did quite well. I think we won all but one of our varsity races. Score! I am proud of the parents that showed up and stayed there for the event. Ohio State may have had a larger following, but we had a more consistent following. Just for the record, the schools were OSU, MSU, Mighican, and Yale. I give props for the Yale supporters. Of course, I started talking to the Michigan parents during the break. They were surprised that I had no connection with Michigan rowing yet I was there. They were also impressed at my reason for coming out. The whole every-sport-goal usually is not as impressive as you would think. I learned early that people want you to be interested in their sport, not just view them as another notch on your belt. Anyway, the parents (who thought I was still in high school until I started talking about my dissertation) were impressed enough with my goal to tell me to stick around afterwards and meet the girls. Yeah, I enjoy talking to the teams, but it looked like they were scattering, and I just didn't want to be creepy. So, now what? I had fun and there wasn't as much waiting as I thought there would be, but there was still quite a bit. I would certainly attend more events if we bothered hosting them. Our only home event this year is a weekend I have a wedding to attend in Maryland. What is it with rowing and weddings? I Guess there will be one the day of my wedding. (I am not even seeing anyone at the moment. so this all hypothetical)
Anyway, my first auxiliary goal was to sneak into Ohio Stadium. No dice. Actually, it is a rather nice structure, and the fact that it is mostly above ground does make it imposing. It is worthy of a rival.
My next actual goal was to find an OSU hockey puck. I searched for a bookstores and even employed the services of the Mad Latvian Slammer to do an electronic search. Needless to say, the first shop I found was not open. The next three I found did not have any hockey pucks and not because they were sold out. What is with this? Hockey is such an expensive yet niche sport that any school that has a team has to embrace the team even if they are not that good. By the way, OSU is usually pretty good. Even Bowling Green, with their atrocious record, has hockey pucks in their bookstore, except when people buy all of them. OSU didn't even try. That is why I can honestly hate OSU, because they don't have the sense to know how awesome college hockey is. So, I realized that I had lost track of time looking for the darn printed piece of black rubber, and I had to book it back to Toledo.
I had no time to stop by the Neil Armstrong Museum. I barely made the wedding. I had to change into a suit in the church bathroom from my Michigan gear in which I was wearing when I was literally running around Columbus looking for that darn puck. This comes naturally, having biked to an office job a couple of years before coming back to school. Anyway, my final goal, which was kind of sports related, was the garter catch, which let us be honest, is a really weird tradition that will not be at my wedding. Of course, I caught it. That makes six total. Because I caught it, I had to dance with the young lady who caught the bouquet, who was very nice to me despite me stepping on her toe. I should find out if I can dance with her again, but that is for a different blog.
Getting home, I was surprisingly tired after having driven only 424 miles on less than three hour of sleep.
So now I am up to 60 events.
Next up is men's and women's outdoor track and field in a couple of weeks. Then we will end it all with Baseball and Softball. Nothing says "summer" like a baseball game.
Looking forward to next year, I have already purchased hockey and football tickets. I just can't commit to all of the basketball games. Heck, I only went to one this year.
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