Ease His Pain

I was dismayed this morning to find frost on top of my car when I left for work. It hadn't encroached on the glass, so I didn't have to scrape, but it was bad enough seeing it anywhere. It's a sign of the coming winter and all the irritating things it brings, and I could frankly do without it.

Still, after the way this weekend went down, I don't have too much room to complain. There was a lot of football involved, and it was the perfect way to soothe my raw nerves after getting so worked up over the election last week.

Speaking of the election, I noticed that all of my posts last week were about either politics or football. I can't make any promises about football, but I can and do promise that this week will be a politics-free zone here at the Yawp. I may revisit the election at some point, but for right now I'm just as sick of thinking and talking about it as you are of hearing about it. This weekend was great in terms of helping me put the whole thing out of my mind for a while.

It felt strange on Friday to be heading for my apartment in Bowling Green after work, as it was the first time in ten weeks that I had done so due to Troy football. I had stopped in BG to pick up Brandi a couple of times, but my ultimate goal was Troy or wherever the Trojans were playing. This weekend, though, the Troy game was on Saturday, so I went home after work for the first time in a while. I got to hang out and play video games for a bit. I would have preferred a Troy football game, but this wasn't bad.

Brandi had to work into the evening that night, and when she was done we met at Fazoli's in Maumee for dinner. We were planning to go to a movie, and this was a good place for us to get some good food in plenty of time to still make it to the theater to get tickets, snacks, and seats. We went to see Friday Night Lights, a movie about high school football in Texas. I really enjoyed it, and I think Brandi did too. After the movie, we headed back to BG and went out for a few drinks at Downtown. We actually stayed until last call, which has been pretty rare for us lately, and it was a good time.

Saturday had the potential to be totally awesome, and it mostly lived up to it. I had the chance that day to attend BGSU and Troy football games on the same day for the first time ever. Brandi had to teach from noon until 1:00, which was when the game started, so she was going to meet me there. I got to the stadium at noon, and she got there at the end of the first quarter. The score was already 28-0 in favor of BGSU at that point, as the Falcons would end up cruising to a 52-0 victory.

Contrary to my usual obstinate stance on such matters, we left the BG game shortly into the fourth quarter. Normally I do not leave a game early no matter the score nor the weather, but on this day it was necessary in order to get to the Troy game on time. Troy's game was in Westerville, a suburb of Columbus, which is about two hours southeast of BG. As it turned out, we didn't miss much. All 52 points were on the board by the time we left. Although I hate leaving early under any circumstances, I'm glad the game was well in hand when we did.

We got to Westerville about 45 minutes before kickoff, which was good. The stands were beginning to fill up. We ended up sitting in front of some extremely irritating people, but you'll have that from time to time. Unfortunately, the Trojans weren't able to pull out a win, but it was awesome to experience the playoff atmosphere again, to watch this team play, and to be under the Friday night lights (even on a Saturday) one last time before packing it up until next August.

We arrived back in Bowling Green around midnight, and just hung out for a little bit before heading to bed. We didn't have much planned for Sunday, so we ended up taking a trip to the mall in Toledo to walk around for a while. Brandi bought some clothes, while I bought the book Friday Night Lights upon which the movie was based. From there we went to Red Robin for lunch/dinner, and from there to the grocery and to Wal-Mart before returning home. Our notable purchase for the evening was a Christmas tree (only $16!).

With Christmas on our minds, perhaps it's fitting that I found frost on my car this morning. I had hoped that the Trojans would be able to extend the fall for at least another week and hopefully more, but it just wasn't to be. At least I still have the Bowling Green football team to keep me entertained for a few weeks (hopefully past Christmas, but we'll see), and basketball season also will soon be starting. It'll likely be a while before there's another weekend quite like this one, though.