hometown pride

angry clouds and some pumpkin gelato

As we were going out the door to the game Saturday, we considered whether or not to bring the ponchos. "It's only a 30 percent chance of rain. There's a better chance of it not raining," my mom said. We brought them anyway, which turned out to be wise because eight plays into the game, this happened.

It's for real. Birds were flying in circles. The lightning got an "ahh" from the crowd and eventually caused a 1.5 hour delay of game. Fans were asked to leave the stadium and seek shelter. Considering our shelter was one mile away at my parent's house, we stood around watching the mass exodus. Finally the announcement came that we could take cover in the adjacent basketball stadium.

We arrived just as the downpour began to find the court full of kids shooting baskets and posing for pictures. We waited. And waited. And waited. Until finally we were allowed to go back to our seats and sit in the cold rain. Lucky us. Thus proceeded the longest, most boring game of my life full of play challenges, TV timeouts and an over zealous girl behind me who cheered, "go offense" or "go defense." I guess at least she knew which was which.

The last 27 seconds made up for the five hours of boredom. Sorta. I guess. But my family does NOT leave football games early. We rewarded ourselves with Chinese food, brownies and a movie. (Sidenote: Every time Shea says "mmm brownies sound good right now," my mom makes them for him! I never remember this kind of service when I was a child. This makes me mad and also proves it was probably good I was an only child.)

Sunday we spent the day at the Plaza Art Fair with my adopted extended family who I love and adore. 

That's them enjoying the art from the curb. My whole goal was not to buy art but to find pumpkin spice gelato. Mission accomplished.

Weekends like this make me grateful from head to toe that we now live close to the people I love most.

purple pride

In the fall, my family goes to football games with as much purple on as possible. Birthday parties, picnics, and yes even weddings were scheduled only on away game Saturdays. Why did Shea and I get married in August and not September? Football.

We traveled to bowl games complete with car flags and magnets. And apparently really untamed, teen aged hair which a few days later I died purple. Good golly somebody give me some hair gel and a flat iron.

We live about a mile from the stadium. My fall memories are filled with tailgating, hot dogs, walking to games and screaming or crying at the top of my lungs. We sweat it out during 100-degree home openers. Sat for four hours during a downpour refusing to leave before "happy trails to you" was sung. Froze to death - only surviving by drinking hot chocolate - through four long quarters.

We been through embarrassing losing seasons where beating Bowling Green was a triumph and seasons where they announced "welcome to the field, your NUMBER-ONE RANKED WILDCATS." It still gives me chills. I cried happy tears when we beat Nebraska for the first time in 40 years and cried tears of misery when we gave up the Big 12 Championship in the final seconds.

Growing up in a college town is just different. The heartbeat of your town, the color of its people (purple), the specials on the menus, the street festival pep rallies and the common bond rises and falls with your team. And if you dare suggest you're not a fan when they lose, we'll hurl all the bandwagon insults we can muster.

I haven't had season tickets since early college (due to my Minnesota residency) after a 15-year streak. But, we're back.

Tomorrow we'll arrive just in time for the huge pep rally in the middle of downtown followed by predominantly purple fireworks. Then it's a Saturday of tailgating and four glorious hours of K-State football with seats next to my equally purple-crazed parents.

My dad will have his headphones on listening to the radio while watching the game and of course yelling advice to players. My mom will smile and roll her eyes but with unfailing dedication will recite all the cheers. I'm a combination of the both of them minus the headphones but complete with "GAAAH" and "YESSS" screams. Shea will probably tell me who is going to be drafted or why we need a playoff system, and I will have to explain once again, that's not what college football is about.

It's about a town coming together every fall. Always in purple.

Previous purple love: Bleeding purple since kindergarten

Google, the King of April Fool's Jokes

Kansas people are hilarious. In an effort to woo Google's high-speed internet, the capital city changed it's name to Google, Kansas. So in response, Google changed it's name to Topeka. Explanation, click here.

Google has had some amazing jokes, my favorite being Google Paper. "Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back."

Pains of winning

I have a victory hangover.

Despite the fact my drinking Thursday night included only Diet Coke and waters, I cannot function today. The watch party was awesome and horrible. Awesome because it was one of the best games I've ever seen and horrible becausee it reduced me to nausea, constant standing, screaming, shocked silence and rapid heart rate. The hands-in-the-air jumping as the last buzzer sounded was an emotional release like none other.

We came home, showered off the nasty smoke smell and laid there. Staring at the ceiling. Limbs still shaking, heart still racing.

Unfortunately, the adrenaline rush did not last. I had to give up the coffee fast and it rescued me from my daze for an hour or two.

Hopefully the team recovers faster than me.

Bleeding purple since kindergarten

Shortly after moving to Manhattan in 1987, we became huge Wildcat fans. Before the days of Frank Martin, Michael Beasley, and even the Powercat logo. Vintage Willie was the only Willie.

Before purchasing football season tickets, my dad and I would walk to the games and get in free during the second quarter and have the freedom to sit pretty much wherever we wanted. Later we got season tickets to both football and basketball.

My elementary school days are filled with memories of games. For basketball, sometimes we'd get lucky and be able to sit with our friend Carolyn who had floor seats. My most vivid memory of sitting there was catching a stray ball on the sideline and having point guard Anthony Beane (pictured right) lean down so I could throw the ball back in to him. I am positive I beamed for a week.

I prided myself on knowing the numbers that went with every player. Each fall, our church hosted a  basketball dinner where we got to eat with the team and get autographs from each player and coach. I'd leave with a huge sheet of signatures and if I was lucky, a little message. So began my scrapbook collection. Every game, I would cut out the main article and accompanying photos and paste them into my basketball scrapbook. Sometimes from multiple newspapers.

My mom and I would take bets on what lame headline the Manhattan Mercury would come up with: "K-State stampedes the Colorado Buffaloes." "KSU blows past the Cyclones." I could recognize bad journalism even at age 8.

Then on March 24, 1994, Askia "Ski" Jones scored 62 points in 28 minutes against Frenso State in the NIT. I remember a sports columnist writing the next day that many more people would claim they were there that day than actually were because the game was during the students' spring break. But we were there. And at age 11, I learned sports could move you to tears. After the game, Ski came out in his red practice jersey, sweating profusely, to thank his screaming fans. You can only imagine my frantic newspaper clipping and diary writing following that game.

Just as much as violin, softball and 4-H are interwoven throughout my childhood, so are K-State sports. I decorated my room with memorabilia, refined my scrapbooks, played make-believe games where I was adopted as the team's little sister (ok, I was a weird kid) and dyed my hair purple. I attended games up until college and then ironically found I had more fun at games before I was a college student. The players didn't quite seem as hero-worthy.

After years away from Kansas, I am relieved to have returned. And what great timing. I've only gotten to go to a few K-State games in recent years, but I'm a loyal TV and radio follower. And tonight you can be sure I'll be adorned with purple and cheering the K-State team on as they advance to the Elite Eight!

Perspective on and off the court

“Next to my son, it’s probably the worst thing to happen to me in my life,” Sherron Collins said between bursts of tears.

I've been mad about this quote since I read it Saturday night after KU lost to Northern Iowa. I grew up 80 miles from University of Kansas, I get that KU basketball is big. I feel very passionately about my K-State sports, having attended basketball and football games since I was six years old. I've cried when K-State lost to Texas A&M in the 1998 Big 12 Championship. I cried happy tears when Ski Jones scored 62 points in one game. (more on this Thursday)

However, there is no way my love of K-State sports would be on the same playing field as my family.

In the above quote, Collin is referring to his newborn son who died during his freshman year of college (refraining from judgement here). In this Kansas City Star article, the writer points out that Collins also grew up in a gang environment, has an imprisoned father, and lost custody of his son. Yet losing a basketball game is worse than those events?

It hurts to lose, and the way KU lost is no doubt extremely devasting especially when evaluating the game they realized they didn't show up til the last two minutes. But please, get some perspective.

Puppy loving

We had a relaxing weekend in Hutch with our super great friends, the Rosses.

There was some Rock Band.

And manicures. Note: the purple nails did nothing to help K-State win the Big 12 Championship.

But the cutest was Mac and his new puppy friend Oscar who rolled, bit and humped their way through the weekend.

We had a blast. Thanks again for being such wonderful hosts!

Weekend with my favorite friend

This weekend we're driving to Hutchinson, Kansas.

Though Hutch does have the Cosomosphere, an underground salt mine museum and an exotic animal farm, the main attraction for us are our friends Edie and Seth.

Edie is my most favorite friend. In many ways, she knows me better than anyone in the world.

She helped me pick out my first apartment in Minneapolis. She and I traveled to her brother's high-rise apartment in Chicago on more than one occasion. We traveled to New York together - a city she desperately hated, though pretended for me. However, I do recall a very relieved face when I suggested grilled cheese and fries at the diner across the street from our Times Square hotel locale.

But more than our travels, Edie has been there for the highest and lowest moments in my last decade. She was there when 250 people on campus screamed at us with anger.

We haven't lived in the same city for most of our friendship. Yet, she has managed to be there through relocations, good jobs and bad ones, arguments, celebrations, and oh the ridiculous boy stories, which eventually led to an excel spreadsheet reference tool.

I was there for her wedding:

And then, she was there for mine:

I am looking forward to a much-needed weekend of meeting Oscar the dog, hearing about an amazing trip to Russia, spending girl time where something tasty is drunk and some of my nails get painted, watching K-State win the Big 12 Championship and mostly, just time together as friends who now have husbands and jobs where the conversations are about marriage, houses and babies.

Chocolate milk and poison apples

Right now I am dreaming about taking a quick jet plane to Hutchinson, Kan. to see the girl who knows me best.

I want to...
 - Talk. A lot.
 - Wear sweatpants and a big hoodie sweatshirt for three days straight.
 - Drink peppermint mocha, or chocolate milk, of course.
 - Discuss the wise nature of women
 - Watch a lot of Disney movies especially Snow White
 - Dream of how it'd be really nice to eat a poisonous apple, sleep for a LONG time and then be woken up by a sensational kiss.
 - Watch my wedding video over and over.
 - Get a massage
- Be renewed in spirit, energy and sanity

The beginning

Because everyone who is anyone has a newlywed blog, welcome to ours.

We started our marriage journey with some cupcakes and red shoes in Kansas and continued the party with Mickey Mouse and baking in the Florida sun while eating ice cream and popcorn.

Now it's been exactly one month since we said our vows. Marriage is super fun. And hard sometimes. And based on the state of our living room - really, really messy.