This is my grandma Jean. She turned 96 this weekend. Alexis and I and aunt Debby and uncle Danny celebrated on Sunday. Grandma made me bring her whiskey and waters while she smoked and we laughed... just like 45 years ago.
It’s 6:03 on a Sunday morning and it’s dark as six inches up a stovepipe but not colder than a witch’s tit. It’s supposed to be warm, sunny and October.
Yesterday we decided on the Notre Dame game. To review, Alexis and I, the reluctant and befuddled empty-nesters, had several options to seize the day.
1. High school soccer sectional match
2. Minnesota at Purdue college football game.
3. Navy at Notre Dame college football game.
4. Cubs at St. Louis Major League Baseball playoff game
5. My high school reunion
Ultimately we landed on the Notre Dame game, partly because we wanted to drive only 90 minutes and it would be mostly wooded flatland so we could see if the leaves are changing yet. They’re not. Will Glaros and his wife Marsha had on a whim emailed us to see if we were free to go to the game. And am I glad they did. Notre Dame campus looked amazing.
Alexis and I got to tailgate with a former Army guy who at 72 can do 13 pull-ups and his wife, a former military attorney who grew up in Hammond. And we got to spend three quarters of the Notre Dame 41-24 win with a charmingly frank Marsha Glaros. If you were wondering where Channel 2 weather gal Megan Glaros gets her quick wit – it’s Marsha. Will gave her professionalism and a positive outlook on life and an unbending curiousity. Marsha gave Megan, amongst other things, the ability to quip, which is a great something to have in live broadcasting.
Anyways, Navy, coming in at 4-0, could have probably won or at least taken the game into the final minutes if they hadn’t fumbled away twice deep in their own territory. Notre Dame sat the cadets in the farthest corner of the stadium, where you could barely hear their cheers or even see them. There was a lot of military stuff like four fighter jets flying over the stadium (Will said they couldn’t be Navy planes though – “The Navy doesn’t fly F-16s. I’m pretty sure of that.”) In the end, after you spend a perfect October afternoon with some engaging people at a Notre Dame football game, you remember why it’s one of two great places of mystique in the Midwest. Number one is a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. A close two is a Saturday afternoon of tailgating and football at Notre Dame.
As far as my high school class reunion on Saturday night? On Friday night Alexis and I stopped by the pre-party, and that was probably enough. I live a couple blocks from where I grew up and from where I went to high school and for some reason reliving the glory days for a night just doesn’t hold that much appeal. If you think about it, judging from where I live and what I do for work, you could say with reasonable accuracy that I pretty much relive the glory days every weekday. I asked Alexis why I just wasn’t in to going to my high school reunion, and in the spirit of Marsha Glaros, she quipped:
“Maybe it’s because at the last reunion you realized that most of the people from your high school didn’t even like you.”
Good point.
Yesterday we decided on the Notre Dame game. To review, Alexis and I, the reluctant and befuddled empty-nesters, had several options to seize the day.
1. High school soccer sectional match
2. Minnesota at Purdue college football game.
3. Navy at Notre Dame college football game.
4. Cubs at St. Louis Major League Baseball playoff game
5. My high school reunion
Ultimately we landed on the Notre Dame game, partly because we wanted to drive only 90 minutes and it would be mostly wooded flatland so we could see if the leaves are changing yet. They’re not. Will Glaros and his wife Marsha had on a whim emailed us to see if we were free to go to the game. And am I glad they did. Notre Dame campus looked amazing.
Alexis and I got to tailgate with a former Army guy who at 72 can do 13 pull-ups and his wife, a former military attorney who grew up in Hammond. And we got to spend three quarters of the Notre Dame 41-24 win with a charmingly frank Marsha Glaros. If you were wondering where Channel 2 weather gal Megan Glaros gets her quick wit – it’s Marsha. Will gave her professionalism and a positive outlook on life and an unbending curiousity. Marsha gave Megan, amongst other things, the ability to quip, which is a great something to have in live broadcasting.
Anyways, Navy, coming in at 4-0, could have probably won or at least taken the game into the final minutes if they hadn’t fumbled away twice deep in their own territory. Notre Dame sat the cadets in the farthest corner of the stadium, where you could barely hear their cheers or even see them. There was a lot of military stuff like four fighter jets flying over the stadium (Will said they couldn’t be Navy planes though – “The Navy doesn’t fly F-16s. I’m pretty sure of that.”) In the end, after you spend a perfect October afternoon with some engaging people at a Notre Dame football game, you remember why it’s one of two great places of mystique in the Midwest. Number one is a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. A close two is a Saturday afternoon of tailgating and football at Notre Dame.
As far as my high school class reunion on Saturday night? On Friday night Alexis and I stopped by the pre-party, and that was probably enough. I live a couple blocks from where I grew up and from where I went to high school and for some reason reliving the glory days for a night just doesn’t hold that much appeal. If you think about it, judging from where I live and what I do for work, you could say with reasonable accuracy that I pretty much relive the glory days every weekday. I asked Alexis why I just wasn’t in to going to my high school reunion, and in the spirit of Marsha Glaros, she quipped:
“Maybe it’s because at the last reunion you realized that most of the people from your high school didn’t even like you.”
Good point.
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