That Season

Yesterday not only marked Gavin's third birthday party, but also the beginning of the 2006-2007 Mountaineer football season. We played, and beat the crap out of, Marshall University yesterday. Marshall is a smaller university in the southwestern part of the state This was only the third match-up between WVU and MU in 83 years. The last time we played Marshall, I was a student at WVU and it was a very big deal. The game was dubbed "The Frontyard Brawl" (the match-ups with our neighbor 70 miles north- The University of Pittsburgh- is known as "The Backyard Brawl") and we won that game too, of course.

Lots of people have been talking about what is now dubbed "The Coal Bowl" and I have been regaling all who will listen with stories of the last time WVU and MU met:

The massive amounts of alcohol I consumed by 10:00 am

How I took a tumble in the stands of Mountaineer Field during the second quarter and took a fraction of the student section down with me

How I spent the rest of the game showing off the injuries I sustained and then later curled up on the grassy knoll inside Mountaineer Field and dozed throught the third quarter

That we went walked straight downtown after the game and partied until three and didn't realize until after we left the bars that we had walked downtown so we had no way to get home and we didn't to save money for a cab

We then walked the 5-ish miles back to my apartment at 3 am after drinking ALL day and partying all night

How once we got back into the apartment we decided to call the guy I was dating (who lived in the apartment building next to mine), yelling at him to "come and get his sheep off my property" while making baaahhhhhing sounds in the background (I really don't need to tell you that we didn't date for very long after that, do I?)

How we all got big bowls of coco puffs and curled up on my futon (all four of us) in the living room to watch tv and fall asleep only to find out that Princess Diana had died. Major buzzkill.

So I've been telling all these stories and recounting details of that day like it happened yesterday and you can only imagine my suprise when I heard the announcers before the game mention it had been 9 years since these two teams had met up.

Blink. Blink blink.

NINE YEARS?????

NINE YEARS????? Nine years as in one year shy of a friggin' decade 9 years????

Where does the time go? Sure, I've done a lot in the past years- I finished my Master's, I moved to SC, lost 40 pounds; I've had two jobs, two husbands, two kids, three cars, and lived in 4 different places before buying a house- but still, it doesn't seem like 9 years.

I've changed so much but really, not at all. It's funny how that is.

1997



2006




In the first shot, I'm the one in the middle with the two beers (duh... mouth wide open, double fistin' it... who else would it be?). Here I am today with the same goofy look only the two beers have been trade in for two kids.

Yeah right. I can't lie to you. I just put my beers down to go on the slide!