For Better Or Worse, We Coug'd It

For a definition of what it is to, “Coug it” please see Erik’s blog at http://gus008.blogspot.com/2005/08/cougn-it.html . So, when all was glorious and right with the world, and we were up by 3+ touchdowns against UCLA, I took a photo of the score board as proof that we really were winning.
I’m glad I took the photo, because of course we blew this lead entirely and went into overtime, where we promptly lost the damned game. Damnit!

But we still had a “moderate to high” amount of fun, so all was certainly not lost.

But before I recap MY weekend, I want to spend some time talking about my friend Jennifer, who is by all accounts, the paradigm example of an “All-American Girl.” Some might even venture to call her, “America’s Sweetheart.” Imagine a little blue-eyed, blonde girl who looks sporty and chic in a baseball cap, and who can verbally throw-down when it comes to just about any recognized sport in the whole wide world. Well, maybe not the whole wide world, but if it’s a sport sanctioned by the NCAA, chances are quite good that she can hold her own. It should be noted that she is also an astute horsewoman.

I believe Miss Jennifer grew up in Issaquah, WA. I’m positive that she went to high school with me in Sammamish WA, college at Washington State, and her parents now live in Daphne Alabama. (No, no relation to my coonhound, but I’m pretty sure they moved there because of the pretty name). After a brief stint in Bellevue, WA she now lives in Chicago. With parents near the gulf coast, roots in the ‘burbs of Seattle, and a primary residence in the Heartland, Miss Jennifer mentioned to me the other day that she didn’t really know where her “home” was. And to that I say: Jennifer, where ever a ball is thrown, hit, caught or dunked, wherever there are bases stolen or yards rushed; THAT is your home. You are at home in another dimension – the dimension of sports. Own it. Love it. Share your gift with the world! Or at least develop a Euro-pop line of clothing for pre-teens called “SportLife Jenni Vohn” (and say that with a thick German accent). And dot the “i” with a star!!

So: Why the long intro about Jennifer? Why not just jump to the good times and shenanigans about this weekend?!? Well if you must know, Jennifer was a member of an elite secret-squirrel team who flew the WSU flag over the air-waves in the background of ESPN’s College Game Day programming this weekend, during coverage of the USC/Notre Dame game. That’s right friends, you are that much closer to fame JUST by association.

For those not in the know, the Cougar flag (Ole’ Crimson) has been making appearances at College Game Day broadcasts since the beginning of last year. It seriously travels to every single broadcast, no matter the game, conference location etc. While it is not flown by the same person, it IS the same flag. Talk about your grassroots marketing efforts! From what I can tell, this all started because some fans wanted ESPN to cover Cougar games, and is in no way officially sanctioned by the university.

So this weekend ESPN College Game Day was in South Bend Indiana at Notre Dame, and Jennifer et al received the flag and made the trek out to wave the flag with pride. What an honor! What a Coug! What a gal!

Okay, so onward we go:

I woke up Friday morning with an little extra lilt in my step, not only because my super-fly boyfriend was coming to town, but also because we were going to leave for Pullman that afternoon, where everything is magical and covered in gold. Okay, where everything is fun and covered in sticky beer.

The ride over was characterized by about 6 hours of intensive singing and karaoke-style dramatic presentation. Added to the mix were some nice air instrument moves. Highlight: learning that J is quite possibly the best air drummer in the world. Even a little better that ME (which few can say). And he can twirl his sticks. Throw a couple of red checkers on the soul-mate scale.

But add a black checker on the soul-mate scale for a scary devil eyebrow…

Spooky!

Friday night highlights were checking into the Palouse Inn in Moscow, ID which is one of the few remaining hotels that has actual keys. The hotel kind of reminded me of the hotels where the drug busts would go down in the TV show Hunter. I think the doors were made of balsa wood. It’s a good think I didn’t lose the keys, but if I did, I surely would have been able to kick down the door with ease. But the rooms were clean, and, well, they had vacancies.

Went to the Coug on Friday evening and it was packed as ever. Our friend Bob now OWNS the place, which is fabulous, and it was great to see that some key names are still on the walls:

Here’s Erik AKA “Gus”

And here’s a little shout out to your favorite sisters (can one make a shout out to one’s self?)

Sharpie Marker on varnished bathroom stall wall. This work was compiled between the years 1993 and 2000. Artist of origin are believed to be not one, but two Hund-o-matic sisters. Original base work of “HundlXX” is believed to have been created upon the eve of graduation of a Miss Lisaopolis circa 1993, while the later addition of “Gina and Lisa -à ‘93 and ‘00” is believed to have been added to the work in the summer of Y2K when the younger matriculate experienced a Greek-letter sorority function referred to as, “Open to Close.”

My mission of the night: find a young, unsuspecting KD and acquire the house door code. Mission accomplished. Door codes for your old sorority houses are KEY if you really want to be known as the obnoxious alumnae who break into the house, make a lot of noise, let their boyfriends/husbands eat bagels, and run around the house looking at old composite pictures while sighing, “oh my gawd…. I can’t believe we’re in the basement now!!”

So we did that for a while, which was fun. And here’s a little composite picture joy for you all. This was from my sophomore year, when I was still fairly uptight and thought many things like grades, rules, and policies were very, very important.

(FYI, this picture was in the TV room; we’re not the basement… yet)

And no, we didn’t really “break in,” as there were some girls up hanging out in the foyer and living room. I was delighted to find them both lovely and hospitable. Very nice, upstanding young ladies. But really- who would expect anything less?

The next morning we set out for Pullman, sporting our crimson for all to see. I am very pleased with my purchase of a “WSU Girls Rock” t-shirt from the University Book Store here in Bellevue. Very pleased indeed. I was also quite pleased to see Jose in a Cougar Tee. Nearly brought tears to these eyes.

The game was fabulous at first, it felt like the stock market in 2000. We could do no wrong. It was so easy to be winning big! And I ran into this guy in the end zone and had to snap a shot of his fabulous couture hat! Bravo to the craftsmanship!

We decided to make a smart move by leaving in the third quarter with the hopes of still being able to get a table at a restaurant that wasn’t Beta Dogs. We got into the Sella’s with out much of a line, but I’ll be damned if we didn’t loose the game after all. Ah well. They sold Erik and J 64-ounce beers, so I had bigger things to worry about. Like my potential life-partner who was rapidly becoming an adult-sized toddler who badly needed Ritalin. And who felt it necessary to bite my arm. And draw on his own face with crayon…

But my calzone was good, so made things a little better.

Then for the sake of creativity, we went back to the Coug for a while (I know- weird!), before heading out and about on the greater campus/Greek row neighborhood. There was a girl wearing quite possibly the best T-shirt I’d ever seen: I don’t know if you’ll be able to see it very well on here, but it says, “Stay Golden.” I hope you can make out the graphic.

Finished up the night by taking another stroll around the Kappa Delta house, and heading to a “live-out” party down the street. It was somewhat fun, but reminded me that maybe I wouldn’t pay any amount of money to go back to college after all. Seeing all of the kids who so obviously haven’t figured out much of life yet made me feel…kind of happy. I’d forgotten what it feels like to not be comfortable in your own skin. I miss college, I miss those crazy, seemingly consequence-free days where the BIG issues where keeping your house off of social probation, getting a “good house” to do homecoming with, figuring out which coupons to use for pizza that night, avoiding MIP’s etc… The kicker is, at the time, one can never realize how superficial those “big deals” really are. I still don’t know very much about the big issues, but I’m figuring out more and more each day. If I could only get the years to slow down a bit…

But speaking of Big Deals, Laguna Beach is on, and I just heard a preview that LC and Jason are going to hook up??!!? I’ve gotta go, I can’t miss THIS!!

I promise I'll edit this for typos etc tomorrow when I can focus.