And then I found out she was a guy

Best ending to an awkward story ever. None of this "I found $20" crap. Let me just begin by saying I'm a little dissapointed in the fact that of all those people's blogs that I compulsively check, very few have updated yet. Come on, some of us out here need entertainment.

I got back to my apartment around 11:30pm last night. I very nearly forgot to turn in a paper that I was supposed to write, but somehow remembered right before walking out my door at 7:30 that it was due at 8:00am. Holy crap. I nearly had an anyeurism. Speaking of anyeurisms, I said the phrase "I'm having an anyeurism" about 200 times during the football game on Saturday. Here it is, a wrapup of the weekend:

Friday night

After going to class in the morning, I head to the airport. First of all, I must say I am really surprised that Austin-Bergstrom Airport has a Saltlick Barbecue and Amy's Ice Creams. I think I may start scheduling flights out of Austin more often. Around 5:15, I board the plane and realize... it's a mini-jet with two seats on each side. People are forced to put some carry-on baggage under the plane. Normally, I wouldn't mind too much but the flight to Chicago is two and a half hours long, not some twenty minute flight. When we arrived at Chicago, I was excited because we were a little early, which in my mind = getting to Notre Dame faster. However, we proceeded to sit at the tarmac for 45 minutes because for some reason there was a plane at our gate. Uggggh. Thankfully, while I was waiting, I got to talk to the old Swedish man next to me who in the course of conversatoin asked me if I had any kids. I involuntarily laughed in his face, then tried to make it seem like I was not mocking him by keeping up the polite conversation. Once I finally got out of the airplane, I met up with Nips and had a pretty good drive into South Bend. After some driving moves of questionable legality, we finally made it onto the Skyway. An estimated 10:00 arrival time ended up being more around midnight after all the delays and actually grabbing dinner. Despite the exhaustion, we managed to go out to Legends with Miguel and Philip and rested up for the game the next day.

Saturday

Holy crap, not having to get up for band is so glorious. You just sleeeep and sleep. Granted, I actually did not sleep in that much, but you have the option! Mothball's tailgate was a good time, and I met up with tons of alums I hadn't seen in a while. When Mothball and Vnak were told by the cops protecting USC that they were going to jail if they messed with the band, I couldn't help but think, "Ah, the circle of life." We made it to Concert on the Steps and stepoff, something I was looking forward to immensely. At this point, my voice was still there but hurting for sure. In my drunken haze, I was not being very effective at communicating the hilarity of jokes and witticisms I had so carefully prepared. Thank goodness Vnak saved the day by shushing me and then yelling "Does anyone else think Lizett looks like Bill Cosby??" If I had been more lucid, I would have ripped into some Jell-o Pudding jokes.

Our tickets were in the end zone behind the band, right next to the entrance ramp and with easy access to the bathroom and concession stand. Couldn't ask for a better strategic location. I screamed my head off the whole game, which led to the lack-of-voice-ness. During the first part of the game, I jokingly did the Disney World Happy Dance for joy of being at the game, which later turned into the Anxiety Dance of Franticness. It got pretty bad in the last quarter or so where I was just rocking back and forth, holding my head in hopes it didn't explode. The outcome was... dissapointing. But for 10 euphric seconds, we had beat USC. It makes the defeat that much worse. I hate you Pete Carroll. I hope Regis Philbin burns down USC.

The post-game celebration was a little less lively as expected, but still a fairly good time despite the fact that we went to Bookmakers which smelled like an odd combination of an ashtray and feet and Oscars, which was actually much better than expected despite the presence of middle aged lesbians hitting on me. It was really great to just hang out with my friends again, falling back into the same dynamics as if we hadn't left.

Sunday

Almost as nice as Saturday. The luxury of a late flight meant I got to go to the bookstore, Nick's Patio for breakfast and hang out with my friends and walk around campus for quite a while. Walking around campus was great - it was a beautiful day, and the ND crazy-effective workers had returned campus to its pristine condition. The flight back to Austin was also in a tiny jet, and even better than the return trip because I sat further back and there was a crying baby in front of me. The mom kept trying to show her the Baby Irish DVD - for those of you who haven't heard of these, they make Baby Einstein-type DVDs for college teams now in order to indoctrinate kids even more than their ND parents do already. It didn't really seem to work for quieting a 2-year-old.

In conclusion, today was rough to get to class and stay awake all day. If any of you see Matt Leinart hanging out with Nick Lachey, be sure to kick both in the balls for me.