Actually, the game is in Columbus, but Brian and I are visiting his folks in northeast Iowa and are watching the game on TV. Earlier, we went into town for coffee and soup wearing Ohio State gear. Mom told us there are some pretty rabid Iowa fans here in town. We’re such troublemakers, Brian and me.

It’s halftime and since I’m out of town, I’m still planning to post each day and keep up with NaBloPoMo, but I may only write a sentence or two. That still counts. My therapist said so.

…this is a true story. Some of you know that Brian and I were in Columbus, Ohio, recently and saw the Ohio State Buckeyes (Go Bucks!) beat the Navy Midshipmen. What I forgot to mention was that after the game, after wading through a literal sea of red — jerseys, hats, shorts — we boarded a COTA bus to return to our hotel. A blind man got on a few stops later, complaining about the football crowd and how it messed up his bus schedule, and then threatened to shoot said crowd. Brian and I were like, “Whatever,” since passengers like him ride the CTA all the time and no one pays them any attention. Besides, the man was blind; how accurate could his aim be? Well, in Columbus, they apparently take these sorts of threats seriously because at the very next stop, the driver booted the passenger off the bus and into the waiting arms of a police officer who just happened to be at that corner directing the flow of traffic. True story.

Most of you already know that Brian and I road tripped it to Columbus, OH, over Labor Day weekend. Well, I finally finished uploading the pictures to Flickr for everyone to enjoy and love! You can see them here: Columbus 2009. I’ve written descriptions on some of the pictures for people unfamiliar with Buckeyes and Ohio State tradition — and believe me, there’s a lot of them!

Some highlights of the trip include:

• Meeting a blog friend, Heather, for the first time. We had dinner at Cap City Diner and I was relieved that our husbands hit it off and there were no awkward silences. Heather is just as friendly and funny in real life as she is online. And prettier! She showed me pictures of their son and 4 cats. Yay! Another couple with 4 cats! Heather and I hoped that our husbands would do the O-H-I-O (can’t find a link to this) with us while our server took a picture, but nope. Heather and I did both halves ourselves and she did a great job photoshopping the 2 pictures together.
• Our hotel. It was different from other hotels, with the exposed brick walls and Aveda — yes, Aveda — products. The Lofts used to be a wallpaper factory, I think, and seemed more like the many loft condos here in Chicago. We recommend it!
• The football game, of course! Last week we wished our tickets were for the USC game but now we’re glad they weren’t! We had tickets to the opening game against the Navy Midshipmen. TBDBITL (The Best Damn Band in the Land) did FOUR “Script Ohio’s,” which you really have to see live, before the game started because the Alumni Band performed, too. The latter ranged in age from 21 – 90. Having been a band geek myself, how cool is that? Also, John Glenn “dotted the I,” which is a HUGE honor, on one of the scripts! It was a really good game — a close one — and we pulled off a win.
• The place where Brian and I ate together for the first time. All of our friends have moved away, and many of our old haunts are no longer there, so we were surprised and delighted that Dan’s Drive-In, an old diner we called Dan’s DIVE-in, was still there. Brian and I had been studying with another friend of ours. When he went to drop me off, I was hungry and this was the only place I knew of that was relatively near my apartment and that would be open at 2am. They’ve since renovated the interior so it’s hardly a dive, but they kept the outside the same, which is cool!

We’re looking forward to taking this trip again next year!

I didn’t realize that I hadn’t blogged about how this happened, but I did write an FB note about it and tagged hockey friends so they’d get a notification that I wrote it. So here’s the story, based on that note:

So I finally went skating last Tuesday (March something-or-other) for the first time in a couple years! They say it’s like riding a bike, right? Sure, if you’re used to riding a fancy-Lance Armstrong-racing-type bike and then hit some rough trails on a mountain bike! I completely forgot that regular skate blades are curved and the boot is taller, so I didn’t tighten the top part as well as I should have, nor take into account the blade differences between hockey skates and goalie skates.

Once I was laced up, I hit the ice! And immediately fell on my ass, twice in a row. The second time, my ankle twisted and the outside bony part landed on the ice, HARD; out of habit, I tried doing a half butterfly as I fell, so the inside of my left knee is nicely bruised. Good thing there was only me, my goalie friend Kathy, and some older dude there to witness this! Gotta love noon skate.

Of course my ankle bothered me but I ignored it, probably due to my stubbornness and determination to skate for the half hour remaining. I mean, I was there already, right?

At the time, the injury didn’t seem too bad, but the doctor said not to do anything like WALK, drive, let alone skate. Which is annoying on all counts, especially because I can’t wait to be back out there!

It was really frickin’ awesome. You have to go see it! Enough said.