Hit 'Em in the BallState

Okay so I am little tardy on the blogging... my bad.

Friday I went with Nikki to my first ever UI homecoming parade. The weather was a little drippy but not too bad. The parade theme was Orange Feve and one float featured a disco dancing Rashard Mendenhall... not the actual player but a Rashard-like mannequin sporting a #5 jersey and an 'fro. Good stuff. The through out some serious candy at this parade... I got a full size (2 cups) Reese's, several tootsie rolls, bubble gum and mini football. Okay so the football says TCF Bank, and I work at Busey, but still I love free stuff. I saw my friend Laurie from my church small group playing in the Marching Illini, and one of the floats had two orange and blue pool table balls, crashing into a red Ball State ball, and the frat boy riding shotgun in the truck pulling the float was yelling to the crowd "Go Illini, hit 'em in the ballState! Oh, I love a parade.

Saturday we tailgated a bit, and my brother Phil and my nephew Jeremy joined us, along with my former football player mentee, Jake. It was good to see all of my boys. Jake is a dear for dragging his college boy booty out of bed shortly after 9 a.m. on chilly Saturday morning to eat donuts and drink hot chocolate with me. He received a couple of phone calls while tailgating with us... his ringer... "A Country Boy Can Survive"... very fitting for my little Kansas buddy. Phil and Jeremy helped us kill a few more donuts, and Phil even had a beer with his donut... I would expect nothing less from my brother.

We had our "good seats" for the game, and I had forgotten just how sweet they are. I had a good view of my current football player mentee, Cole #61, on the sidelines. The last time I had those seats was the first game of the season and I hadn't been assigned a mentee yet. Cole is an excellent sideline cheerleader, encouraging the crowd to stand up and get loud.

Sunday I worked the Orange & Blue Scrimmage at the Hall. Former player and new assistant coach, Jerrance Howard was there. When he walked by with a group of recruits I told him "Welcome Back" and he stopped and chatted me up a bit. After the scrimmage he walked past again and told me "Thanks for helping out tonight". He is just so nice and charming... and his smile just lights up a room... welcome home J-How.

Afterwards a group from the Hall headed to Village Inn. We were sitting with Sue (my boss's boss for lack of a better term) and I was telling her about my sweetie. She was quizzing me about him and when I said his name was Richard... she just paused and gave me a funny look. I was like "Sue what's the big deal with his name being Richard". Her response... "OMG, you guys are 'Dick and Jane'!" I guess I have never thought of that before, probably because I never refer to Richard as "Dick". It is usually Richard, Sweetie, Hey You, or Big R which Nikki and Sarah J have taken a shine too. Evidently Nikki is kind of liking the Dick and Jane angle. Today at work were were discussing my lack of blog of late, and I said that I didn't get to it last night because I went to Danville to see Richard. Here response was as follows:

Jane went to visit Dick.

Jane did not blog.

Bad Jane!

To make up for it, I will probably be posting two blogs tonight. I hope all is forgiven :)

Editors Note: The picture is of my mentee, Cole Knuth #61, cheering on his teammates at kick off.