11/12/09

Not every day has an easily identifiable highlight but some days certainly do. Today had a very distinct highlight. It came when I was lucky enough to end up between my parents at dinner. When they haven't been on speaking terms for the last day or two, the fella who draws the 'buffer' seat should always consider himself lucky. It wasn't as bad as I expected though. The food was superb and nobody said anything awkward. Good enough.

There was no sound on the TVs at the bar where we had dinner, but I still could see that the discussion on various ESPN and Fox Sports shows involved a certain Indiana university whose football players wear shiny gold helmets. Plenty of pundits laughing at the lads and their coach this week, it would appear. To quote our nation's esteemed leader and undisputed savior of the free world - Fired up! Ready to go! Saturday can't get here fast enough. As of the time that this post is being made, nobody has yet volunteered to fight me. The offer stands.

The six cases of beer in the trunk of my car should be enough to get us through tomorrow night and all of Saturday, I hope. My last leisure trip to Pittsburgh came in 2005. Following a dazzling 42-21 victory for the Irish on that Saturday night, my fruitless pursuit of a late-night beer store left an indelible mark on my soul. The place is still run by Quakers or something and, beginning promptly at 1am, I was shit out of luck. Never again, I vowed. Never again. If I were ever to visit for another Pitt game, I would make sure to arrive with more beer than I could possibly hope to drink.

My Swedish buddy Sjoe managed to offload his smuggled cigarettes from Kentucky tonight and I'll get paid for my brothers' football tickets tomorrow, so the financial end of the weekend appears to be pretty well situated. All that is left is for Our Lady's fearless defenders of righteousness to redeem their soiled name. We'll see.