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February 05, 2008
Groundhogs and Turducken
You know how sometimes it'd be great to have a day between days, just to get everything done that you'd like to? Well, this weekend I could've used a couple of those days, just to sleep! It all started on Friday, when I had to spend much of the day trying to organize the ride situation to Punxsutawney for Groundhog Day. I had hoped that I wouldn't have to drive since I drove over there last year, but with how things were shaking out, I bit the bullet and said I'd drive. So with all that, plus looking at an apartment with Tim (and getting soaked in the pouring 34-degree rain on the walk home), practicing piano at the church, and then going to team trivia (our team was "Groundhog: Tastes Just Like Chicken" and ran away with 1st place, woot), I only had an hour-plus to try to get a nap in before we left for Punxsutawney. I think I might've fallen asleep briefly, but I could easily have been delusional...
It felt a little odd striking out from my apartment at midnight to pick up Ethan & Robyn and then Ryan, I must admit. With the meteo grads and PSCGers that were going, we had four carloads of Punxsy-bound people (including Chris & Amber, who drove up all the way from North Carolina to go groundhoggin'!), and it was a bit after 12:30 when we finally left State College. 
Ethan observed it was downright surreal to see a whole line of slow-moving cars on the road in the middle of nowhere between DuBois and Punxsutawney at 2am. And all for a rodent! We took the shuttle bus up to Gobblers Knob from the Wal-Mart, and got up there at 3:15am, just 15 minutes after the gates to the Knob opened. That allowed us to get a pretty sweet spot down fairly close to the stage, just off to the right side. A prime spot for our hurricane flags, if I do say so myself. :-) 
As the hours ticked away while we stood there in the cold, watching some of the dancing on stage and listening to some of the inane jokes and babble from one of the rookie members of the Inner Circle, they would occasionally announce, "Only 4 more hours until Phil's prediction!" or "Only 3 more hours!" and so on, which annoyed us greatly, because it reminded us not how close we were getting, but just how much longer we had to go. 
It was all amusing fun, though I was getting a bit stiff just standing there and holding the flagpole. There were so many people that showed up at Gobblers Knob though, and before the pre-dawn fireworks started up at 6:30, they announced that there were already over 10,000 people that had showed up to Gobblers Knob, and there was still a constant stream of buses bringing people up to the Knob right until Phil's prognostication at about 7:25, so there were probably somewhere between 12-15,000 people crammed in there. Seriously, the place was packed.
After a rendition of the Pennsylvania Polka, Phil's two handlers yanked him out of the stump and held him up high for all the world's TV cameras to see. And the proclamation that Phil "chose" read that he saw his shadow, meaning an additional six weeks of winter are yet to come. Never mind the fact that it was 100% cloudy with some light flurries falling. 
And never mind the fact that Punxsutawney Phil is only about 37% accurate in his prognostications, despite his status as the seer of seers and prognosticator of prognosticators. Phil has spoken: it won't be an early spring. And guess what the forecast for here is? After a brief warmup the next two days, an extended cooldown late this week well into next week. Hmmmm...
After Phil's befuddling prediction, which was soundly booed by the gathered throng, we high-tailed it out of there and hoofed it down the hill back into town, to wait in line at the Elks Club for one of the many pancake breakfasts offered throughout Punxsutawney (which means "town of the sandflies" in the Seneca language... seriously). 
Even with the long wait in line and once we got in there, it felt *so* good to sit down again! By the time we finally rolled out of Punxsy around 11:30am, I was more than ready to head for home. I was a bit drowsy in the last two-thirds of the drive home, but we made it back alright. I made sure to limit my nap to under two hours though, so that I wouldn't completely screw up my sleep schedule. I was still exhausted all through worship band practice on Saturday evening though.
When I got home from worship practice I turned on the TV, expecting Penn State to be trailing #7 Michigan State by 20 on the basketball court. I was jolted awake though when I saw PSU leading MSU 58-54 midway through the 2nd half! That was an eye opener, no mistake! Watching the rest of the game, I was riveted as the Nittany Lions held off a couple of Spartans runs, setting the normally docile Penn State crowd into a frenzy. The Bryce Jordan Center is usually rather like a mausoleum when basketball games are happening, so it was exciting to see the crowd roaring and jumping around with every Lions' basket, even if I had to settle for seeing it on TV. When it was all said and done, Penn State had shocked the #7 team in the country, Michigan State, by a score of 85-76, and the whole student section rushed the court as one. It was quite a sight! And it led off SportsCenter!! I'm so happy for Penn State basketball, this was a great win for them. It was their first victory over a ranked team since they beat #6 Illinois in Champaign in 2006, and their first victory over a ranked team at the Bryce Jordan Center since they beat #6 Illinois way back in 2001, so this was truly a HUGE win for the program. Now let's see if they can sustain this sort of effort the rest of the season, and maybe earn themselves some sort of postseason berth.
On Sunday, Jon & I hosted the annual meteo grads Super Bowl party, complete with the now-established tasty turducken tradition. 20 people showed up too, so our small place was rather full! It was a great time, and a great Super Bowl too. Unusually good. I didn't really care much for either the Giants or the Patriots, 
so I was cheering instead for my squares. That was really the only true allegiance I had for my cheering throughout the game. But even though my squares didn't win, we did get a great game, which was made all the more fun to watch because we had a couple actual Giants and Patriots fans in the room, 
which made things a bit more rowdy and fun than usual! And it was amazing to hear how quiet everyone got during the scintillating 4th quarter, after being so loud the whole first three quarters, even during the commercials (and I'd much rather people quiet down during Super Bowl commercials!). It was certainly one of the best and most entertaining Super Bowls I've ever seen, 
with the Giants pulling the tremendous 17-14 upset, and I can't say I'm disappointed with the outcome. I was kinda hoping the Patriots would win just so that we could stop hearing about the 1972 Dolphins every year, but then I was kinda hoping the Giants would win because the Patriots had become the insufferable bully-favorite. It's always more fun to cheer for David than Goliath!
And that's why I could still use a day or two to recover from the weekend!
Posted by Jared at February 5, 2008 12:35 AM
Comments
Hey, give credit where credit is due: the "day between days" concept was your maternal grandmother's fond wishful creation.
Posted by: MERAmanuensis at February 5, 2008 09:36 AM