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September 28, 2009
Birthday Visit to the Whitehouse
Last year Penn State declared a Whitehouse for the home game vs Illinois on 27 Sep (my birthday), but I didn't go because my PSU friends Chris & Amber were getting married over in Toledo (Happy 1st Anniversary to them!). This year when Penn State declared another Whitehouse for the home game vs Iowa on 26 Sep, I was excited that I was getting a second chance to be able to enjoy a game like that, this time the night before my birthday.
Alex decided to drive down from Michigan for the weekend to celebrate my birthday, so I was trying to find a ticket for him for quite some time. Fortunately I was eventually able to secure a ticket for him in the student section. I was thrilled to find a student ticket for him, because if I didn't, I wouldn't have gone to the game without Alex. I would've sold my ticket and then hoped a scalper outside the stadium would've been selling a pair of non-student tickets for a "reasonable" price. Considering the magnitude of the game, however, the likelihood of finding reasonably priced scalped tickets was going to be slim, so I was really glad we didn't have to mess with any of that and that I wouldn't have to risk not getting into the game.
Some of the meteo grad students drove up to the tailgate lots at about 9am to set up and go to ESPN College GameDay, which originated from Penn State this weekend. Alex & I both decided that was simply way too early to go start tailgating for an 8pm kickoff. Tailgating can be fun and all, but we also wanted to do at least something else too.
One of the main "other" things I really wanted to do was go for a run with Alex, so at around 10am we went for a pretty good run - about 5.5 miles!! And I only had to stop once for a short walking break, around the 4-mile mark! My previous longest run was 4.1 miles back on Monday last week, but I had to stop twice during that. It was wonderful to be able to go running with Alex, and he helped me quicken my pace a little bit (especially early on, though I undoubtedly slowed his normal pace), and to keep running several times when I felt like stopping -- I'd mention while we were running that on past runs I'd frequently stop along a particular stretch or hill that we were on, and he'd say, "Not today!". Also, my shin splints, which had really been bothering me on my runs over the past few weeks, didn't bother me at all after Saturday's run. Hooray!
By the time we drove up to the tailgate around 1:30 or 2pm, the rain had already begun, and would last all afternoon and evening, until well into the night actually. It was very, very wet, but fortunately there were a couple tents with tarp walls set up, to keep some areas reasonably dry. (Walter & I went out and bought the tarps and some other stuff that week because we knew it'd probably be a wet day, and that was a very good investment.) We still had a great time up there though, grilling some Louie's brats I brought, playing as a team in a few games (unbeaten in two games of pong, 1-1 at washer toss during a short break in the rain), and hanging out with the meteo crew.
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It was clear by mid-week that it was going to be chilly and rainy for the game, so I got long-sleeve white Penn State shirts for Alex & I, as well as clear Penn State ponchos. And boy did we need the ponchos! I didn't want to risk my camera's well-being at the stadium in the rain, so I didn't bring it in with me. I was kinda bummed about that, because I was looking forward to getting some good pictures of the Whitehouse. Oh well. We wanted to beat the lines at the student gate, so we got there around 6:15. The tradeoff for not having to wait in line at all was that we had to sit out in the rain in the stadium for a bit longer, but an extra hour in the rain really didn't make any difference; we were still wet and cold, but it was neat to watch the stadium slowly fill up with white under the lights. The rain really didn't dampen enthusiasm for the game, and the student section was quite raucous. During the pregame when they were playing a bunch of music in the stadium, I sent a text message to my friend Blair from E-Free (who works as a sound engineer in Beaver Stadium during football games) to tell him that Alex & I requested the song "I've Gotta Feeling" by Black-Eyed Peas. I don't know if they already planned on playing it or not, but about 20 minutes before kickoff they played it! That was pretty cool.
This was Alex's first-ever football game of any sort that he'd ever been to, so this was a pretty fantastic atmosphere for a first-ever football game. :-) He got to see pretty much everything too, including the delirium and excitement of PSU fans on their first offensive play (a 79-yard touchdown pass), a clock-eating methodical drive (20 plays, 10+ minutes, all for PSU to settle for a field goal), to the noisy intensity of the fans urging on our defense, to unusual scoring (a safety for Iowa in the 2nd quarter to trim PSU's lead to 10-2), and utter silence and disbelief (when Iowa blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown to pull ahead 11-10 in the 4th quarter). He got to see pretty much everything except a Penn State win, as Iowa scored 16 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to win 21-10. Our defense played heroically, but got no support from the offense after the 1st quarter. Penn State's offensive line was atrocious after the 1st quarter, which led to a poor night for QB Daryll Clark and RB Evan Royster. As JoePa said, "we got licked." Iowa absolutely outplayed Penn State in just about every facet of the game in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters. It was disappointing and frustrating to watch. Penn State's loss aside, Alex & I both enjoyed the game and the experience (which may have been enhanced by the all-game non-stop rain and cold in some twisted way, haha). After standing in the rain and cheering our voices somewhat hoarse for several hours (and after a 5.5 mile run in the morning), we were very ready to get off our feet and go to bed following the game.
Our voices were still in pretty rough shape Sunday morning at church. Fortunately we got there early enough to run through the whole set twice, so we could loosen up our voices a little bit. Even though my voice was/is kind of scratchy when I talked, it was good enough to lead singing this morning on some of the songs, even if it was an octave lower than I'd normally sing in some spots. I'll write more about the set in a separate post, but it was awesome to play with Alex again, and to have the opportunity to lead with just us two up there. After church we met up with David D & Isaac at Prospector's for lunch. Mmmmmm, ribs and wings all in one meal... :-) Alex left for Ann Arbor in mid-afternoon to get back for Monday classes and whatnot, but not before giving me a colorful "Bible book" tie as a birthday present. I look forward to wearing it, thanks Alex!
Thanks to everyone for all the birthday messages and wishes, too! I appreciate it! Man, I'm starting to feel old now that I'm 26 though... :-)
Posted by Jared at September 28, 2009 12:29 AM