It's Great To Be A Michigan Wolverine!

Oh, my... where do I begin? I went to the UM vs. MSU game yesterday and it was so totally amazingly awesome! But let's start at the beginning.

My Saturday basically started around 2pm when I went to meet Steve at his friend's house on Packard St. I was going to walk to the game with Steve and hang out with him there so I wouldn't be all alone... my friends were either gone, in the marching band, not going, or I didn't know where the heck they were. So Steve and I walked to some pole outside the stadium and there we met up with Randy Ososki, Justin Kelly, Clint Anderson, and Doc. We all walked to the stadium and sat together even though our tickets weren't for the same spot. When I went through the place where they tear off your ticket stub when you walk in, the old guy who tore it off said that I look just like my father. That was a little weird.

So, we sat down in section 28 and waited for over an hour for the game to start. The MSU marching band played some pre-game stuff and then the UM marching band played their pre-game stuff. I must say, the UM band's entries were much more impressive than the MSU band's entries. But sadly, I couldn't hear either band very well because of the insane wind. The wind was actually really cool though... cool as in fun/interesting as well as cold. It would pick up stuff and blow it all over the place. For example, there was a plastic bag or something and it started from my side of the stadium and it flew up and down almost to the ground and then the wind picked it up again and it blew here and there and everywhere until finally landing on someone's head on the other side of the stadium. At one point during the game, it blew a blow-up football onto the field during a play and it fooled me for a second... I thought there had been a fumble. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

When the game finally did start, it started badly. MSU was scoring and Michigan wasn't. MSU was getting first downs and Michigan wasn't. It was disheartening, and it didn't help that there were two annoying girl MSU fans behind us yelling and saying dumb stuff. Doc told me more than once to "take them out" and I was awfully close to doing that. By halftime Michigan was still down by a touchdown... 10-17. But, by this time I had learned all the cheers... all the many "go blue" cheers and the "you suck" cheer (how nice) and the key shaking thing on third downs (I think) and the hat/yelling thing for kick-offs and everything else. Wow, the games are a blast.

The halftime show was fun. I watched it intently. The only bad thing was that, because of the wind, it was hard to hear. I learned later that when doing their entries, the people in the band were wobbling to the point of almost falling over because the wind was so strong, but that wasn't apparent to the casual observer.

The third quarter came and went with no scoring whatsoever. But then the fourth quarter was something else. First, MSU scored another fieldgoal and another touchdown putting them ahead by 17. It seemed utterly hopeless. There were seven minutes left and we were down by 17. At this point, the two annoying MSU girls went somewhere else to rush the field when MSU won. But then UM got a fieldgoal followed by an onside kick that was recovered by the Wolverines. With six minutes left U of M got a touchdown. Three minutes later we got another one, tying the score at 27. Wow, you don't even know how much people were freaking out when that happened. You should've seen their faces and heard the noise. Wow. Time ran out and it was tied, but there was a defensive foul so MSU had a chance to win with a field goal from 40-some yards back. Thankfully, the wind was strong and the kick didn't even make it to the goal posts.

The overtimes were intense. When our guys were on defense the crowd would yell, "defense! defense!" and then just yell as loud as they could when the play was about to begin. In the first overtime, both teams got fieldgoals. In the second overtime, both teams got touchdowns and extra points. In the third overtime, there is a rule that if you get a touchdown, you have to go for the two extra points instead of just the one. Michigan was up first and they got a touchdown, making the score 43-37. Then they had to go for the two points and somehow they got it! ...flipping-out city. When it was MSU's turn they got penalties and lost yardage and stuff, and the game ended on an incomplete pass to the endzone. I think when that happened every Michigan fan in the stadium threw their fists into the air and screamed. Final score: 45 UM - 37 MSU. Wow... joy, screaming, yelling, exultaion, singing, jumping up and down, high-fives, hugs, smiles, and the chant, "It's great... to be... a Mich-i-gan Wol-ver-ine".

After the game, we walked to Doc's Envoy, packed all six of us into it (Randy, Justin, Clint, and I were all in the backseat), and then went to the Mongolian Barbeque. We had to wait for at least a half an hour for a table. We would've had to wait longer, but Mike Dittenber, Mike's girlfriend, and Neil Bergeron got there early and put in our request. We got drinks at the bar while we waited. The food there was so good (I ate duck!) but it was also very expensive. After dinner, Steve went with Mike, and Doc drove me back to South Quad. Riding in a packed car with those guys is an interesting but not very pleasant experience.

When I got back, I stopped at Alison's room to ask about going to church tomorrow and Sarah was there, so we walked Sarah back to Alice Lloyd on the hill around midnight. I like walking through Ann Arbor at night.

And that was my Saturday. Something else noteworthy happened, but I don't think it would be smart to post it on here for all to see. Tonight, I'm going to Tian's house with people and we are going to make dinner and stuff. It should be a fun time. Oh, and I took pictures at the game, so I'll post those on imgestation sometime soon.