Y did U have to win?

THE football game marks a somewhat tense day in our household each year. Let me start by telling you a story which pretty much sums up why.

One of the first times I was around S's Grandpa H, he let me know (upon hearing that I was a student at BYU) that when S was a teenager (maybe a little younger) that he would never, ever consider even talking to any girl that went to the Y. A diehard UTE fan, S was opposed to anything blue. Fast-forward 10 years or so, it was quite hilarious to Grandpa H that S was now marrying a Cougar girl.

I, myself, have honestly not always been a diehard Coug fan. For a lot of years I simply did not care who won THE game. However, after devoting so many hours to one campus, it became difficult to not get caught up in the yearly festivities of the Holy War.

Which brings us to this years game...

Early in the season my Cougs were doing really well and I took every advantage to let S know so. It's my own fault really, but when they were slaughtered in the TCU game, the U vs. Y line in our house became very apparent and I started paying for every derogatory comment I made against the U. Even worse was when the U ended up beating TCU. I woke up the next morning to the U of U fight song blaring in my ears with S singing along in a somewhat tone-deaf yet very exuberant manner. At this point I put all my energy into hoping for a victory in THE game.

As I made plans to go to a family football party (sans S, he had to work) I was running late...as usual. When I went out to my car to leave, I saw this:

I exclaimed, "You've got to be kidding!" took some pictures (for insurance purposes), and washed it off enough to be illegible. Afterall, I couldn't drive around town in a blue car with a BYU Alum plate and wearing BYU clothing with this crap on my car...ironically when I got done sort-of-washing it off, it looked like a giant bird had done just that.

Watching the game with my ILs felt sort of like a slow death. Every time the Cougs would manage to do something well, the good people of the group attempted to cheer them on, but not to the extent that the other people cheered their team on. I also now see after watching the game with my FIL that S's extreme UTE fanaticism must be inherited. I was grateful every time the U scored that S was not there. (Although he tried to call a few times at the end of the game. I say tried because I hung up on him twice and my SIL M hung up on him the third.) Not a happy time...

It did get better though. I healed my bruised ego with some retail therapy at Michaels after the game. I also ran 2 1/2 miles when I got home (thanks for the motivation, B.) And S has actually been really, really nice considering he could be rubbing my face all in it right now.

I guess the best thing I can hope for now is National humiliation for the U at their precious BCS bowl game... :)

~

Onto more happy things, I mentioned a few weeks back that S got me a surprise for my birthday. Namely, one my my cool scrapbook gadgets on wish #3 in my 10/26 blog: the Slice! I apologize in advance for sounding like an info-mercial.

The Slice is possibly the coolest thing to hit the Scrapbook-world scene this year. It is a personal electronic die-cutting machine about the size of a large camera, so it's extremely portable. I've looked into other electronic die-cutters but never knew how I could work them into my space because they are SO big! So when I saw this cool little gadget I knew right away it was for me. I wasn't sure I would get it this year because (1) it would likely sell out for the Christmas season and (2) it's a little pricey. However, I guess the advantage of having a B-Day early in November is that the Christmas rush generally hasn't hit yet. Plus S is very generous.

I actually think S was as interested as I was to see it in action. He read through all of the instructions as I pulled it out of the box. You simply select the image you want cut out:

And voila!

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!