My ears are still ringing a little bit. It's better than it was an hour ago, when I got home. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind it too much. I overloaded my ears on purpose, standing in front of a wall of sound, with kids who aren't even half of my age, blowing my hair back with fight songs and the Journey show. It's homecoming weekend, and although I am not digging out a piccolo for myself this year, I'm still spending time with the alumni band as much as I can. We had a happy hour at a downtown bar, there was a parade running the opposite direction than the usual Friday night Stampede, and tomorrow will be the long day with alumni business meetings, rehearsal, and the game. Last year was actually on my birthday, and the only thing I'd asked for as a gift was for the whole family to go to this event. Since a certain person called it 8 hours of his life he'll never get back, I'm more than happy to be flying solo this year. Well, not completely solo. Daughter #1 still likes coming back to town and meeting up with the folks who marched with her too. I won't be dragging along anyone against their will ever again. No party poopers allowed.
When I walked out to the mall waiting for the parade, I saw some little kid waving a Chip the Buffalo big head sign. I thought it was adorable. And then I saw the young men holding the big head signs of the twins, and I just about melted. These twins are 91 years old, and the most famous CU fans in Boulder. Betty and Peggy are this year's homecoming parade marshalls, and everyone loves them. They're my heroes. They attend every game, and stay through it to the end. I can't predict how long I will live, but I can predict that every year until I die, I will want to go to at least one game each season, staying all the way until the band plays the alma mater. It's my life goal.
While a cadre of trumpets was filling my face with "Separate Ways" and "Any Way You Want It," I wondered: when Steve Perry and Neil Schon were in their young adulthood, first writing songs for their little rock band, did they have any vision of their music being translated into television commercials and marching band shows someday? Do you suppose they had any idea how big they'd get when they were long haired hippie kids? I bet they had dreams, but the marching band part surely never occurred to them.
A little of my magic came back tonight. While we were at our happy hour at License Number One, they drew names for door prizes. I used to be the door prize queen at all of those air force spouses club meetings, but for five or six years, I went through a drought. When the alumni coordinator was reading the names on the cards for winners, I could feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I knew a win was coming. She pulled the third and last card, squinted at the handwriting in the dark club, and proceeded to mispronounce my name. (For the record, I have started allowing people to call me Annie for the first time in my life, but my name is just Anne. Not Annie.) The prize was just a bag of CU branded swag, but seriously, I just won a bag of CU swag! I love that stuff! I got a t-shirt, some CU band CDs, and a new Forever Buffs coffee mug. Yay, door prizes! Or as Daughter #2 calls them whenever I win, Yay, dork prizes!
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