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September 25, 2003

A Few Things About Our Return to Tuscaloosa

Last weekend, Tammy and I headed to Tuscaloosa for the ill-fated Northern Illinois game. It was the first time we had set foot at our alma mater in about two years. All in all, it was a pretty good day, except for the game's outcome.

• Driving down McFarland Blvd was sort of a weird experience. My college days seem so ridiculously long ago, and yet very little has changed in Tuscaloosa. We saw O'Charleys, where we went on our first date. We saw Bruno's, where I spent a great deal of money on groceries. We saw Gospel Supply house, Blockbuster, Brandon's old apartment building, and so many other places I frequented during college. Harvey's isn't there anymore though. We didn't go down 15th Street, so I'm sort of curious if there are any new restaurants along there.
• When we first arrived, we parked at the BCM and went inside. In a way, it was a kind of emotional experience. The building itself has changed very little from what I could tell, with the exception of the new floor in the dining room. The hardwood floor was a little dirtier than when I was taking care of it. The calendar board that Brandon and I constructed from a giant dry-erase board and black electrical tape was still there, and being put to good use. The trophy case still had all kinds of junk in it, and the couches were all the same as when I left. There were a few new things...new council boxes, some more stuff hanging on the walls...the chapel had a sound enclosure thing for a drum set now. That's about it. And yet I know that so much has changed...the first time in, we didn't see a single person we knew. Later in the day, we saw a handful of people we knew, but not many. I guess I expected more alumns on a game day, and it's too bad we can't be there for Homecoming. Oh well. It's just really weird to be in a place that I spent the better part of four years, played endless hours of cards, lived there for a year, and at least recognized most of the people there, and feel like a total stranger. It was refreshing, though, to watch and listen to the students who came back there to hang out after the game. It was like watching an episode of BCM: The Next Generation or something...you start thinking of old school people that they remind you of, and think about what it was like to have a big group of people sitting on the couches talking and throwing pillows and deciding to go eat (at 10 PM, by the way).
  
• We had a nice picnic on the Quad for lunch...it might be kind of cool if I could tell a nice story about how we used to always picnic on the Quad and this brought back old memories, but I think we only did it once or twice when we were in school.
  
• We didn't go all the way down, but we got close enough to where we could see Rose Towers. Did I mention how much I don't miss anything about that building? (besides the 1122 memories, of course)
  
• In case you are wondering, yes, we walked by Gordan Palmer Hall, and yes, I hissed.
  
• The new Shelby Hall looks like it's going to be the best looking building on campus. As in, I think UA brochures and stuff will show Denny Chimes, the President's Mansion, and Shelby Hall. Wow.
  
• My big disappointment of the day came at the Ferg...I was delighted to see that the smoothie place was open. There was some disappointment when I realized that, for the first time, I'd have to actually use money to pay for a smoothie because I couldn't just swipe my student ID card, but my main disappointment was when they were out of strawberries and couldn't make my favorite. What I ended up with wasn't anything special.
  
• Sitting in reserved seats in Bryant-Denny for the first time ever wasn't as weird as I thought it would be. I must admit, it was nice to not need to get there 2+ hours before kickoff. Heck, by the time we sat down, the teams were already out there practicing! Imagine that! Still, I missed some of the craziness of the student section. We were are on the third row, which sounds good until you realize that you really can't tell much about what's going on. But it was great to scream my head off again...after Shaud's TD when the crowd thought we were coming back, the place just went nuts...
  
• As slow as it felt like we were going (which was probably exaggerated by my great need to pee), we made it back in about an hour and a half, which really isn't bad.
  
• I must have grown as a person. For most of my life, and probably the most in college, a loss, especially to a team we should have beaten (read UCF, La. Tech, etc) would put me in a really bad mood and just about ruin my weekend. I laugh when I hear people talking about that stuff now. I'm sorry, but I just can't get that depressed over a football game anymore. Football is not life or death...it's just something to enjoy on the weekends and talk about during the week at work.
  
• Despite the fact that I had to leave for Orlando the next day and the fact that we lost, it was a good trip and I'm glad we were able to go. I hope maybe we'll see more people we know when we go back for the LSU game, but it was really good to just walk across the campus and be among the thousands shouting "Roll Tide!".