yesterday was a good day: i didn't have to use my a-k, but i could've used some lessons in 3rd party physical contact greeting/celebratory actions

yesterday was one of those saturdays that don't come along too often. it was one of those days where if someone would have asked to borrow $1,000 from me to buy party favors for a child's birthday, i just might have said yes... of course the check would have bounced, but it's the thought that counts. you get my point, though: yesterday was a good day.

for starters, the cooperfive and the lemonefive headed out to the lake to start the day off in the depleted water levels of lake mead. we expected so-so weather and a busy dock due to the three day weekened; but, to our pleasant surprise, the weather was quite nice and the lake wasn't crowded at all. aim had one of her best wakeboarding outings ever, jameson and his cousin got up and stayed up on the wakeboard, and aim took colston for a spin on the board, as well. plus, to top it off, i had a few satisfying runs myself... and, of course, no one got hurt on the tube, which is always a plus. for it was only about a month ago that i thought i'd lost my mother to the cold, cruel, and unforgiving grasp (or lack thereof) of the tube.

one of my brothers in law was driving the boat, and he is no respecter of persons when he gets behind the wheel with the tube in tow (that's your mother in law for crying out loud). that slingshot effect on the turns that catapults the tube outside the wake is tense to watch... especially when a fifty something year old with weakening bone structure and limited ability to exert anything that might resemble strength is on the outside of the three man tube... and especiallyier when that person is your mother. actually, the whole situation is more awkward and confusing than tense, because upon seeing your mom tumble off the tube at heightened speeds doing an end-over-end reverse somersault, not unlike a fifty year old rag doll, along the surface of the water, one may be inclined to laugh at the poor soul's misfortune. not this son. i worried for my mother's physical well-being and my brother-in-law's health upon my father hearing that he decapitated special k's head. luckily, special k escaped unscathed and we all lived to tube another day.

back to yesterday...

the lake trip was well worth the time and made for a great start to the day. thank you, lemones.

after arriving home from the lake and getting all cleaned up, we headed over to the andersonfour's (soon to be five, or six) house for, quite possibly, the biggest game played by byu ever (in case it hasn't been made clear in previous posts, the cooperfive are big fans of all things byu). it was a gripping atmosphere... in fact, i'm not even sure how much i enjoy byu games anymore because i get so worked up for them. each game, especially the big ones, take years off of my life. this game was no exception as byu squared off against the third ranked team in the country at the dallas cowboys new behemoth of a stadium... it was bigtime.

what happened next can barely be put into words, but to make a long story short, the byu was victorious. that was fun, unfortunately, i think i had some temporary hearing loss with all the boisterous celebrating that took place as the game clock ticked to zero and my throat is definitely still soar.

picture this: everyone present temporarily forsook self-control and dignity to particpate in what can best be described as discombobulated victory dances (wives and kids included) accompanied by a chorus of yelling and roaring voices. mrs. blogmaster was shedding tears of pride and joy (it's not the first time byu football has done that to her... another testament to me that i chose well) and jameson didn't shed any tears this time like he did when byu beat utah on the beck to harline td after time had expired and the celebration eruption was so fierce it scared him. no, this time, my boys and i embraced in a group hug while simultaneously jumping up and down. we were definitely painting ourselves in the colors of chaos (yes, i ripped that off 500 days of summer who ripped it off belle and sebastian).

one funny note from the celebratory activities: my brother-in-law had a friend over watching the game whom i had never met before in my life. he was a really nice guy and clearly had a passion for byu football... that's all i need to know about someone to know he has his priorities straight and is worthy of my respect. anyhow, said friend was participating as much as anyone in the victory madness by embarking in what i would describe as an impromptu victory march throughout the anderson's house. he passed by me once or twice and each time i thought, do i give this guys a high-five? a hug? or a jump-in-the-air while twisting butt bump? the high-five seemed most appropriate given we had just met, but when he approached the second or third time and i planned to initiate the high five, i got a little confused in the midst of the chaos and thought i'd throw a little twist into the high-five by making it a jump-in-the-air high-five... that felt right seeing as how byu's victory deserved something at least slightly more special than a high-five.

unfortunately, said friend wasn't on the same wave length as i when i began to jump into the high-five and, thus, the "hey, let's do a jumping high five" signal wasn't received on his end. it was cool, though, i pulled it off without anyone really noticing except aim (but what could she say, she was crying for crying out loud - pun kind of intended), but i'm smooth like that except that i was screaming like a banshee while jumping by myself with my arm going up for a high-five (kind of like the byu player in the picture up top except that i think i got higher and my muscles were probably more defined than his). no big deal, i got him the next time around with a more conventional, and grounded, high-five.

thanks to byu and the andersons.



after the byu game, aim and i had to hustle down to the sam boyd stadium for the unlv football game taking place. we had been invited to catch the game from the president's box and we were only an hour and a half late. sorry, president... i'm sure he understood as we slipped in just as half-time started. at least i changed out of my byu shirt before getting there. the problem is, i don't own any red shirts and had to borrow one from my brother-in-law, ryan. the problem with that was that he didn't really have any red shirts either, but he did have a maroon and white striped shirt that was a lot closer to unlv's colors than the black shirt i was going to wear. so, i wore it and felt better about my attire (even though it was a tad preppy for the look i generally go for) right up until the moment i stepped into the president's box and was surrounded by a bunch of people in very vibrantly colored red-shirts... i stuck out like a maroon thumb. i felt kind of silly, but got past it as i couldn't even be bothered by a petty detail like that after byu's win.

another funny thing about the shirt is that i changed into it during the fourth quarter of the byu game and noticed that the colors of the shirt were actually pretty similar to oklahoma's colors. it must have been an odd scene to the outsider peeking in on the post-game celebrations to see this guy jubilantly jumping around with the other cougar fans, obviously pleased with the outcome of the game, but in oklahoma colors. i think someone got it on camera... maybe you can youtube it and see for yourselves.

back to the rebel game...

aim and i met up with the lady who had invited us to the game and i had another moment where the appropriate greeting action made things confusing: hug vs. handshake? i hate it when this happens. i need to come up with a policy for this type of stuff and stick with it. generally, i'm a handshake guy unless it's obvious the other side's going for a hug, then i'll reciprocate. in this case, i think i just totally misread the situation. maybe i was still intoxicated with byu's victory and was willing to hug anyone in my path, but i'm pretty sure i just misread the lady's handshake approach as a hug initiation and, as such, pulled out of the handshake approach too quickly in favor of the hug. it wasn't all bad, but it was one of those things where after the hug i was kind of like, whoa, she probably thinks that was weird... hurry up and introduce her to mrs. blogmaster before she can think about it too much. smooth.

oh well, all's well that ends well. we enjoyed the game: good food, good company (big jeff, special k and k dog were all present), and we got to go down on the field to watch some of the game (those dudes are big).

plus, the younger 2/3 of the cooperfive stayed at the lemones last night meaning mrs. blogmaster and i had the night to ourselves despite my dad's efforts to try and pawn my brother kendall (k-dog) off on us for the evening. not bloody likely, big j, since i was pretty sure aim wouldn't be misreading any of my physical advances.

like i said, yesterday was a good day.