There Ya Go
You would think that headline isn’t about me, but it’s kind of true. I’m not a public person. Most of the time, I have to be. I cover high school sports for the better part of the year, and in those months during the summer, it’s amateur and Legion ball.
I attend council meetings, school board meetings and county board meetings, as well as myriad events such as town festivals and fundraisers.
Don’t get me wrong, I love doing so. But I’m an introvert at heart.
That meant I was in a weird spot in Tyler on Friday, covering the TMB football game. Try as I might, there’s no way I can blend in at a football game. I’m right there, down on the sidelines with camera in tow.
Any attempt to blend in that night was washed away in the second quarter when the PA guy announced to everyone that it was my 43rd birthday.
It wasn’t my birthday. And I passed 43 a long, long time ago.
But the bell was rung, and some TMB fans even went so far as to serenade me with the birthday song, only enhancing my embarrassment. I also received a few birthday wishes down on the sideline and had to repeat multiple times that it, indeed, was not my big day.
The PA announcer in Tyler is Jeff Hansen, a friend from my college days.
I owe him one. After Friday, I had nothing to cover. Not a thing. That is both a good and bad thing for me. Good that I could chill out (or in, as it were), but bad in that I love to work, so much so that I found myself in my office on five separate occasions on Saturday and Sunday.
Outside of that, it was two days with the dogs and a little bit of football (that’s a good and a bad thing, too), and I can’t wait for the Vikings to ruin another Sunday for me this weekend.
Given that my docket was clean. I had no intentions of not worrying about my garb. Since I was given a two-day pass, I decided early Saturday that I would wear the kind of clothing one would wear if they had the flu — T-shirt and pajama pants, my Boba Feit pajama pants to be exact.
No, I didn’t match, and I didn’t care, because I was comfortable.
I don’t know if the public eye missed me, but I didn’t miss it. I even ventured out a few times. On Saturday night, I hit The Caboose to get some take-out. Never have I ventured out in the public where someone didn’t know me, but I held the slimmest of hopes that the place would be empty so no one could poke fun at what I was wearing.
It wasn’t empty. In fact, sitting at the large, round table in front of the bar were a group of ladies who know me well. One of them, a high school friend, compared me to her teenage daughter because she wears PJs a lot, too.
Since I specialize in self-deprecating humor, I was able to laugh at myself and even make fun of myself, so it was cool.
On Sunday morning, I was asked by a Casey’s employee if that was what I wear to church (yes, I had the same clothes on). No shame in that, right?
She poked fun at me as well, but like the night before, I took it in stride and laughed at myself once again.
I don’t have much on my schedule for this weekend, so don’t be surprised if you see me out wearing sweats.
