There are a few blogs that I read without fail when I get a notification that a new post has been made. My all time favorite is Melanie Shankle's Big Mama Blog. She is so funny! This has also led to my enjoyment of her books and especially the podcast she records with another hysterical blogger named Sophie Hudson (boomama.net). They are both Southern ladies who love to let us all in on a little slice of their lives and allow us to eavesdrop on their phone conversation in the case of the podcast. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I generally laugh until I cry. I have decided that I would love nothing more than to meet them and be friends in real life.
Anyway...all this to say...Melanie has a dear friend named Gulley. They looooooove college football and cheer mightily for the Texas A&M Aggies. And everytime they get talking about football, it makes me think of Emily and I and how we both love PSU football. We have been taught to love it and fiercely root for the Nittany Lions ever since we were little and our Dads were pounding on the one wall that separated our two halves of our double house on Edgewood Place when something good would happen. So when Jason and I had an opportunity to attend this week's Quarterback Club luncheon at the stadium, I asked Emily to be my guest.
During the lunch, you get to hear from two team members who are interviewed by Steve Jones and then also accept questions from the audience, and then James Franklin speaks and takes questions as well. It is always so interesting to get an inside look at what is happening and to hear the stories that are way too positive and inspiring for the media to pick them up. (Ahem.)
I don't know if I can pick a favorite thing from the day's events-- the cool luncheon experience or the nearly two hours of talk time we had to and from State College. But we both agreed that Melanie and Gulley would be tickled at our own college football mini road trip experience! I can totally picture them doing the same thing with their team and then talking football all the way home. We didn't talk football all the way home, but we managed to fill the space and time without a single bit of effort. There was, however, a whole lot of mutual encouragement and laughs. It is so good to be known, even better to be understood, and the best to be loved just as we are-- fully transparent, all our insecurities and anxieties safely laid out where we know they are safe. I am blessed to have such a wonderful friend-- not only when we were three and our Dads pounded the house down with every Penn State touchdown, but even moreso now. It really was a wonderful afternoon.
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