Turkey Bowl

For the past month and a half or so, the grad students and faculty have been practicing football with their respective peers. All of the time put in was in preparation for the annual Turkey Bowl football game between the faculty and grad students in the Watershed Science Department.

Us students had quite a few participants as we were able to field two full teams (7 each) and have a few substitutes as well (about 20 people I think). The faculty had a smaller team as some of the anticipated players either skipped town (how convenient) or were already injured. Of course, two faculty members were the referees so us students had trouble catching a break...and we desperately needed it.

The first half was a slaughter as we played a man-to-man defense and just one person needed to get beat for them to score. So it was something like 35-0 at the half (five touchdowns to none...no field goals in this game).

So we switched to a zone defense for the second half and held them pretty even. We even scored a few touchdowns. My labmates (Molly and Andy in photo) and I played pretty well too. Andy (labmate) had 2 interceptions and I had one against our advisor, who happens to be the star quarterback for the faculty team (part of his interview was whether or not he played football...somewhat j/k). Despite the competition, we managed a photo after the game of our lab and Matt (Molly, Andy, Matt, Christy, and AS). All in all it was a great day: perfect weather (t-shirt and shorts!), fun times with friends, and humbling our advisor a little. Hopefully next year will be a bit more fun though if we can play the faculty more closely.

Following the football game is a turkey dinner hosted by a couple of faculty members. After helping Eamonn out with a few things with the bathroom (I had been working on it earlier in the day before the game), I headed out to Providence for the party. Of course, I couldn't remember the address so I called my labmates and only Andy answered. He tried to give me directions but had me going into Dry Canyon on the other side of the town. I ended up having to call him a few times and have him get directions from someone else there after he sent me in the wrong direction a couple times. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be asking him for directions again, especially if he's started drinking.

The party was nice with some good food. It's cool to have the comeraderie between the faculty and students (even after they just crushed us in the football game). It's also good to be able to mingle more with others in the department, especially all the other students I met while practicing football.

Not too much exciting happened but Andy did hand me a drink at one point and told me to try it. So I took a sip and then yelled at him something to the effect of, "Ugh! This is the most vile thing I've ever tasted! I'll never trust you again!" I think it was whiskey in the cup. And our advisor was standing not too far away. He said he didn't think I would actually drink it but he was pretty drunk by that point so who knows. Later on, Kirk (claiming he wasn't drunk but was...I mean, he was using a plastic dog bowl dish as a cup) started talking about how the something or other meteor shower was tonight. He couldn't remember the name and came up with some strange ones that he thought it could be. Anyway, we went outside to try to see some meteors but there weren't too many and we didn't stay out in the cold too long to catch more. He claims he saw two but I only caught one (a different one too). It sure is interesting the conversations people have when at least one is drunk.

Then about quarter to midnight, I get a call from Joe saying that some of the Newman folk are going to a midnight movie and asking if I wanted to go as well to either see Happy Feet or Casino Royale. Being a Bond fan, I told him I'd meet them and see Casino Royale. Which left having to get a drunk Andy to leave the dying party (I'd been trying already), drop him off at home (by campus) and drive back to Providence for the movie.

I finally got Andy to leave and drove him home using his directions that turned out to be good (and the shortcut) and we had a nice heart to heart kind of conversation...that he doesn't remember because he was drunk. So I guess if you really need to talk to someone but don't want to have to deal with anyone actually knowing (/remembering), then you can talk to someone who is wasted.

Casino Royale was excellent although I don't think that the guy looks like a Bond...maybe a CIA agent or a villian but not a Bond. I only ended up missing the first minute of the movie too so that was good. Of course, I went with a red feather stuck in my hair that perfectly matched my red fleece that a little girl had given me at the party...Joe pointed it out and we laughed about it because I obviously cared a whole lot by that point. All in all a very busy but good day.