Jason and Dad had politely asked a week ago if I wanted to come to the OSU vs Iowa game and I gladly and eagerly accepted. I hadn’t been to a college football game since my days at Michigan and there’s no football like Big Ten Football. Dad told me that we’d all be leaving at about 8:45am so we could catch the Skull Session at the arena where they have gymnastics.

I had never heard of the term skull session before but it turned out to be a large pep rally or sorts which was free to the public and featured the entire marching band playing their pregame show and halftime show. The OSU football team and coaches put in appearance dressed in suits and said a few words to the crowd. It was pretty cool and I was wondering if all schools did this.

After the skull session we walked outside and into a very festive atmosphere. It was like a huge red and white block party on crack with tons of people, music blaring, lots of tailgating and a parking lot set up with a huge screen playing ESPN’s College Gameday. We walked across Lane ave Dad and I got a $5 bratwurst. He asked how I liked eating a brat for breakfast.

After that we wandered around the stadium looking for one ticket for Dad. Jason had two staff and faculty tickets for me and him and we had to get one close for him. We saw a bald guy with glasses holding one up and inquired about the section. Not a bad location, then we asked the price. face value was $58 - he was asking $80. No way. We moved on and walked almost all around the stadium with one finger pointed skyward when a guy came alongside us and said he had one left and would sell it at face. Better yet it was only a section over and 3 rows up from Jason and I. Perfect. Dad bought the ticket and we went in and climbed a mountain of steps. Before heading in Dad bought a pretzel and so did I. Jason got a pretzel and nachos. Then we headed to our seats.

For the first few minutes or so the seats to the right and left of us were empty. Sadly they filled up as the game went on. The crowd was huge and loud and I was trying to guess what the entire attendance was. I didn’t see many empty seats. Ohio State started dominating early scoring on their second drive. Iowa couldn’t get much going and on every third down the crowd would stand and a bell would toll. On one of these third down plays something happened.

I think it was Iowa’s 2nd 3rd down conversion attempt. I stood up with the rest of the crowd and cheered when Iowa couldn’t convert it. Just then Jason told me not to sit down. Why not? I wondered - that play was done. I looked over to my right and the guy behind us and to the left had just yakked all over the seats. Not only did he yak over the seats but he also yakked on the floor next to him and all over his sandals. It was super gross. His wife was there with him and began cleaning it up yelling at him the whole time. Not even 5 minutes into the game and the dude couldn’t hold his liquor. Jason and I ended up standing for another 2 or 3 series of plays and not one person behind us yelled at us to sit down because they had seen what happened. Evetually throw up guy and his wife left and an employee came over with the sawdust can and cleaned everything up. Ironically the two guys to the right of me who had the actual throw up seats remarked on how disgusting it was and then proceeded to whip out a can of Skoal and a little plastic cup to spit into. Nice.

Ohio State was running on most cylinders during the game and at one point the total yardage was something like 400 to 14. Still it didn’t turn into a complete blowout thanks to Ohio State fumbling the ball like 5 times.

Near the end of the game the sun came out and the game ended somewhere around 3:30pm. We stated until the very end when the marching band played the alma mater and then had a pretty easy time getting out of Jason’s parking space near the hospital. Jason and I snoozed a bit while waiting in traffic on northbound 315 before 750.

We came home to an overwhelmed mom and Debbie was were watching both Andrew and Lillian. Patti got the afternoon off to go to Jodi’s baby shower and Debbie and Mom both looked a bit frazzeled. We decided to order dinner out and that’s where it got interesting. Originally it was going to be abig KFC takeout. Then Chinese food came into the mix. I decided to go on my own and try out the City Barbecue and Debbie joined in with me. While dad went to go get the fried chicken and kung pao chicken I got a North Carolina pulled pork sandwich, a regular pulled pork sandwich, collard greens, corn pudding and sweet tea. It was pretty good.