Irish eyes...

Ok, there was no way in hell that Notre Dame should have won that game last night. I didn’t stop watching the game, though at points in the first half I decided that watching the Behind the Music special on Pantera was a better use of my time than watching another bad Brady Quinn throw. But I should have remembered that golden rule that if the team on the other sideline has Michigan State written across their jersey then you always have a chance. Seriously, they may be the least clutch team of all time.

So ND is now 3-1 with their schedule getting much easier from here on out. Still have to get past Purdue but after that we play all of the military academies, which is always fun. The comeback meant that I went from being resigned to spending New Year’s Day wearing a “Free DeBolt” t-shirt in Jacksonville for the Gator Bowl to now being confident that we will reach another BCS bowl. That’s a pretty big comeback.

I still don’t consider it the most amazing comeback I’ve ever watched. I’ll still give Illinois’ miracle game against Arizona to reach the Final Four as the only time I’ve ever just been dumbfounded by what was happening. (For those who wonder, my profile picture is of Deron Williams hitting a three to tie the game). The big thing there is that Illinois never wins games like that, which is what made it so special. With Notre Dame’s history, this is really cool but not unprecedented.

I’ve got another Notre Dame story to tell tonight. I have to admit that on Friday night’s I’m always tempted to watch “What Not To Wear” on TLC. For sake of pride, that probably isn’t something that I should confess in public. At least with Queer Eye I am learning how to improve my style, here I am just watching as these poor women are being confronted at random and being told that they dress horribly. For a self-help show, it can be pretty cruel.

Well this week they had an ND alum as the victim. Vandy (which is a super cool name for a super cool person) does planning and p.r. for Sundance and she basically dresses in Notre Dame t-shirts and sweatshirts at all time. I’ll admit that it is a bit sloppy for a professional look but she looked pretty cool. The fun thing is that she had two lines in the show that just emphasize what it means to have your own style.

First, after being told, “You know that none of your coworkers walk around wearing their college t-shirts” she immediately replied, “But they didn’t go to Notre Dame.” To everyone who isn’t an alum that answer makes no sense whatsoever. To an alum however, not only is it a reasonable response but you immediately go, “Yeah, Vandy’s right.” Her other line was when one of the hosts went, “But you’re a girl. You should look pretty” and her retort was “But I’m a girl who likes drinking beer and watching football.”

And it was at that moment I realized that if she wasn’t already married I was going to be searching the alumni directory in order to ask her to marry me.

See, that is what I find fascinating about the show. Every once in a while they will take a woman with this killer personality and a great, if quirky and off-beat, look and then make her look like everyone else. In those cases over the course of the show I go from wanting to date her to feeling like she wouldn’t make my head turn in an Applebee’s. There is something to say about someone who is so at ease with themselves that all they want to do is sit back, drink beer and watch football. A woman who can say that is basically the coolest woman in the room at all times. And, yeah, sweatpants in the office is probably bad but giving up who you are in an attempt towards improvement is a loss that can’t be quantified.

The five random CD’s of the week:
1) U2 “Rock’s Hottest Ticket”
2) Jimmy Buffett “Off to See the Lizard”
3) Golden Smog “Weird Tales”
4) Waco Brothers “Waco World”
5) Uncle Tupelo “Anodyne”