What I Wore Sunday (Volume It's Been a Long Time!)

Well hello!

Once again, it's been days since I checked in here at what I used to think of as a daily blog.  But I've been in South Bend, IN, and the house we rented for the football game weekend didn't have any WiFi (what?!).  I know I'm a day late and a dollar short here, but I thought I'd link up with the fine ladies over at Fine Linen and Purple on this Monday morning, something I haven't done in a dog's age.

In spite of the lack of Internets, our house was perfect--comfortable, well-appointed, and ideally located within walking distance of the Notre Dame campus...and also within walking distance of a favorite watering hole frequented by the Notre Dame 21-and-over crowd called the Linebacker...and somehow my husband's youngest brother (#8 in his family of 8 siblings) talked the two of us old fogeys into accompanying him to said bar on Friday night, along with another one of my husband's younger brothers.  We were there until the barkeeps turned the lights on at 3:00 a.m. and told us it was time to go already, standing in the middle of a crush of people who were for the most part a good three decades younger than we were, on the stickiest floor my shoes had ever come in contact with, singing along to "Sweet Caroline" and "Oh What a Night" like a bunch of crazy kids.  The youngest in our little string of four Pearls that night was 43.   We should have known better, but we didn't.

I texted our son, a 20-year-old junior at ND, from the Linebacker to tell him where we were, and he was quite amused.

So now, at the age of 55, I can say I went out and closed down a bar--something I never even did when I was a college student and it wouldn't have seemed so ridiculous.   And because of that, by Sunday I was still wearing thee biggest bags under my eyes that I've had in a long time (and that's saying something!).

For Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, I wore a black denim skirt I found at Goodwill for $2.99, along with an Audrey & Grace short-sleeved cardigan (with Pearl buttons, of course) and some silver Nine West flats, both of which I acquired on a shopping trip to TJ Maxx with my baby sister a couple of months ago.

Just before Mass, I was thrilled to have an opportunity to meet and chat with Katrina and her adorable little boy while they fed the ducks at the lake across from the Basilica (which I know from her blog is a routine Sunday activity).  Katrina was absolutely charming (and she was wearing the beautiful glow of a young mother who is expecting her second child next month), even more so in person than on her blog.  After following Cedars and Tiny Flowers for so long, I felt as if I knew her.  What I learned on Sunday is that she was introduced to her husband, who played rugby at ND, by a young man whose father played rugby with my husband back in the day.  What a small Notre Dame world it is!  So I was wearing a big smile on Sunday along with my eye bags, because I really was quite tickled to meet this lovely young woman in person.

My husband and I had planned to catch a flight back home sometime on Sunday, but we found out that our son's inter-hall football team was playing against our nephew's team that afternoon, and we decided to stay an extra day so that we could watch the cousins' teams battle it out.  Our son, whose defense position is DE, was determined to sack his sophomore cousin, the QB for the opposition, before all was said and done.  He got burned once when he missed a big tackle on a QB keeper, but ended up getting the big sack he was hoping for before the game ended in a 0-0 tie.  So on Sunday our son wore green and his cousin wore gold--and they're still as tight post-game as they ever were.

The boys with their SMC cousin, who cheered for both sides.

Needless to say, we saw much better football on Sunday than we did the day before at the debacle against Oklahoma.  I really don't want to say much more about it than that.  It was too ugly for words.   Pretty much every Notre Dame fan alive was walking around with an "agony of defeat" expression on his or her face in the aftermath of that disaster--that look, that's what they wore Sunday.  But seeing our boy put on a helmet and football pads for the first time since he ended his senior season in high school three years ago was very exciting, and it helped to take the sting out a little.  My husband and I wore nothing but smiles during and after that experience.

Okay, one last tidbit about things that were worn on Sunday: check out these ND-themed sneakers my husband wore (or at least tried on at the campus bookstore before purchasing them).

These Chuck Taylor-esque beauties are a brand new item, on sale at the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore for the very first time this weekend.  They're made by a brand new company called Row One--and what's really exciting for us is that Row One is the brainchild of one of my husband's ND roommates.  This Class of 1980 alum has ten NCAA teams on his roster so far, and that number will grow with time to include many more.  So be on the look-out for these awesome kicks, sports fans!

Okay, folks--that's all she (and they!) wrote  wore.  Now head on over to FLAP, if you haven't done so already.