Night Moves

Whenever I come back into Ann Arbor I like to listen to a couple of my favorite tracks that remind me of Ann Arbor. Usually I listen to some Postal Service because it takes me back to my days in Markley Hall, Timaland's Apologize reminds me of Sophomore year living at 510 Benjamin, some Since U Been Gone takes me back to the wild tailgate days, and I usually listen to some Bob Seger because I'm pretty sure all his songs are about being an adolescent in Ann Arbor.

So with those songs playing on my ipod I flew back to Ann Arbor on the red eye Thursday night. The music really didn't matter much though because I had taken an Ambien before the flight immediately passed out until I was awoken by the stewardess violently shaking me in an attempt to wake me a few minutes before landing. It was 6 AM EDT, 3 AM PDT. A few hours later I would finally get someone to come pick me up at the airport and take me back to Ann Arbor.

I dropped my stuff off at the apartment I was crashing at and along with the 5 that flew in the day before did the most logical thing possible: go straight to Benny's. Benny's was the hungover diner of choice during my last two years of college and you'd be surprised how many people you would see at Rick's at 2 AM and then back at Benny's around 11. Being us, we were immediately seated at the corner booth (Campus Legend). I obligatorily ordered a Coney Dog and a Saganaki. It was good to be back home.

That afternoon I went to meet up with two of my former box house brethren. On the way there I noticed something amazing. There is now Buffalo Wild Wings on State Street and Washington. I have no idea when it was put in, but I sure wish it was there when I was a student! It's amazing how somethings change so quickly. I'm pretty sure it was an Olga's kitchen when I went to school.

It appeared that every grad from the last 5 years was back in town for the game. That is, except my intrepid co-worker who got to the airport and realized that he had booked flights for the wrong weekend. We decided to get to the bars early because of how many people were back for the game. Zola and I showed up at Charley's and were immediately offered the lounge (Campus Legend). We eventually moved to a regular table and spent most of the eve of the first night game in Michigan Stadium history doing shots and chugging brews. Conversing about the good times, and the better times.

I woke up on the floor of the apartment on Saturday morning at the ridiculous early hour of 8AM. But it was gameday and we had tailgating to do. Fortunately our buddies had spent the previous week planning a perfect tailgate. 15 pounds of pulled pork, 100 burgers and dogs, a sound system, generators, a tent, multiple beer pong tables, cornhole, a television, 6 coolers, they even managed to get their hands on an Excursion for transportation purposes. Unfortunately, our planned tailgate location - the U of M golf course - would not be opened on account of heavy rains. As a resourceful campus legend, I made a call and secured a tailgate location at my younger sister's house at Benjamin and Packard. A much better tailgating locale if you ask me. The girls at the house had heard some of the stories from the box house and requested that no pizza's get nailed to the wall like they did at the box house. We agreed.

We got to the house and set up shop around 10AM and soon after went to go pick up some kegs. I walked into Campus Corner and the first thing I hear is "Brian!". It was the owner of the liquor store that I had befriended in college and apparently as a Campus Legend, I had not been forgotten despite not living in Ann Arbor for 2 years. This wouldn't be the only time this would happen on the trip. Several people came up to me and said they recognized me from my wild college days.

The tailgate was a wild blur. Lot's of drinking. Playing beer pong and corn hole. Doing several rounds of Thunderstruck and generally doing all the things we did on gameday when we were undergrads. But this time it was spread out over 10 hours. It was something that was foreign to all of us, and no one really seemed to know if it was possible to pace ourselves for a game like this. I spent some time going to other tailgates. I think I ran into 8 people from my high school. Because we had plenty of beer and food, eventually most of our friends ended up at our tailgate. Kegs were tapped and new ones were rolled back in recycle bins from campus corner.

The tailgate, with my old house in the background.

At one point all the Russell kids were there and we took our annual Christmas card photo. This wasn't it.

The hours rolled on. Things like this started to happen.

That's why they call him Bodyshot!

Before the game we decided to take a quick group picture with our hostess.

Before the game we all slapped the bag and chugged Andre. We got our last cups of keg beer and cleaned up a little. Then it was gametime.

On the walk to the stadium I somehow struck of a conversation with the Mayor of South Lyon. Our topic was Mr. Dave Brandon, who just happened to grow up with and still talk to Mr. Mayor. It was by far one of the most interesting conversation I had during the weekend. We made it into the stadium and down to our seats and got checked out our view.

The game experience was unreal. It was nothing like any game I had been to at the Big House before. The fans just seemed so much more into the game. The best part is that we were right in the endzone that Michigan was driving towards during the 4th quarter and all those touchdowns were right in front of us. For the game, I can't do it justice, but I'm sure this video can.

The game was so crazy that after the final TD the man in front of us cheered so intensely that his wedding ring flew off his finger and landed a few rows away. Only in Tuscaloosa after the Iron Bowl had I seen fan wait in their seats so long after a game had ended. It was like no one had anywhere to go, and why would they, because the party was here anyways. It was mayhem.

I don't think this will go down as the best game I've ever seen in the Big House, but it will go down as the most exciting. I'm thinking a ranking might be a good next blog post. I loved every minute of it, except for, you know, the first 3 quarters. But deep down I always knew we would come back and make a game out of it.

It was 1 AM by the time we left the stadium, too late to go to the bars. Everyone was amped up from the win but at the same time exhausted from the extensive tailgating and emotional game. It was a weird feeling. We went back to my sisters house to drink some of the last keg and try to rally. The climax of the rally was us all walking to Packard Pub and then deciding we would rather get some Jimmy John's. Half of us passed out on the ride home.

Sunday morning everyone woke up and asked "did that really happen?" Most of our voices were hoarse and we all looked like garbage. We watched some of the Gameday that we had recorded and then decided to get some food. Early in the afternoon my Sisters picked me up to go meet with Grandma Sunshine. We had a nice lunch before Julie and I flew home. On the way to the airport I reached in my bag and felt something unusual. It was a small knife that I had put in for my camping trip to eastern Washington the weekend before. I had been very close to unknowingly trying to sneak a knife onto a plane on the 10th anniversary of September 11th. I'm sure it wouldn't have helped out when they found it right next to the book on the Taliban that I was reading. I left it with my sister to mail back to me, but the really scary part is that I had flown out to A2 with it in my bag. It didn't do much to inspire confidence in the abilities of the TSA.

After a long trip I made it home and went to bed at midnight. It was 6 hours before my alarm clock was set to go off. But as I lay in bed, I figured that there was nothing that would make me not want to go back to the only place I've ever felt truly at home.