Homecoming 2005 - Friday

Good times with old and new friends
Another year means another trip to Baylor's homecoming. The football team is doing better than they have in years, so a much larger crowd was expected. I got out of work around 13:00 on Friday and met Priscilla in the parking lot. We left the truck in Round Rock and hit the road in the car. After a quick lunch, we were off. We got to Waco around 15:00 or so. Priscilla wanted to stop by the Chaplain's office to talk to some of her old co-workers, so I dropped her off there. Me, being the big band nerd, I went over to rehearsal to see how the show for the week was shaping up. I got to practice around 3:15 and chatted with Ryan O'Shields for a while. The band was working on the Baylor script spell out and parade block for the march over to the bonfire and the parade the next day. Priscilla wrapped up her visit and headed over to the band field. From there, we went and checked into our hotel room and I took a well deserved nap. The night before I was actually up until around 01:00 putting up ebay auctions! We'll see how the sales go!
After my nap, I got prettied up and went to meet Courtenay Harrold for dinner. And where better than Taco C for a good pre-bonfire meal? Nothing like the Flamente Chicken with tons of queso and extra beans. Mmmmm. After dinner, the three of us headed out to the bonfire. There was insane traffic on University Parks, but, thanks to the Lady Bears NCAA run, I knew some shortcuts and other routes. We ended up parking in the parking garage where Priscilla's old apartments once stood. A bit sad, indeed.
We had a good hike over to the Ballpark parking lot, but we found a carnival atmosphere when we go there. There were even rides and a fun house for the kids. Collins had set up the little trailers again, but since I didn't recognize any of the workers, I just walked by. We worked our way through the crowd and got as close as we could. We got there right on time for the show, including the band, yell/song leaders and the Golden Girls playing with fire! After all that, the freshman got down to business and lit the fire. As always, people were right next to the fire and as it heated up, they ran for cover. Me, being me, I got up as close as the fire fighters would let me and took several pics with the real camera. I'll put those up on Flickr when I get them back.
It was probably around 10:30 and Courtenay needed to be at her book signing around 8, so off we went. But on our way out, I found Tina and Matt, who were looking for Christina and Julie. After a round of phone tag and "Where are you?" we found them. We chatted for a bit, and we were off again.
Now, I wanted to go to pigskin and hang out with the KKPsi actives and alumni but we still had to get Courtenay back. So Priscilla just dropped me off and let me chill with the boys. I had a long chat with several of the guys. It was a good time, listening to the issues of the day, and throwing in a little shady wisdom every now and then. Funny, the people change, but the stories are mostly the same. Priscilla arrived after a while and told a few of her stories as well. I wanted to hang a bit longer, but we had Harold Waites waiting for us in the morning. So during one of the intermissions, we escaped. And with a long day ahead of me, I was out cold before my head hit the pillow.