You might recognize the handsome "S" 2nd from the Right...It's the photo that just keeps coming back...

Well. I think the past 9 + 1/2 years have finally worn me down. Eroded the surface. Molded me. Created…a monster.

I sit here on the Friday before the first ND football game of the 2011 season, blogging not about some fun photos I’ve recently taken or a vacation I went on last month. No. Instead, I sit preparing this blog post with anticipation for tomorrow’s game, the ND depth chart printed out next to me (thank you Patrick). I’ve been told that I should know at least the names in bold – because they are the starters of course. There are only 26 unique names on it and their numbers. No big deal. Right?

When I first began dating Patrick almost 10 years ago in high school, I failed to see what was so important about a college football game that Patrick would miss watching me perform at halftime of our high school’s football games. I would feel so let down thinking, as a high school girl, that he didn’t like me of I wasn’t important to him or something equally ridiculous. Umm hello…McFly…football vs pompons? Yea…needless to say – I know now that I never should have taken it personally. Notre Dame football is bred into the blood of the kids in the Wolohan family – It’s a lifestyle, not a choice. They know all the stats. Read all the forums. Know who’s being recruited and committing and when. The tailgating spot has only changed one time in the past 10 years that I’ve been around because of the port-a-potty relocation. 9 times out of 10 “Go Irish” follows “see ya later” or “goodbye.” The last 3 family pets have been named, Irish, Shamrock, and Brady (after Brady Quinn of course). Patrick went as an Africian American ND football player for Halloween when he was 2.  Am I painting a vivid enough picture? I COULD go on, but I think you get the idea.

It has taken time, but I finally understand (though I ALWAYS enjoyed attending). Maybe it took having the ring on my finger and the Wolohan after my first name, but I finally see. I finally get it. It’s not just football – though A LOT of it IS football. It’s family. It’s religion. It’s faith. It’s tradition. It’s getting up on Saturday morning to tailgate (my mother-in-law and Patrick’s aunts are amazing and have a HUGE spread, EVERY home game rain or shine!!), or donning your ND apparel to watch it at home with friends. It’s exciting and there is nothing like walking onto the campus on Game Day. It’s bad that I have more nostalgia for ND than I do for my own alma mater. But then again, it’s easy to have that when it’s slowly been seeping into your veins, like an IV, for the past 10 years. I might not have been born with the ND blood, but I think the transfusion is just about complete – I’m still working on the whole pre and post game analysis interest, but baby steps…

Nevertheless, it may be the intense montage music of Notre Dame football highlights playing in the background, providing the soundtrack to my day talking here, but I’m pumped. I’m stoked. And I am super excited to head to South Bend tomorrow and spend the day with Patrick’s family, our friends, and the ND community. GO IRISH!

Don’t judge me on the quality of these photos…Point and shoot all the way…haha But though I’d share a few ND memories. 😉 Happy Game Day!