October 20, 2013
{There’s not much to this post besides a bunch of ramblings about how much I love my friends and how much I loved my first (and last) Baylor homecoming. So if you’re looking for something more substantial than a retelling of my weekend, you’ll probably want to pull out your hair by the end of this. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.}
Amazing. Weekend.
Homecoming.
Pigskin with Bree.
Bonfire~in barefeet~ with friends.
So fun seeing Oli, Brian, and Matt in their Pigskin puppet costumes. I just love those guys. We all watched the fire together and then went to the stage and danced our hearts out. I was wearing my little purple dress, and there was lots of Wobblin’ :)
Then we walked to our cars together and came back to the Bros’ Apts., chilled on the couches, drank water, and relaxed. Brian and Oli went back to Pigskin, and Sarah and Lane went to watch.
It was midnight. I brought my sleepover stuff to the apartment and fell asleep on the couch while they were all gone. Chyes. They came home at some ridiculous hour and tried not to wake me, but “SHHHHHs” are louder than voices, and I heard Sarah’s “we should draw on her face!” comment, so I definitely did not sleep through their grand entry. Sarah and I crashed on Oli’s bed, and he took the couch. The fact that we have guy friends sweet enough to let us crash at their place is unreal.
We all woke up early and got a text from Karah saying she saved us a tree (yeah, “saving trees” is a thing among my friends), and we walked to campus in the cool, crisp fall air. I climbed way up and strung my hammock—perfect view of the parade.
On that note, I totally get Zaccheus’ deal and think the short little guy was a genius for climbing into a tree to see Jesus. So maybe this whole climbing-into-trees-to-see-things business makes he and I kindred spirits? :)
We watched the parade, and I hammocked in my Oregon sleeping bag and sipped Sisters Coffee from a French Press to-go mug with an Oregon sticker on it. I played catch from up there with some kids down below. My friends chilled in the tree, too, and it warms this girl’s heart ridiculously to see all my favourite people in a big Live Oak together. 
How in the world I have ended up in their company is a complete mystery to me—they are actually and literally the friends I’ve been praying for for so long, and I spent an entire nearly friendless first semester, Freshman Year, waiting to find them.
We met up with Lydia and took a few Homecoming mementos off the trees…. :) Lydia, Brian, and I walked through the floats and back to the Bros’ Apt.
On the way, we discovered a really nice mattress outside a dumpster and told the guys about it when we got home. They went and picked it up—box spring and all! Because when you’re in college, you just do stuff like that.
The boys made us delicious pancakes with fresh apple syrup, and we all gathered around their little table, sitting on anything we could find, and thanked Jesus for the weekend and for each other.
We ate, the girls cleaned the kitchen *because the boys cooked* and it was good.
The guys left for Pigskin, and Sarah and I turned into elves and cleaned (BLEACHED) their entire apartment. And let me tell you—that girl Sarah can CLEAN! We washed sheets and scrubbed bathrooms and did laundry up the wazoo. And we gave Lane the new mattress because we decided that if we had seen the one he HAD been using in a dumpster, we would have NO DOUBT that it belonged there. ;) A mattress found in a dumpster that looks brand new is better than one on a bed that should be in a dumpster.
The boys came home, and there were hugs all around, and we just smiled big because men who work as hard and love as well as they do most definitely deserve to have their place cleaned for them sometimes.
We sat around and napped and then got dressed and headed to the game. Oh, what an adventure! The traffic was backed up all the way to Timbuktu and by the time we found somewhere to park the game was well into the first quarter. As we walked to the stadium, Oli realized he left his wallet and ticket in the car. So he ran back to get it and was told Carey’s car was about to get towed. Praise the Lord for forgotten wallets. So he hopped in the driver’s seat and came and got us, and we reparked the rig.
When we got to the gate, they informed us that the stadium was over capacity and that they were not giving out any more student tickets, even though we are guaranteed tickets for every game! We ran into two girls we knew who had some already-scanned tickets but decided to leave the game because it was so crowded. They gave us their tickets and said we could try to use them. My pals are always up for a challenge and don’t admit defeat very easily, so we took the used tickets and walked through the scanner-guys all confident like there was nothing funky about our operation. We told the scanner guys that our tickets had already been scanned AND THEY LET US IN. No questions asked.
It’s amazing that sometimes, when you take a risk and go for it, things turn out. But if you never try at all, you’ll end up forever stuck outside the gates of the stadium, while the game roars on inside. My friends, don’t miss out on Life because you’re too scared to do something uncomfortable. Believing that Jesus is who He says He is is a risk. But I promise that in taking that risk, you will never again have to worry about missing out on the truest Life.
So we made our way into the stands and stood crammed as sardines in the stairwell of the student section. But being crammed as sardines is better than being stuck outside the gates, so we were just super thankful and cheered like mad kids.
Holly Tucker performed at half time, introduced by Blake Shelton, and we were eventually able to score some real seats. We watched spider*webs* float above us, spawned by migrating spiders. And for some reason, they were just the funniest things in the world, and we rolled in laughter over and over and over again. Oh, how I love friends who can laugh for an entire football quarter about things like migrating spiders.
By no small miracle, we made it to the *front row*, and by the end of the game we were up 71-7 and all bundled up in knit hats and sweaters, and we were so happy to be watching football together and just loving our school.
And then we stood and sang That Good Ol’ Baylor Line with all our team facing the stands, and we held each other dearly and swayed—and I love it when the secular becomes sacred in an instant.
We all piled into Carey’s car and came home and called Papa Johns to get our free pizza, which took 40 minutes on hold and an hour-and-a-half delivery time, but it was so worth the wait, and we gobbled that sucker down like all starving, penniless college kids do.
At midnight, the boys and Karah and Sarah snuck off to campus to have a little innocent fun, and I hopped in my sleeping bag and drifted into dreamland.
I woke up this morning to a pile of Baylor treasures in the living room and smiled because these friends are just so cool. I packed up and tiptoed out the door, as they all snoozed long and hard after a sleepless weekend of insane amounts of fun.
And after Church, I came to pick up Brian so we could do homework on the Bridge, and Lane was taking his mattress to the dumpster. So we took a quick break and surfed them down the concrete stairs like we were five years old and starring in Princess Diaries. We made Vines up the wazoo and laughed like crazy and decided that sometimes there are more important things in life than homework productivity.
These guys are the best. And these girls have my heart. And this weekend was incredible.
And I am prouder than proud to call Baylor University *home* for one more year.
missjordanjean 