Atticus   

Last week for an offsite meeting with my new job, I took with me a small, lined, Turner Classic Movies-branded notebook (not unlike a Moleskine) that I’d gotten at my old job. I thought it was blank.

When I opened it a couple of minutes before everyone else arrived, I discovered it had two pages of notes: The first was a list of things I apparently needed to buy at some point last spring, and the second was a cheat sheet for things to remember from last year’s trip to Omaha.

• The local (female) hottie college students dressed as Cal State-Fullerton fans for a television shot coming back from commercial, to give the illusion that all the teams were equally represented in the stands.

• The player from Rice who hit one over the awning of the right-field bleachers and out of the stadium during warm-ups.

• The smoking sections still intact in places like Macaroni Grill and even McDonald’s in Omaha.

• The ‘80s music prevalent everywhere.

• The fewer numbers of people tailgating because the ‘Huskers, ‘Horns and Bengal Tigers didn’t qualify.

• Deciding to leave and making it to the car before the start of the torrents of rain that delayed the Miami-Oregon State game for what seemed an eternity.

• The Titans’ selection of “The Boys Are Back in Town” as the fight song for Rosenblatt officials to play over the PA system when they score a run.

• The Auburn couple who sat next to us during the first game on Saturday. The Alabama couple who sat in front of us, adorned head to toe in crimson-and-white UA merchandise.

• The massive football players from New Mexico State who sat next to us during the second game on Saturday.

• The polite Wisconsin college students in line on Saturday who suffered through so many taunts from an obnoxious Miami student because they don’t have a baseball team.

• The guy in his 50s who randomly dances wildly to songs between innings to entertain the crowd.

• The guy who randomly throws packs of baseball cards into the stands between innings.

• “Right field sucks!” chanted by the fans in the left-field stands to those of us in right.

I look forward to compiling a new set of reminders this weekend. And on behalf of my sister-in-law and the rest of the SEC (except maybe Ole Miss), Go State!