Wear a Lei for Te'o

I just realized that I forgot to write about the ND vs. MSU game. Oop at me. So, here is the latest recap ever.

Like I said before, I have become a highly critical ND fan under this current coaching regime, so any praise from me means a lot. That being said, I was really happy with the MSU game. Sure there are still a lot of things that need to be worked on & ND isn't back. Sidenote, I cringe whenever someone states that ND is back. It's just begging for criticism. Anyway, ND still has a very long way to go & that becomes abundantly obvious anytime I watch a top level team play, like the Bamas of the NCAA.

But I'll take a solid win against a #10 MSU. Let's be real though, MSU isn't a Top 10 team. I never understood why they were ranked so highly preseason considering their 3 year starter, Cousins, had graduated. No team is a Top 10 team with a brand new starting QB at the helm, in my opinion. Especially not a team like MSU. They have a solid D though, so it was nice to see ND be able to fare well against decent competition for the first time this season, at a nighttime away game, nonetheless.

The biggest story of the game was Manti Te'o's play. He had one of the best, if not the best, game of his ND career. The Tuesday night before the game his grandma died & then a few hours later his girlfriend died on Wednesday morning. Reports say she had lost a long & hard fought battle with Leukemia. My heart broke for Te'o when I heard the news, what a horrific thing to happen to him. I was sure that he would go back to his home in Hawaii & he wouldn't be able to play the MSU game. But yet, he stayed at ND. He wanted to stay with his friends & he wanted to play in the game. Game planning & practice gave him an outlet, like it does for so many players going through troubles.

He played a great game & he somehow held is composure, even after ESPN pulled him aside for a post game live interview. Te'o showed such strength & grace, in what one can only presume, is the hardest time of his life. I have to give credit to MSU's players and coaches, a ton of them went up to Te'o after the game to give him their condolences/tell him they were praying for him. Good on them, that was a really stand up thing to do. Then Te'o made his way to a small corner at MSU's stadium that was full of ND fans. They were chanting his name as he stood in front of them waving at them. The scene nearly brought me to tears, just seeing all the love & support he was getting from the crowd. The camera cut out right as the fans were beckoning him in for a hug.

Manti Te'o is the perfect representative of ND. ND nation is so proud of him & everything he has done for this team. In order to show support for him, Notre Dame is trying to get everyone to wear leis at the game tomorrow. How awesome would it be for Manti, his family & his girlfriend's family to be able to see a sea of leis at the game in support of them? So far about 30,000 leis have been donated. I was hoping the ND athletic department would pass out 80,000+ leis to everyone in the stadium, but I guess there's some NCAA compliance issues. Something about not being allowed to advertise a player. Hopefully they can find a way around that.

Regardless, wear a lei tomorrow to show Manti Te'o your support. I'll be watching the game at home & the only lei I have is a cheapo plastic freebie I got at some event years ago. But you best believe I'll be wearing it tomorrow.

The forecast for tomorrow's game is cold & rainy. I love going to cold & rainy football games because all the literal fair-weather fans get up & hide. The only people that are left in the stadium are the crazies that cheer louder when it rains harder. That's the weather football is meant to be played in, only tough survive. Go Irish!

Yay for a dimly lit garage picture of my official ND poncho. I only give you the best here.

Cancer & My Mom

Hey friends, sorry it's been awhile again. Things have been a bit busy & stressed out lately. My mom had a doctor's check up yesterday. She is both a Breast & Ovarian Cancer survivor & I'm so happy to tell you that her blood test came back & there was no cancer, so she's still in remission.

My mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer last November. She underwent major surgery the day after Thanksgiving & started her chemo treatments last December. Her treatments were finished in April. Thankfully, she took to the chemo really well & she's been in the no cancer, normal range since Feb.

The year prior to that (Nov. 2010) my mom was diagnosed with Stage 0 Breast Cancer. She had two surgeries and underwent radiation therapy, but she didn't have chemo for the Breast Cancer. At the time, I couldn't imagine it getting worse, then came the Ovarian Cancer.

That's the short positive story of it. The long story was that it was easily the hardest time of both our lives. While the chemo she was on was not the severe chemo most people are put on, it was still really bad. Those treatment months included a rushed trip to the ER & a really bad fall/faint where she hit her head very hard & ended up with a giant gash on her head. I am an only child with divorced parents, so it was all on me to be her sole caregiver.

To be honest with you, it really took a toll on me emotionally & mentally. I still don't feel like the old me & I'm not quite sure I'll ever go back to being that person. I was a nervous wreck this whole week thinking about all the what ifs. It's not a walk in the park, that's for sure. Needless to say, I've become fearful of November. But we carry on & celebrate all good news. I am SO SO happy her blood test came out great.

I want to leave this post on a positive note, so here is a picture of 10 year old JC Chasez bobblehead I found cleaning out my closet.

Because I'm random, that's why.

Purdue vs. Notre Dame, we won right?

Hey there, lovelies. How's this first full weekend of football treating all you football fans?

This is an all Ryan Lochte gif reaction post because he makes me happy, that's why.

I'm just going to jump straight into Notre Dame here. What was that game? That was a win that felt like a loss, that's what that was. ND shouldn't have to pull out late drives to win versus Purdue. Now, even though the QB switch out worked in the end, I don't agree with it. Golson played a good game, he deserved to finish it. You pick your guy & you stay with him. You don't pluck him out & plug in another guy when the game is on the line. Talk about killing your young QB1's confidence.

Add in the shameful boos that showered down on Rees when he walked out on the field. I know that (some/hopefully most) of the boos were directed at the decision to pull Golson for Rees & ultimately at Brian Kelly himself, but damn, way to make the kid feel like crap. Thankfully, for Rees & the team, it ended up working. I know that Kelly stated that Golson had a hand injury in justification for putting in Rees, but I don't buy it. Reports are coming out that Golson wasn't injured & apparently Kelly has called Rees, "the closer". But if he's your closer, then how come he isn't your starter? On the flip, if you don't believe your starter can close a tight game then why is he your starter? Does this not jive with anyone else?

No jeah for you, Brian Kelly.

I'm starting to think that there is a good chance Rees will be the starter again by the time ND plays Michigan. Maybe the only reason why Golson started vs. Navy was because of Rees' first game suspension. I could certainly see Kelly using this game as a reason to start Rees again, especially if he inserts him into the MSU game. Something along the lines of, "Golson is a really great kid, but he still needs time to learn. Meanwhile, Rees is in his third year in my system". We all know how in love Brian Kelly is with Tommy. Or maybe Tommy has blackmail pictures in a safe deposit box somewhere, haha.

I just really like this one.

Also, are we ever going to run the ball? Return punts? It's funny, I use to be the most positive ND fan in existence. I always looked for the positives in terrible games & I was (& still am) the biggest Weis apologist, but ND has really beaten me down. I have become so used to being disappointed by ND that I now expect to be disappointed by them.

Wait, we won the game again, right? Sure doesn't feel like it. Feels like more of the same.

At least the Pats & the Texans won big. Too bad I slept through it. Yup, it was a rough Sat night. I literally put the lime in the coconut & drank it all up.

Jeah for me.

 See ya later, internet!

You win this round, Dryer.

Hey, internet buddies (all 2 of you)! How's life been since... Tuesday?

Nothing much has been going on here. On the boring front, I've been basically wrestling with my clothes dryer.  For the past few months I've had to keep the dryer on for longer & longer times. It's to the point now where a full load of clothes takes nearly 2 hours to dry. So, off to the internet it was to search for a reason why my dryer wasn't drying. Mr. Internet told me that the most common reason for slow dryers is a lint build up in the vents, which is also apparently the 10th most common reason for house fires. Yikes!

Needless to say, I did what I always do when I have a question on how to do something... I searched for youtube tutorials on how to clean dryer vents. Armed with a humorous walk through on vent cleaning, I decided to do it myself. First, I hand cleaned the lint trap with a toothbrush & dishwashing soap. That was kinda gross. Then I took on the big task of disconnecting the vent from the dryer & diving right in. SO MUCH LINT. Ugh. Good thing for you, I didn't photo document this adventure. I cleaned as much as a could with a powerful vacuum & an unraveled wire hanger.

I know, I know... I hear all you experts groaning about me using a vacuum & a wire to clean the vent, but whatever I didn't blow up. I kinda half-assed it & didn't take out the entire back panel of the dryer to clean out the inevitable interior lint build up. I tried drying a load of clothes later & while it did dry faster, it was still much slower than it should be. So, it looks like me & that dryer will be Round 2 wrastlin' soon enough.



I've also done a good amount of baking the past few days, so I'll leave you with pics of the Nutella Brownies & Almond Coffee Cake I made as a sign of gratitude for reading a post about dryer vent cleaning.

Oh yeah, Nutella Brownies.

Almond Coffee Cake in a fancy cake mold.

See ya on the flipside!

ND vs. Navy

Hey guys! Sorry it's been a bit. I kept meaning to post, but it was a busy holiday weekend for me. I hope everyone had a great LDW. I can't believe that it's already September. I love summer and I hate winter, so I'm definitely not happy about the upcoming cooler weather.

How about them Irish though, aye? Notre Dame played Navy in Dublin, Ireland this past Saturday, for those that are unaware. I admit that I was pretty nervous about the game, considering our recent history with Navy. I knew that this Navy team wasn't supposed to be a strong one, but you can never sleep on them. I was also a bit concerned that the long travel would affect the team. Thankfully, it didn't seem like it did & ND pulled out a 50-10 victory.

Is it weird that I planned out my outfit for the game the day before & took pics of it? Especially since I was only planning on watching the game at home, by myself? Yes, yes that is weird. I was planning to, you know, wear the outfit in the pics, but I'm still a little shy about this whole blogging thing. As weird as it sounds, I just don't want anyone I know from real life to find my blog. I know that the odds of that happening are pretty small, but I still don't want it to happen. I feel like I can't be completely open if I know that people I know in irl are reading this. Anyone else feel this way? I had a secret twitter for about a year until my cousin found it & then just recently another cousin found it. I hate it. I find myself second guessing if I should post certain things or not. Blah. I wish I could shake it.

Blurry phone pic, ftw.

Anyway, back to the gamewatch outfit. The jersey is a Demetrius Jones jersey in youth large. Pro tip ladies, buy sports apparel in youth sizes. There's way more variety than the ladies section & it's way cheaper. I bought the jersey at a local Campus Colors store, here's a link to a similar jersey.

Yup, I'm one of those fools that thought Jones should've started over Clausen in 2007. So foolish, that I bought his jersey to proclaim this fact a few weeks before the start of the season. That lasted all of one game, for which I was in attendance. Uh huh, I was at the Georgia Tech game *hangs head in shame*. I now tell everyone that it's a Michael Floyd jersey. Ha.

I'll take clearer pics at some point.

 Plaid shorts are from T.J. Maxx. My gold boat shoes are Sperry Top-Siders, that I got for a steal from Amazon. For real, they're the most comfortable shoes I own. As far as accessories go, I like to keep things simple when I wear sporty things. The ND bracelet is from the ND bookstore years ago, sorry I can't find anything similar on their website. An evil eye bracelet that my aunt bought me on her travels to Turkey. A Celtic cross that I bought at Medieval Times 10 years ago, haha! Finally, a heart necklace from Forever21, here's something similar Heart Pendant Necklace (Google Affiliate Ad).

You need to buy these right now! So comfortable.

 But, back to the game. I was pleasantly surprised by how well ND played. It's been a rough few years for sure & I've changed from an eternally optimistic fan, to well... a pretty negative fan. But it's always nice to pull out a big win & essentially have little to complain about. It was great to see Brian Kelly stick to the run, finally. I still think this team will probably end up 7-5 in season, but who knows. I don't think we can take too much from this game, considering a down Navy team isn't a good barometer for the rest of the season. Overall, it was a good feel game at great setting. Aviva stadium is beautiful. I'm really happy that the team went back to play in Ireland & I hope that they return again within the next few seasons.

Yikes, this is getting really long & I need to wrap it up, sorry! I meant to do an outfit post the day before the game, but never got around to it. This is basically two posts in one, so thanks for reading all of this, internet people!