What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it’s all about? Since I have started going to William & Mary football games last year, the biggest thing I have missed is the lack of a defined mascot for my alma mater. The closest thing that William & Mary has had for a mascot in recent years was Colonel Ebirt. While the good colonel didn’t really fit with the whole Tribe motif, he was very happy looking and at least made me smile. However, before this season even started Colonel Ebert got the axe. At least we had a bear from a local shop and a walking pizza slice from Papa John’s Pizza as regular sideline appearances I suppose. Its definitely not the same as a long term school mascot.

Growing up, I went to a good share of Virginia Tech football games since that is where my father graduated from. I always enjoyed watching what the HokieBird was doing. I think that is why every time I see a good sports mascot, it brings out the kid in me.

Last year, my sister Abby started working on her masters in sports administration at the University of Florida. Since they were playing in the Chik-fil-A Peach Bowl last year which was only two hours from my parents house we attended the game. While the game itself wasn’t that great, I was very amused with the Gator mascots. Thats right, mascots. For some reason I find the whole duel mascot concept very cool. Not only did they have two mascots though, their mascots wore clothes! Albert and Alberta even got dressed up in a tux (as shown here)and evening gown respectively for new year’s eve.

So, why bring all this up now? Well, first, I had a pretty rough week. One of the servers I administrate was upset for most of the week. Then this weekend another server got upset keeping me up until around 2:30 last night. Then at 8:30 it again got all cranky. Fortunately with the help of some of my co-workers, we managed to get the major issues resolved. Fixing problems like this is part of the reason why I get paid, so I don’t mind working some irregular hours occasionally in order to get the job done. The occasional problem is also exciting in some ways as the issue at hand presents a time sensitive problem that requires crafting an appropriate solution. Still, I don’t want to relive the experience any more then I have to in order prevent the same incident from happening again. Even if I did, I suspect it would be a pretty boring read.

I do enjoy watching college football and this weekend marked the end of I-A’s regular season. While I did have higher hopes for both the Tribe and Hokies this year, both teams played some really good games. While Tech’s last game was frustration, we are still going to see if we can go to the Toyota Gator Bowl to watch them play. Thinking about going to the bowl game was the first thing that evocted the abefore mentioned train of thought. What also evocted the Gator image in my mind was my sister recently got me a few shirts from her university and I just finished washing them yesterday. I will certainly have more Gatorflair in my wardrobe. Thanks, sis!

Well that was a long way to say that I had a hard work week and was frustrated with Va Tech’s performance on Saturday. Oh well. At least thats 2 content Mondays in a row! Have a good week all.