Family Weekend

It’s family weekend at the University of Arizona. People have packed the sidewalks and restaurants around campus and the streets are extra crowded. It’s not family weekend for me. My parents, who are from Tucson, are out of town. Every other weekend is family weekend for me. To get in the spirit of things I’ve been entertaining my girlfriend’s family, which consists of a 24-year-old sister, a mother and her boyfriend. The sister got in Friday night. We picked her up from the airport and drove her through campus. Showing someone the U of A campus who hadn’t seen it before made me look at it from a new light and perspective. I had a new kind of appreciation as we showed her sights like Old Main and the AZ state museum. On Saturday, the mother and boyfriend arrived. We met up with my girlfriend’s roommate’s family, who had prepared a big tailgating event with a TON of food, such as chicken, sausages, pasta salad and beef sandwiches. We tailgated for a few hours, me sneaking away to my friends tailgate area, which had an atmosphere a bit more up to my liking, every hour or so much to my girlfriend’s dismay. We headed to the football game around 4 and the two families split to different sections of the stadium. The game was pretty great. It was our first home game this season and the first game I’d been to. Stanford was the opponent. The game was filled with scoring and excitement so there were high fives all around. We were seated next to the Sanford section so I got many a “UofA!” chants directed toward them throughout the game. There was more than 1000 yards of offense throughout the game. Our team trailed the majority of the game but we took the lead with a 60-yard run with minutes left. Sanford came back and marched up the field as the clock ticked its final seconds. Just before the time expired, Stanford threw an incomplete pass into the end zone that would have likely won them the game. It was a nail bitter and I was glad the visiting families got to see such an exciting game. After that we hung out at the house, pretty worn out from the day. It was nice to hang out with some parents other than my own and I enjoyed the family atmosphere that was a bit more warm and active than my family, of which I am the only child. Today, I’m writing my blog poolside at my girlfriend’s parent’s hotel. My own parents are back in town so I need to figure away to go visit and have dinner with them without having my girlfriend’s family come too. That’s a level of relationship commitment I’m not quite ready for…