A KSU Wildcat in Virginia.

Another football Saturday across America. K-State plays at Texas Tech, but all the games are "away" games when you live in Virginia. I miss early Saturday mornings driving with my mom to K-State for tailgates and football.

Like this Saturday in 2005. Celebrating Mom's 50th birthday with a tailgate and an AX reunion on the same day. I'm pretty sure Rachel took this picture. I look awesome. For the record, so does my uncle. And look at my grandpa in all that purple. That makes me happy.


Yesterday I wore a K-State shirt to school because all my Patriots shirts were dirty. It was purple and very happy. When I got to school, I wrote the date and agenda on the board in purple dry erase marker. Next to the date, I wrote "Go State - beat Texas Tech!"

But I realized I was definitely not at home because no one said anything to me about the caliber of my football team. Mr. McCracken and all the students who liked him better would have made fun of K-State, Farm U, the AARP and so on. Or at least Clark would have made those jokes.

At Key, nobody said anything. I was just the tall teacher in a purple shirt carrying around a sign that said "CIVICS HW DUE TODAY!" I explained the homesickness to my 2nd period. In their typical fashion, they just looked at me.

They are really quiet.

Then Candace very thoughtfully said, "Miss Luhrs, your football team sucks."

And I said, "Thanks. That makes me feel at home."