More Nebraska Stuff

It's quite difficult to put the rollercoaster of emotions into words. Thursday through Sunday for me was an entire life condensed into four days. Tears of sadness and tears of joy. I'll share a little bit about that and then I'll talk about some more Nebraska stuff.

First off, those four days included:

• Having to make that horrible decision with our dog on Thursday and then driving the seven hours to Nebraska with tears in my eyes. (Thanks again to everyone who reached out. This was one of those things that was awful in the buildup to it but surprisingly peaceful afterwards, especially with all of your comments, DM's, texts, and emails.)
• Picking up my wife at the airport in Omaha and getting the hug I desperately needed (I'm so, so glad she joined me on this trip to Nebraska).
• Attending the game and watching my team beat #22 in overtime with competent, proficient football. And then getting choked up on the field watching the celebration.
• Keeping a stupid promise I made on a podcast that if we beat Nebraska I'd take a shirtless photo (and then tweeting the photo as a response inside a Twitter Spaces thread, hoping to bury it, only to find that Bret Bielema saw it and quote-tweeted it.) I'm not mad, coach. That one was on me for trying to bury it inside a long thread when I should have been loud and proud.
• Attending a baby shower for our son's friends in Lincoln on Saturday (we're those parents who attach ourselves to our kid's friends to the point where they basically have to invite us to the baby showers) and getting to see our son and his friends all growns up.
• Getting a call that our Fourth Son and his wife had their third baby on Saturday (if you've ever wondered why there are four boys in my Twitter banner photo, that's our Fourth Son and his wife who are unofficially officially part of our family). We scrambled the jets, headed to St. Louis, and spent yesterday holding the new little guy and telling his Mizzou aunt that she'll never be able to out-purchase our Illini gear purchases. She's a current Mizzou student and said she'd be able to bring him on campus to meet Truman. I showed her the fire truck.

All of that in four days. Even at the game I'd go back and forth between "this is amazing" and "I can't be smiling right now because I was in tears just this morning." And then, on Sunday, holding a newborn, no chance of sad tears but only happy tears.

It's Monday morning now, and this is my first chance to sit down and write since Friday night, so here's some more Nebraska Stuff: