It’s been a long, interesting few weeks. But today – thankfully – it’s all come to an end. Today was homecoming.

That meant:

• the parade
• the alumni lunch
• the football game and announcement

Truthfully, everyone has been great. The Homecoming Steering Committee has been a joy to meet and the student royalty were loads of fun.

The day started off with the annual parade. I arrived at 7:45, thanks to my friend Reagin for dropping me off, and found my car along the way.

It was a bit chaotic as you might imagine, but the Steering Committee were out in full force, helping direct the lost souls like myself to the right car.

Because I had to ride in a convertible. Which sounds neat (and truthfully, my two escorts were hilariously fun. I could not have asked for better people.) until you realize your name on the side of a car simply allows the hundreds of kids along the way to first ask you for candy by name (Hey BRAD, throw us candy) and second chastise you by name if you don’t get candy out to them quick enough. (Redacted.)

The parade was all kinds of good though.

There were people lined up nearly the entire way. I saw more kids – and families – in Muncie in this one day than I’ve seen in the last year. That alone made it worth my while.

For just a few minutes, I was reminded of a little town called Loveland, where I grew up.

After the parade, I was dropped off at the Alumni Center where I met Reagin – who had graciously driven up on Friday night to hang out with me. Before the game, the university hosts a big Alumni Brunch.

Although she had eaten before she arrived, we noshed on food and coffee before we went over to Scheumann stadium, the last stop on the Homecoming 2010 Tour.

(Aside: I give my students a tremendous amount of grief regarding their work. I demand a certain basic level of competence from them before I ever begin to consider grading their work. If they can’t be bothered to show some initiative, it’s not my job to help them out.

I saw that to point out that Brittney, the Steering Committee member I interacted with daily – and who was never my student, was amazing.)

Once we arrived at the game, we all felt relieved. The jig was almost up. Unfortunately, our football team wasn’t in the mood to help us out. The first half took just about 2 hours to complete. (Most games take 3 hours.)

Eventually halftime neared and we made our way down to the field. There were quite a few fans in the stadium, something I didn’t quite expect. You hear much about the apathetic student body around the hallways, but the stadium felt pretty full.

While the game didn’t quite turn in our favor (the score was ugly), it’s fair to say that everyone had a great time. Which in the end is what it’s all about.