That State Up North

Thanksgiving is always an interesting time at the Greiwe(Bayer) household. Normal families usually look forward to spending time with each other, but my family becomes divided every Thanksgiving break.

It's because my mom's side of the family has huge issues: they're all Michigan fans.

Even if you're not from Ohio, you know the importance of "The Game," the greatest rivalry in college football...and maybe greatest rivalry, period.

My dad, brother and I are all big OSU fans while my mom is from Detroilet (aka Detroit). Six of her relatives have gone or are going to U of M right now. There's a lot of trash talk in our family, I'll say that, and some comments are not appropriate to write in this blog post.

My dad and aunt have started the tradition of making bets on the game. For 7 out of the past 8 years, it's  been pretty entertaining. Let me recap some of these:
-When I was little, my dad had to wear a Michigan speedo. Apparently it was an ugly site for all.
-The loser had to wear the other team's apparel, and that year OSU lost...so my dad wore it, like a good sport. Just inside out.
-My aunt had to die her hair red.
-My uncle had to wear a Buckeye football helmet and matching jockstrap...with Buckeyes on the jockstrap, of course.
-My aunt had to eat her Thanksgiving meal without silverware.

Now, these have all been pretty funny... but usually now my dad and aunt/uncle just bet with a case of  beer (which gets consumed pretty fast in my family).

Since the game fell on a Saturday this break, we didn't get to brag about winning. Needless to say, I'm exciting for Christmas break when we get to see them wearing our jerseys and to receive our beer.

Since we've been little, my dad has trained my brother Clay and I to cough whenever we cross the border into Michigan.

There's another long-standing tradition in the Greiwe household that at about approximately 8 a.m. on the day of "The Game" my dad blares the OSU fight song to wake us all up....and then he lets the whole freaking CD of the OSU marching band play. No matter how early it is, it still gets me excited to spend the day watching the game with him and I look forward to this unique tradition of Jamie's.

When I was little, he used to make me get out of bed and march script Ohio around the living room...but I'm older now, and he knows better.

And to close this, I will tell how my cousin (who attended that joke of a school Up North) replied to my  text to her after the game on Saturday:

Me: "O-H!"
Her: "F U"