You Better Keep Your Pancakes...

Good morning everyone.  I just survived my alma mater's homecoming weekend and my 100th birthday weekend here in San Marcos, America, and the contents of today's ramble will consist largely of a recap of those events.  It was a very busy and successful weekend at work, and very early Sunday morning a small group of us went to I.H.O.P. after our Saturday night shift.  My manager ended up treating the whole group to breakfast (my first free birthday meal of the day - thanks Sean), and he is a key player in this story.  As our waiter dropped off as many plates as he could carry in his first trip to our tables (there were 5 of us, and we were sitting at 2 small tables located close to each other), he gave most of the group their accompanying plate of pancakes which came with their meals.  Sean, who hadn't received his pancakes yet, was getting himself situated to eat, and he asked our co-worker Nick if he could have his pancakes.  Nick passed over his pancakes, and was waiting for his omelet anyway, which the waiter had said was "being rolled" (when this HUGE omelet arrived, you could imagine the cooks in the back rolling this thing up like a groundscrew would handle the tarp at a major league baseball game, but this isn't relevant to my story)...  Anyway, our waiter returns, and notices that something is amiss - he sees that Nick no longer has his plate of pancakes, and tells Sean, "those were his pancakes, but you get pancakes with your meal."  One of them (I don't remember exactly who, because this happened at almost five in the morning) explained that they had agreed to trade their pancakes (which were exactly the same, the standard side order, which shouldn't matter anyway)...  Then the waiter PICKS UP this plate of pancakes, gives it BACK TO NICK, and tells Sean that his pancakes will be there in a minute, at which point he walks away...  This was followed by 5 grown men who had just finished working a very busy homecoming weekend at our 3-bar complex (Harper's/Slackers/The Veranda for those of you familiar with San Marcos, America) pausing, looking at each with an amused/confused/disbelieving look of "what just happened???" before we all simaltaneously BURST INTO LAUGHTER and started shaking our heads...  If you ever find yourself at the I.H.O.P. in San Marcos, America on the graveyard shift, DO NOT attempt to trade your pancakes on this guy's watch...  Let me steer the topic to football here (which never happens on this blog...), and mention that the Texas State Bobcats are currently undefeated in the WAC (1-0) after defeating the Idaho Vandals 38-7 in front of a homecoming crowd of just under 17,000 at Bobcat Stadium on Saturday.  I mention this for a couple of reasons.  First, this was one of the games that I picked correctly this weekend (I'm currently 4-5 this weekend going into tonight's game, and someone flipping a coin to pick the games would be doing just as well), and second, I chatted with my friend Joey earlier this morning via facebook.  Joey was a co-worker of mine at the Riviera in Las Vegas, and I told him that he has a place to stay in San Marcos should he decide to visit town at the start of December and watch the Bobcats beat New Mexico State (his alma mater).  Joey (obviously an experienced smack-talker) replied, "okay, but seeing them get beat is nothing new..."  Joey did watch NMSU lose 56 straight football games at one point, so the Bobcats may be favored in another home game this season...  ;)  Speaking of Las Vegas (which never happens in this blog either), this is a strong possibility that I will be visiting town the week before Christmas (which comes after graduation and before New Year's in San Marcos, America, so I can get the time off).  So if anyone is interested in going to Vegas between the 16th and 26th of December...  :)  I visited my dad in San Antonio last night, and he treated me to the Outback Steakhouse (my second birthday meal).  I stopped by work after returning to town to get my schedule for the upcoming week, and saw the most heartwarming sight considering that is only Week 6 of the NFL season.  Two of my newer friends, Alyssa and Melanie, were treating the Packers/Texans game like it was a playoff matchup (without the yelling at the t.v. that I might engage in)...  Alyssa (representing her Texans in a new Arian Foster jersey) was sitting, standing, squirming, pacing, and looking away from the t.v. as the Packers held a commanding lead.  Alyssa was SO SERIOUS that I had to keep telling her that it's only Week 6...  #truefan  Melanie (who was sitting right by her good friend wearing her own Packers tanktop) was very classy about the whole situation, not mocking the misfortune of her good friend Alyssa's previously undefeated Texans (other than the one "victory lap" she did around the oval bar after a Packers touchdown)...  :)  This brings me to a couple of points that I have made earlier in this blog:  girls who like football are very cool (and these two were into the game, trust me...), and I would rather be around people who are fans of teams other than the Steelers (or any team that I like in any sport) than be around those who don't have any interest at all in what's going on...  For those of you who do have ties to San Marcos, America, I have a trivia question for you:  Harper's Hall - who is it named after??  Have a great day and I'll see you again on Wednesday, where I'll surely be talking about Vegas in December...  ;)