SEEKING CHARLIE'S AUTOGRAPH

During the Christmas season there is a reason to go “above and beyond” what one would normally do for another individual’s gift. For whatever reason, this just seems to happen. A person doing borderline absurd things to please another individual is common place.

So on Friday morning Charlie Weis offered a free “autograph session” to any Saint Mary’s, Notre Dame or Holy Cross faculty, staff or student. Since I needed to get an autograph for a friend of mine I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to do so. Little did I realize what I was about to get into.

I figured, as did Weis, that the session that started at 8:00 a.m. would be done by 10:00 a.m. at the latest. To me there’s nothing wrong with standing in line for an hour or so. I got to the complex around 7:45 a.m. and there were around 300 people in line outside. A little more people than I thought but still not too bad by any stretch.

Little did I realize there were hundreds more already inside the building waiting for his signature. I waited outside in the 20-something temperatures for about 40 minutes and I was ready to give-up because I was freezing. Fortunately the organizers let everyone that was outside come into the building.

When I went inside I finally realized how large this event was. People, and a lot of them, were in a very organized line that was about 300 yards long. Seriously it was almost comical. With about an hour invested into the process I decided I was in this thing for the long haul.

The next few hours were kind of fun on some surreal level. I got to know a few new people and share some stories with people that I will most likely never see again. By 11:45 a.m. I was still about two hours from the autograph. Luckily the football office bought pizza for everyone still waiting in line. I’d say they bought roughly 50 pizzas. A very nice token of kindness on their part.

At 12:30 p.m. a “bomb dropped” when Weis announced he had to stop signing at 1:00 p.m. and there was probably 90 minutes left of signatures to complete. He had pushed back his 10 a.m. appointments to 1:00 p.m. and had to honor those commitments.

So a handful of people, myself included, left our autographed apparel with the powers that be in the football office so Weis could sign them over the weekend and we can pick them up on Monday morning. I have no worries that Weis will sign each one of those items. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this simple process would take up over five hours of my life!

Let’s hope my friend appreciates the dedication needed to attain the autograph! ;-)