Of Wahoos And Hokies

Stranger: How you doing?
Dana: I don't believe this.
Stranger: It's me again.
Dana: This is pretty weird.
Stranger: Yeah.
Dana: I mean, I don't know if I'm comfortable with this.
Stranger: With what?
Dana: Every time I've been in here in the last three days you've been in here, so I'm saying I'm not comfortable with it.
Stranger: You've been in here every time I've been in here in the past three days... yet I remained unconcerned.

(The triumphant return of the Sports Night quote! Probably won't last for long, though.)

I don't know what it is , but I run into Hokies everywhere. I'm amazed at the number of times where I've randomly run into a Virginia Tech alum or fan somewhere outside of the state of Virginia. It always just seem to be that a couple times a year, the person next to me in line or sitting a few seats away will be a Hokie. And one way or another, words are always exchanged (through casual conversation), so its acknowledged what our alma maters are. A few notable examples:

-Camden Yards, Fall 2001: Honester Ciphers and I go to Baltimore for Cal Ripken, Jr.'s final games. Game 1 of a doubleheader, we're sitting in the left field upper deck and the people sitting nearest to us have a son attending Tech. While in line to reenter the stadium for Game 2 of the doubleheader, the guy right behind us in line is a Tech grad (I think he was wearing his class ring to prove it, too).

-Princeton Bowl, Fall 2007: The Cincinnati Home Builders Association is sponsoring a bowling event for companies associated with residential construction. I'm there with people from my company and from the people in the next lane over, I hear one girl as another, "So what exactly is a Hokie?" Turn out, one of the people there with that company was a Tech grad (oh, and as any good Wahoo would do, I answered the above question with, "A Hokie's a castrated turkey;" she wasn't amused).

-Oktoberfest, Saturday: I get in line to purchase some Red Leg Ale from the Barrelhouse and the lady right in front of me has on a shirt that has"What is a Hokie?" on the front and lyrics to some song (perhaps Tech's fight song) on the back. Again, I answer aloud, "A Hokie's a castrated turkey." And again, not amused.

I'm always shocked when I randomly encountered a Virginia Tech grad (or another Virginia grad, for that matter), especially out here in Cincinnati. I think to myself, "Man, how random is it that the person right next to me graduated from the one school I despise above all others? How crazy is that?" And then I think, "Well, how random do they think it is that they happen to be standing next to a UVA grad? Are they as intrigued by this random occurrence as I am?"

I find these meetings odd. Not odd in the way that there wouldn't graduates of these schools spread out across the country and across the world, just odd in that I happen to run into them. Its just a little weird, I don't really like it, and the exchange is always kind of awkward. But that could be because I keep referring to their mascot as a castrated turkey. I sense they don't like that too much. Truth hurts.