I’m heading back to Russell at some point today. When that point is I have no idea. I might have been gone by now, but Brittany Davidson is coming back at 4:30. And Showdown, Buzztime’s big trivia game, is at 7 p.m. I said my cutoff was 8:30 p.m., and I will stick to that at the very least.

I dozed off during The Price Is Right from time to time during the 10 a.m. hour, but I picked myself up and got myself out of the hotel at 11:10. I had to stop for gas and a drink at Hy-Vee on Barry Road, and thank God I did, because it reminded me I needed to pick up two six-packs of Abita Beer for Brittany. I got her Amber and Turbodog, and I got a six-pack of Purple Haze for Dad. He tried it the one time he went to Ivar’s with me and he really liked it.

Abita is a microbrewery in Louisiana about 65 miles east of Baton Rouge and 55 miles north of New Orleans. It’s located in the small St. Tammany Parish town of Abita Springs, and long before it began brewing beer, it offered spring water. There is a major spring water rivalry in south Louisiana between Abita Springs and Kentwood, where there is an artesian well in the town of Kentwood, only a few miles south of the Mississippi state line in Tangipahoa Parish. Kentwood is just as famous for two other things: football and Britney Spears. I guarantee 90 percent of the town’s residents would pick the Kangaroos and not the singer if given the choice of one or the other.

The most famous football alum of Kentwood is Jackie Smith, the Hall of Fame tight end for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1960s and 1970s. Unfortunately, Smith is best known from a play from his one season with the Dallas Cowboys, a dropped pass in the end zone during the third quarter of Super Bowl XIII. Had Smith caught the pass, the game would have been tied 21-21, and Dallas may very well have repeated as champions. Instead, a series of bad breaks and a very bad call went against the Cowboys, and the Steelers went on to win 35-31.

Liz was here when I arrived at 11:45, but she got cut early because it was slow, and she walked out without saying goodbye. I was hurt, but then I discovered she will be moving with Sean to Colorado very soon.

Here I go again. Every person who has ever meant anything to me, no matter how small, has either (a) forgotten about me, or worse (b) now can’t stand me. The list is endless.

Stacie Dauterieve Seube begins the list, but I’m just fortunate we’ve reconnected via Facebook. Tiffany Peperone, whom I met at Brother Martin, celebrates her 40th birthday next Tuesday. Janine Koening, my 8th grade science teacher at Brother Martin, was my favorite teacher in high school, and we grew closer after I got out of her class. Same with Rebecca Hale, who taught me one semester of English my junior year. I forgive Rebecca for being a Tulane fan. Glad to see she”ll get to watch the Green Wave on campus this fal.

Then there’s the folks at LSU OTHER than Bill Franques: Jim Schwanke, Dan Canevari, Herb Vincent, Michael Bonnette, Dan Borne and his family, Adam Young, Wendy and Sid Wall, Erika Goulas, Fred Demarest, Laurie Cannon…this list there goes on and on.

I’d give anything for Robin Fambrough to come to Kansas and fix what’s wrong. I owe so much to her.
Brenda LeBlanc was my closest friend in Baton Rouge. Now she won’t talk to me. That hurts worse than anything.

Jimmy Ott has basically written me off even though we saw each other almost every week for six years. Joe Scheuermann has erased me from memory, even though he was the one who gave me the nickname FOOTS and was someone I dealt with often for 13 years. Bryan Lazare was hard on me at times, but he was trying to make me a better man, and I wish I would have listened to him.

The list in Kansas is growing and growing. Larry Mills, the first person in Kansas who truly got me, left me behind when he went to be a superintendent in Oklahoma. I regret only getting to spend one year covering Joel and DeAnn Thaemert at Russell High. As for athletes, Lacy Keilig, where are you? I know you’re a big success, but it would be nice to hear from you. Same with you, Cami Engelbert. And Hayli Bozarth.