GOODe Confessions: Hello Sports Fans

So, um...confession time.

Confession #1: I am not really a big sports fan.

GASP. 

gulp. 

Don't hate me.

Confession #2: I have this unusual knack for not knowing famous people when I see/meet them... and it can be quite embarrassing from time to time... like, oh I don't know... perhaps the time I reprimanded the (future) Governor and my future boss-to-be (thankfully I don't think he remembered)... but that is a different story for a different day.

Anyhoo... back to the current oblivious moment. 

I had a fun assignment this week for one of my clients that involved attending an event at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center-- a.k.a. Colts central. 

We won't talk about how I got lost and how Aunt Mary (uber-Colts fan) guided me back to the right place over the phone. 

Nor will we talk about how Puddie (super-uber-Colts fan) pouted about his non-sports fan wife getting to go to such a cool event that she could never appreciate the way he would.... 

Instead, Puddie would like to point out (and has been pointing out to everyone we know) that I did not know who Dallas Clark was nor how big of a deal it was to be at an event with him...

Sorry Dallas... it really isn't you... Puddie assures me--it's me. 

You would have thought that I'd recognize you from the billboard... It really is a problem with me. 

I am sorry.  

If you had seen the other Goode at the event, he assures me that he would not have been able to keep himself from professing his love for you. 

I think he is embarrassed enough at my lack of knowledge for the three of us... Just sayin'

Truth be told, I learned a lot about Dallas that day... and came away a new fan--much to Puddie's delight. 

Ya see, Dallas happens to be a farmer from Iowa-- when he isn't doing his Sunday gig. 

He is also the spokesperson for this cool educational biofuels program for teachers and kids, Hoosier Horsepower-- which just happens to be a program put on by my GOODe friends at ICMC and ISA .

Dallas was in GOODe company that day. Ya see, oblivious moment #2 was right around the corner. 

Come lunch time, a very nice man (see above) asked to come sit with me and Gal in the Middle at our lunch table. 

It took me all of...oh, I don't know ... ten minutes to realize that this nice man was none other than Tom Zupancic. And, that was only after some other--less oblivious-- folks came over to our table and started calling him Tom.

So why should I know who Tom Zupancic is if I didn't recognize Dallas? 

My lack of knowledge might come as no surprise to you dear reader--except that I used to listen to Zup religiously on the WFMS morning show. 

I heart his shtick with Jim Denny and oftentimes would wish he would start his own radio show... ya know in his spare time.

Puddie couldn't believe that I didn't recognize his voice nor see the...um... somewhat famous rings on his hands.

Zup was there to kick off the Fueling Freedom Indiana Ethanol Forum. 

Truth be told, Zup's got some energy of his own and was quite inspiring. I remember realizing in the middle of his presentation that my non-football days were over. 

And thinking that Puddie would be thrilled... at last the date night vs. colts game dilemma would be over.  

Ya see, while sitting there listening to him speak about the Colts and their dedication to the community outside of their Sunday duties--I got bit by a blue bug... Just sayin'. 

I was impressed. 

Impressed that not only have the Colts won more games than any other team in the league... (Pardon me...Puddie just fainted at the sound of my Colts trivia...) but also that the Colts are interested in what our farmers are doing everyday for our communities.

Dallas and Zup were not the only famous people there. Thankfully, I did not embarrass myself with the next guest at the forum--Retired General Wesley Clark.

General Clark's organization, Growth Energy was a co-sponsor of the event. 

I was amazed at the general's extensive background in national security and his vision for America's future--free of foreign oil dependency. 

I could have listened to him for hours. 

He had a wisdom about him and a complex knowledge of very important matters.

In the end, I felt like I learned so much that I didn't know about national security, war and our capacity to grow our own fuel right here in Indiana... 

That and a few things/people associated with that blue team everyone keeps talking about ;)

Oh and after texting Puddie that I had just lunched (unknowingly) with Zup... I decided to be a nice wife and give him the cool football I got at the forum.

We won't talk about how many times Puddie asked if he could come work for me after seeing some of the perks of my new freelance business.

He'll have to settle for tutoring this new sports fan-to-be for now... and maybe some filing ;)

Oh, and in case you were wondering, no one paid me for this post and the opinions and embarrassing moments above are 100 percent all mine.