Duck Mania

We're finally nearing the end of Duck season--the University of Oregon Duck football season, that is. After living in Eugene for three years, I should be used to the madness that emerges with the first game of the year. Every Saturday, the entire town dresses in green and yellow and knows they better not get caught wearing anything resembling orange (the color of arch-rival, the OSU Beavers). The green and yellow pom-poms flutter out of car trunks and windows, and the U of O flags wave atop the cars. The main topic of conversation is Ducks.

I really have no interest in the Duck games, and just bought my first real Duck shirt last week--mainly so I have something to wear on casual Fridays/Saturdays at the credit union. I've learned to pay attention to the Duck game schedule not so I can watch the games, but so I can get my weekend errands done while everyone else is at the stadium or at home watching the games. But I work at a branch of nearly all guy employees--guys who pretty much talk sports all day long. So, Duck spirit has crept its way into my life more than usual this year. So much so that I even agreed to participate in a tailgating theme for our credit union Halloween competition.

Side note: Halloween is perhaps the most important holiday at the credit union. Why? Because the Golden Pumpkin is at stake. That's right. The branch with the best, most creative, most elaborate Halloween theme wins the coveted Golden Pumpkin--and bragging rights for an entire year. It is simply not acceptable to ignore the holiday or throw a costume together at the last minute. This requires weeks of planning, careful costume-coordination, and hours spent decorating the branch.

Our branch tossed around several ideas. First we were going to do a Back to the Future theme, complete with a DeLorean and a clock stopped at 10:04. Then the guys thought we should do Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but we didn't think it would be so great to turn the branch into a sewer. So, we thought we'd do Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But the guys couldn't find dwarf attire, so at the last minute (after our Snow White had ordered her non-returnable costume), they decided to go with a U of O tailgating theme. Thus Snow White and the Seven Tailgaters:



Needless to say, we didn't win the Golden Pumpkin, but we had fun building a truck bed in our lobby (only took two hours!) and at least we were comfortable. =)