for the love of beef (part 2)

The car ride home from the tractor pull went something like this. A lot of ranting about how I can’t believe he is 15. Can you believe he is 15? I had just turned 18.  The ever positive and supportive Mary just said “well age doesn’t really matter”.  Really come on who goes to college with a 15 year old boyfriend. If ever age matters it is right now.  Oh just forget it I thought. That is really what happened, really nothing.  I saw Jake a few times after that at tractor pulls and at a few county fairs too. You will start to see a pattern form with these activities.

Fast forward to the summer and fall of 1999, it was a whirlwind of livestock, waffle houses, van rides, oral reasons, no sleep, games of name that stain on nasty cheap hotel bed spreads, hard work, fun and competition jammed into a few short months for me. Oh the memories of The Ohio State University livestock judging team.  It is hard to distinguish the most memorable moments.  (that is for another blog)   

Jake however was about to start his first year at The Ohio State University – ATI.  My brother was a sophomore at ATI and somehow over the summer they had become friends.  There was a group of us that enjoyed tractor pulls and we went to a lot of them.  Ok some of them enjoyed tractor pulls.  My brother had devised a plan to help Jake get out of the requirement to live in housing at ATI.  Through some kind of ATI legend they learned that if you wait until the last minute you could call up and get out of housing because they were over booked.  Well by this time it was late summer and they had pulled it off.  Jake and Jason would be roommates.  I pulled into my parents’ house on one of the few weekends I was home from judging and there sat a gray and red Dodge dually all cleaned up and parked up by the old barn.  Apparently Jake had ridden with Jason to school for the week.  Although I didn’t know it at the time, this would be a really big change to my life permanently, Jake and Jason roommates.