In my signing line at Saint Mary’s College, a few people expressed surprise that I’d come to South Bend to do an event. The explanation is simple: I have family there. And family tradition: a LOT of people in my paternal family are alums of Notre Dame or Saint Mary’s, and a few of them work there. We’ve actually been planning this event for some time. It even turned into a mini-reunion, with my parents and a few other family members coming to join us :).

Join us to do what? Go to a Notre Dame football game, of course. I won’t get into my feelings about college football, which are complicated, nor will I get into my feelings about Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish, which are beyond complicated — instead, I’ll merely report that surrounded by enthusiastic loved ones and by random strangers screaming “Go Irish!,” I felt very… well, Irish. And I cheered loudly for Notre Dame, despite all my threats beforehand to cheer for the other team, whoever they might be. (They were Tulsa, and they won.)

ANYWAY. It was a wonderful few days in South Bend with family, and, hey, I love the Notre Dame marching band. They’re BIG (24 trombones) and they’re GOOD, and when they performed a rendition of “New York, New York” at halftime and arranged themselves to spell out “I [shamrock] NY,” I was so happy, because I DO [shamrock] NY!

At my event, I had the rare pleasure of family members in the audience. Including one guy who was climbing around taking pictures: my cousin, Matt Cashore, photographer (and pilot), who kindly gave me permission to display a few of the results here. Click to enbiggen.

Here I am yackety-yacking.

And taking a question.

And signing books.

And here are two of the attendees, my cousin, secret codename: Myrtle the Spinach-Loving Turtle and my cousin, secret codename: Cutie McCutiepants.

And that was my visit to South Bend! Thanks to Ted Billy, my Aunt Adaline, and everyone else at Saint Mary’s who made this event possible. It was tons of fun.

Before I go — Yay, Massachusetts voters, for our response to ballot questions 2 and 3. Also, I forgot to say last week: Good luck, NaNoWriMo writers! NEVER SURRENDER!