big orange T

Mom made me a stitch of material to cover the ugly gray bulletin board on the back of my desk. It’s purpose is to both declare allegiance and break up my office of ugly gray. It’s appropriately Vol and only moderately obnoxious, with about a hundred Ts in orange, white, and black. It’s a great backdrop to my power T business card holder, albeit empty as my cards have not yet been made. I’m slowly making progress.

One of the problems with being a Vol in Uglyhoma is that they think that your power T stands for Texas. Nevermind that it was ours first. Nevermind that we are brilliant orange, not dirty dishwater orange. Nevermind that it’s just wrong.

Most people who come into my office gasp and ask if these are Texas colors. I point out that under half of my Ts it says “University of Tennessee”, to which they reply, “Oh, good... As long as it’s not Texas it’s okay.”

As if I would take it down if it was not okay.

Needless to say, there is a major SEC learning curve in Uglyhoma.

But there is hope! Today someone walked into my office and said immediately, “You’re a Tennessee fan? I didn’t know you were a Vol.”

We talked about football for twenty minutes. It was fantastic. There may be hope for Uglyhoma yet, although I am not holding my breath.