It’s really cold in Indiana right now. We’re anticipating a high temperature of 10 on Sunday.

But you’d never know it was frigid February in the Hoosier state capital. I’ve never seen people so warm. It’s Super Bowl weekend, and everyone around here is feeling the love.

It’s like Christmas, only better because EVERYONE is into it. There are no religious limitations or political ramifications to rooting for the Colts. If you live here, you’re into it. Aren’t sports great?
My 18-month-old daughter and I, decked in our Colts jerseys, went to the grocery this afternoon. Everyone was wearing blue. Everyone was smiling. Everyone was polite to one another. Strangers were discussing their party plans for Sunday. The store was out of blue and white beads. They were out of children’s Colts shirts. They were out of Blue Curacao in the liquor aisle and Berry Blue Kool-Aid in the juice aisle. They were out of blue decorating icing, and I bought the last bottle of blue fingernail polish in the place.

Some other snapshots from around town:

• “Go Colts!” on a sign out front of the Garden Baptist Church and on the signs in front of every business on US36.
• “Happy Super Bowl Sunday!” on the animated marquee sign in front of Bridgeport Elementary School.
• A Colts rally in the frozen courtyard of IUPUI.
• Colts flags flying alongside or below the American flag on most of the skyscrapers downtown.
• Employees at my bank, my grocery, McDonald’s, the party supply store and my husband’s insurance company, all dressed down in Colts paraphernalia.
• A snowman on Raceway Road that had been spray painted with a blue jersey and the white horseshoe.
• Another snowman on a county road in Hendricks County that was wearing a Colts scarf and baseball hat.
• So many jerseys, sweatshirts, hats, and other Colts garb on everyone in town, but I was particularly delighted to run into a colleague of mine, a 60-something English professor, decked out in a Peyton Manning jersey as she lectured her freshman composition class.
• One of my students dyed her hair blue and spent hours at the salon getting blue and white beads braided into it. She also had her nails painted blue with white horseshoes airbrushed on them.
• A crayon-colored picture of a “rocket football,” Peyton Manning, and a Colts cheerleader, created by my best friend’s third-grade daughter and posted on Myspace.
• A battered car, painted in Chicago Bears colors, in front of a dealership on US40. The sign beside it read, “Beat the Bears for Charity.” (You could pay $5 to pound on the car with a hammer!)
• A big, blue horseshoe inscribed with the words “We Believe in Blue,” made out of particle board and hung on the front of a neighbor’s house.

Like everyone else in Indianapolis, I sure hope our team wins tomorrow. But even if they don’t, I have one thing to say to the Colts: Thanks for giving your fans a little warmth and sunshine! It’s been a blast!