Game
So that was really fun.
I was not feeling all that excited about going to the game at first. I was stressed about taking off at work when I’d just taken off for the holidays and I had a pretty major assignment in the works, and I was bummed my boyfriend wasn’t going, and I was wishing we all could have made a big weekend of it instead of just showing up for the game and heading home. But on game day before heading out, I started to get more pumped and put on my grateful hat and knew I should quit my inner bitching and remember all the people who wished they could be going, hello.
It started with a trip to the city with my parents, which went smoothly (I listened to the new love of my life, Brandi Carlile, on my iPod) until we parked. My mom started singing the Tiger fight song opera style in the Superdome parking garage and stepped off lots of curbs into the paths of many tour buses. I think she was just so excited she lost her mind a little bit, bless her heart. We kept running into people we knew – in the hotel bathroom, walking down Canal, in another hotel lobby, randomly on the side of whatever road we were walking on, in restaurants, in the Superdome bathroom. Everywhere! So that was fun.
It rained on our way into the Dome, and I got actually manhandled and shoved by a policeman, which was so infuriating that I cannot think much about it or I start to seethe with rage, but by the time we settled into our seats with big buttery, salty pretzels and miniature pepperoni pizzas, I had calmed down. We inevitably bonded with the people around us – a guy with his elderly parents and a row of drunken lunatics plus one of their lunatic wives in front of us. They were pouring beer into each other’s seats, into each other’s baseball caps. It was just kind of insane, but my sister, brother, brother's girlfriend, and I definitely enjoyed the hilarity.
As for the game itself, we started out with the blues when we were down 10-0 at the start, but soon things were turned around and all was fun. At first I was a little morose about the seats (I hate sitting underneath other seats; the concrete ceiling makes it kind of dark and you can’t really experience the mass brightness of the Dome), but one of the drunks in front of me argued, “But we’re in the game. We’re IN THE GAME!” And I was put in my place. I wasn't drinking at all, but finally I got so thirsty from screaming that I accepted a beer from my sister, who accepted it from the drunken wife, who said, "They're buying it faster than I can drink it!"
(I want to just say that I am ashamed of the way some of our fans were acting. Just purely and horribly ashamed. What is with booing the other team's band? How classless can you be? I understand there is no stopping the booing of the team, even though I think that is disgusting, but the freaking band? They are just out there in their costumes lining up and marching their hearts out, and they get booed by us? I am sorry, band. I was not booing you! I tried to be really nice to all of the other team's fans. I was so nice to one lady in the bathroom after the game that I'm not sure she believed I was being genuine. But I mean, come on people. It is a game and we both went there wanting to win. And they lost two years in a row! Can we not show a little peace, love, and understanding? However, one very rowdy fan in red, during our march to the Dome, actually yelled "F*ck you!" to an old man who was holding up a bible and talking about how Jesus loves us, not at all in a hellfire and brimstone kind of a way, just a nice sidewalk standing kind of a way. So I guess fans in all colors can be disgusting. We all shot that drunk bastard a death glare. As far as I am concerned, he and the brutal policeman can go straight to hell!)
I think the beer made me a bit teary when the chants of "SEC! SEC!" would start. I don't know why I found that so moving, but I did. I don't know much about the politics of college football, but I have gathered that people look down on the SEC somehow and think we're all a bunch of losers? Can anyone clarify this for me? I don't know. But I felt like the whole Southern United States of America was cheering with us, even our rivals whom we hate and who hate us, and even if I totally made that up in my mind, it made me really happy.
The best thing about the seats was being so close to the band, which played constantly and kept everyone dancing and yelling in their seats. At first I was watching the time closely and feeling like it would go on forever, but then I felt like I was in another world, what with the screams and the thundering stomps of the people that made the ground vibrate steadily throughout the game, and time lost all meaning. While no game could top the feeling of four years ago, I don't think, this game was very fun, and it was special to sit with my sister and brother, and I’m so glad I got to be there.
I was not feeling all that excited about going to the game at first. I was stressed about taking off at work when I’d just taken off for the holidays and I had a pretty major assignment in the works, and I was bummed my boyfriend wasn’t going, and I was wishing we all could have made a big weekend of it instead of just showing up for the game and heading home. But on game day before heading out, I started to get more pumped and put on my grateful hat and knew I should quit my inner bitching and remember all the people who wished they could be going, hello.
It started with a trip to the city with my parents, which went smoothly (I listened to the new love of my life, Brandi Carlile, on my iPod) until we parked. My mom started singing the Tiger fight song opera style in the Superdome parking garage and stepped off lots of curbs into the paths of many tour buses. I think she was just so excited she lost her mind a little bit, bless her heart. We kept running into people we knew – in the hotel bathroom, walking down Canal, in another hotel lobby, randomly on the side of whatever road we were walking on, in restaurants, in the Superdome bathroom. Everywhere! So that was fun.
It rained on our way into the Dome, and I got actually manhandled and shoved by a policeman, which was so infuriating that I cannot think much about it or I start to seethe with rage, but by the time we settled into our seats with big buttery, salty pretzels and miniature pepperoni pizzas, I had calmed down. We inevitably bonded with the people around us – a guy with his elderly parents and a row of drunken lunatics plus one of their lunatic wives in front of us. They were pouring beer into each other’s seats, into each other’s baseball caps. It was just kind of insane, but my sister, brother, brother's girlfriend, and I definitely enjoyed the hilarity.
As for the game itself, we started out with the blues when we were down 10-0 at the start, but soon things were turned around and all was fun. At first I was a little morose about the seats (I hate sitting underneath other seats; the concrete ceiling makes it kind of dark and you can’t really experience the mass brightness of the Dome), but one of the drunks in front of me argued, “But we’re in the game. We’re IN THE GAME!” And I was put in my place. I wasn't drinking at all, but finally I got so thirsty from screaming that I accepted a beer from my sister, who accepted it from the drunken wife, who said, "They're buying it faster than I can drink it!"
(I want to just say that I am ashamed of the way some of our fans were acting. Just purely and horribly ashamed. What is with booing the other team's band? How classless can you be? I understand there is no stopping the booing of the team, even though I think that is disgusting, but the freaking band? They are just out there in their costumes lining up and marching their hearts out, and they get booed by us? I am sorry, band. I was not booing you! I tried to be really nice to all of the other team's fans. I was so nice to one lady in the bathroom after the game that I'm not sure she believed I was being genuine. But I mean, come on people. It is a game and we both went there wanting to win. And they lost two years in a row! Can we not show a little peace, love, and understanding? However, one very rowdy fan in red, during our march to the Dome, actually yelled "F*ck you!" to an old man who was holding up a bible and talking about how Jesus loves us, not at all in a hellfire and brimstone kind of a way, just a nice sidewalk standing kind of a way. So I guess fans in all colors can be disgusting. We all shot that drunk bastard a death glare. As far as I am concerned, he and the brutal policeman can go straight to hell!)
I think the beer made me a bit teary when the chants of "SEC! SEC!" would start. I don't know why I found that so moving, but I did. I don't know much about the politics of college football, but I have gathered that people look down on the SEC somehow and think we're all a bunch of losers? Can anyone clarify this for me? I don't know. But I felt like the whole Southern United States of America was cheering with us, even our rivals whom we hate and who hate us, and even if I totally made that up in my mind, it made me really happy.
The best thing about the seats was being so close to the band, which played constantly and kept everyone dancing and yelling in their seats. At first I was watching the time closely and feeling like it would go on forever, but then I felt like I was in another world, what with the screams and the thundering stomps of the people that made the ground vibrate steadily throughout the game, and time lost all meaning. While no game could top the feeling of four years ago, I don't think, this game was very fun, and it was special to sit with my sister and brother, and I’m so glad I got to be there.
posted by eliza @ 7:45 AM
2 Comments:
Actually the SEC is considered the premier football conference in the country. With Florida winning the mythical National Championship game by embarrasing Ohio State last year and LSU winning the Championship game this year bears this out. The chant "SEC" was just the crowd's way of stating the superioty of the SEC, particularly over the Big Ten.
Frank -- thanks for the clarification. Football confuses me!
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