Who's Up for a Duck Hunt?

WAR EAGLE!

My Favorite Things - p.41

In honor of my trip to see the University of Alabama play this past Saturday, I decided to share a few of my favorite things about football in general. (And yes, I am talking about American football!)

The music - Yes, I was, am, and forever will be a band geek. I love the sound of marching bands and all the brass and excitement and the drums. There are lots of good memories in those sounds. I have to fight the urge to get up and dance to "Land of 1000 Dances".

The food - everything seems to taste better when it comes from a stadium! We'll leave the expense of concession stand food and the way it makes you feel afterward out of the equation for now.

The energy - It's hard to sit in a stadium and NOT get swept up in all the excitement of those around you! Even if you will be truly happy no matter who wins, you can't help but get excited when those around you are getting excited, too! I do draw the line at doing the wave, though!

The mascots - They're cute and they're funny. How do you not love them?

The crowd - I love to people watch, and it seems that sporting events bring out special people with special personalities, all of which are endlessly entertaining! Some can be obnoxious (especially if alcohol is involved) but for the most part it's good old-fashioned fun!

My Field Trip to the Other Side

I ventured into "enemy" territory on Saturday. I've never had a burning desire to attend an Alabama football game, but I'm not going to turn down free tickets, especially for a VIP section! I vowed to myself I would play nice, and even bought a new Alabama shirt for the blessed event. We went early and met up with one of Barbara's co-workers and some of her friends. We tailgated out there and then headed toward the stadium. People were lining up to see the team come in, but we managed to muscle our way through and get upstairs to where our seats were. We got out on the balcony and were able to watch the team, including Jesus (oops, I mean Nick Saban!)

As far as the whole experience, I have to say I am now very spoiled! Our tickets were in a section called "The Zone". Not only did we have the nice plastic chairs with cup holders (not bleachers), we had private bathrooms, lockers, and all the free food and non-alcoholic beverage we wanted! The lockers were for the purpose of storing alcohol if you wanted to bring any, but since you can't bring anything in on game day, you have to come the day before to fill your locker and we didn't do that. We were quite happy with the sodas and tea! The food was great! They had a tamale bar, jambalaya, catfish fingers, hush puppies, salad, fruit, nachos, chips, popcorn, trail mix, hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages (and any kind of toppings you could dream of for all of these!) bread pudding, cookies, brownies, and ice cream bars. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, too! WOW! The best part for me was always having plenty to drink and never having to wait in line for the bathroom!

A few of the fans around us were a little on the obnoxious side, but for the most part everyone was very nice. Some of the whole "football heritage" stuff was a little bit over the top. I know I have jokingly had the "theological discussion" about football as the religion of the south, but I was shocked at how very true this was. And Bear Bryant really is regarded, not only as "a god", but as God! It was more than a little bit ridiculous.

But even more than some of that, I was most disappointed with folks who were tailgating and hanging out before the game, although I can't really say I'm surprised. Everyone was less worried about supporting a team they cared about and more worried about being ANTI-Auburn. If I had to guess, I'd say it had a lot more to do with the loss the previous week than pure meanness. But come on folks, it's a GAME! And really, shouldn't you want your opponents to do well? Because if you beat them, it doesn't prove much if everyone else in the world has also beaten them! Because of this, I was probably a little more smug about Auburn's victory than I would have been otherwise!

Some of the homecoming festivities were fun. I thought it was cute the way some of the Alumni cheerleaders, band members, and front line all got to come back and get back out on the field to perform a little. To me, that's kind of what homecoming is supposed to be about, so it was a nice thing to see! It's too bad I don't care enough about my own school to want to go back for homecoming!

All in all it was a good day. I'm happy that Alabama won. I was exhausted when we got home at 2:30 am, but I would definitely do it over again. For now, my "A" shirt will hang out in the back of my drawer to wait for next year, and I will go hunt for an awesome new Auburn shirt to wear for the Iron Bowl!

My Favorite Things - p.40

Life has been a bit crazy lately. Cooking has obviously taken a back seat to other things. And I really do have all kinds of intentions of getting back to it sooner than later. But the schedule thing is still working itself out. Crafting isn't happening at all right now. Really and truly, life outside of work and being at the house isn't happening. So in order to keep myself motivated and accountable (and to prove I do in fact have some more stuff in the works) I decided to dedicate my favorite things today to my coming attractions!

Crock Pot Chicken Curry - I'm actually making this one today for everyone in the Pastoral Care office. We'll see how it goes!

Crock Pot Philly Steak - This could be humongous flop, or one of my best ideas ever. We'll find out soon enough!

My first University of Alabama football game - No, I'm not switching allegiances, but seeing as how ours is a mixed marriage the least I can do is make good use of a free ticket to the VIP section! I'm a good wife like that!

My next vacation - Yup, I already have something planned. I'll reveal the details when I start the six month countdown! I'm honestly starting to believe that the planning and preparation for a vacation is more exciting to me than the trip itself!

A CPE update - I'm going to have to be careful with what I say about CPE so as not to violate the privacy of patients, family members, or my classmates but I'm going to try to share some of my reflections about my own "stuff".

Football

Football season is FINALLY over. I have to say it, I'm very glad. The last month or so I was sick and tired of hearing about football and the national championships and all of that.

I am an Auburn fan. I can't help it, it's the way I was raised. Both my parents went to Auburn. But we were not hard-core, "love everyone who plays Alabama" Auburn fans. We had friends and family members who were Alabama fans. That's just the way it was. We didn't bust a gut to watch the games each week. We'd put them on for background noise, but we certainly didn't plan our Saturdays around them. In fact, the only game we ever really bothered to plan and watch was the Iron Bowl. We would go to games about once a year, but it was just something fun to do.

My apathy toward college football was so great that in high school, the Iron Bowl meant one thing and one thing only to me - MONEY! It was the greatest babysitting day of the year. I would sometimes get twice my normal rate or even more for whatever reason. And let me tell you, making $80 to sit on the couch and watch tv while the kids are in bed is pretty darn fantastic! I was not at all heartbroken that I didn't get to go to a party. I still usually saw the game and I didn't have to deal with the yelling and obnoxiousness that came with watching with a large group! Yup, fabulous!

I was always taught that, even being an Auburn fan, you still cheer for Alabama as long as they aren't playing against Auburn. And for the most part that's how I feel about the whole thing. I want both teams to do well. I have had friends go to both schools. It's just a game.

I did indeed watch the game last night. And I cheered for Alabama. And I was glad they won. I'm glad I can get a hat and t-shirt for Jeff for his birthday and not have to try and come up with something else to get him! But I'm also glad the season is over and we get a break for about 7 months!