Weekend Update

There was a time when weekends were restful and relaxing to me. This is my 5th football season in an SEC school, though, and fall weekends haven't been calm and rejuvenating in a long, long time.

On Fridays, old friends and alumni come to town. Group dinners and drinks downtown stretch Friday night in Saturday morning. Too tired to shower, my typical Friday night ends with me dropping my purse at the door, dragging myself to my room, and falling into bed around 3. I lay there for a solid half hour listening to the ringing in my ears-- I foolishly continue to try to have screamed conversations over the live music at overcrowded bars--and drift off just in to wake up only a few hours later for game day.

On Saturday morning, I wake up with a much-much needed shower and then try on every piece of clothing I own that has crimson, white, or black in it. I usually go for a neutral look-- this week I settled for jeggings, a white tunic, and crimson earrings... and NAVY nail polish to balance it out-- because I don't want to be a bad sport. With game day outfit assembled, I head into the circus that is college game day. I justify the 12-hour tailgate food binge by walking a mile to and from my parking place on the edge of town-- who turns down tailgate food? Dips, salsa, brownies, cookies, wings... not a fruit or vegetable in sight, and for the day that's fine by me.

"Win or lose, we still booze." Someone told me that once about this town, and it's so true. I may not be a huge fan-- with the exception of playing LSU, and in that case, Roll Tide Roll-- but I do enjoy a win, and... well, this team wins. So after 5 hours of tailgating and 5 hours of standing in the student section, you head downtown to celebrate with a couple thousand of your closest friends. I don't drink much myself; in fact, if it tastes like alcohol, I can't control my face cringe, and that can be pretty limiting. So with water in hand, I thoroughly enjoy the camaraderie and spectacle of winners and losers converging under the influence. If you're a people watcher like me, this is primo people watching. Strangers hugging strangers, strangers not loving strangers so much, friends from home, game day dresses and get ups, unbridled PDA.... So. Much. Material. This seems like as good a place as any to drop a little nugget of information: I may or may not have met and taken a picture (read: forced a picture) on a former player with one giant championship ring on his finger. My two friends were talking to this 6'5 hunk of man, so I text my dad his name to find out if he was, as suspected, a football player. Upon discovering his celebrity, he might as well have been George Clooney: I was on a mission.

I wish I were too cool to be star-struck... but basically, if you're name's been mentioned on national television once or twice, you are immediately fascinating to me.

So, today is Sunday, and it looks like most of my game day Sunday. I had lunch with a visiting friend before he headed out, did my grocery shopping for the week, and now I'll spend the rest of the afternoon doing enough homework to spread out over the weekend... but who has a free day on a game day weekend? And I'll clean up piles of discarded would-be game day outfits and pack up summer clothes (Gotta make room for the best clothes of the year: fall/winter wardrobe).

On my catch-up day, I'll reward myself (i.e. put off being productive) with a phone date or two with long lost friends and maybe even a little Hulu action.