Saturday Night in Death Valley

I love going to LSU football games....always have. We never had season tickets (we were always more TV watchers) but when I got old enough to beg (and sound really whinny) my brother usually struck a deal to take my sister and myself to one game or so a year. Since then, I try to go once a year, and despite the last 7 years that I've lost in the vacuum of medical education, I've pretty much been able to do that. (Last year being the exception.) I'll never forget the first time I walked into the stadium---I was probably 11 or 12 years old--I remember thinking it was the coolest place on earth. A small part of me still does, I guess. I love the tradition, the tailgaiting (of the non-enebreated sort), and the magic of it all. LSU has one of the best collegiate game-day atmospheres. It's considered one of the "shrines of college football." Mike the Tiger....The Golden Band from Tigerland....The Students....What fun...where else could you spend Saturday night with 90,000 of your closest friends? (at a place where there was an actual documented earthquake, no less.)

It never rains in Tiger Stadium..........so the saying goes, but it sure can pour everywhere else on the campus. I had the opportunity to go to the Fresno State game last night, and I experienced something I never have on game day (guess I've just been lucky): rain (torrential, almost). The day started out well enough, hanging out with my friend Dedra and her brother, John (who was the benefactor of the extra ticket--thanks!) and walking around watching the tailgaters. Then, it started...drops turned into buckets. Fortunately we were able to take refuge in Alex Box Stadium, and watch the baseball team practice for a while (hey, it's okay to cross sporting team lines on game day when they've won the CWS 5/10 years from 1990-2000). Unfortunately, when it started raining harder, they pulled out the tarp and pulled the fans from the stadium. It cleared for a little while, but came back with a vengenance while we were eating dinner. We walked from near Highland Road to take cover under a campus bus stop. My poncho was useless and we all got drenched. FYI wet courdoury (as in my pants) is HEAVY. It was here I saw something else I've never seen on game day....a grown man sit on the bench and pee off from it. He then proceeded to pull off his jeans and run in his underwear (in the rain) to go pick up his truck for the rest of his friends. Yeah, he was cool.
Once we finally made it into the stadium, it cleared up. (B/C it never rains.) And less than 10 minutes late (even with the lightning---yeah, maybe you should question our sanity) The field looked pretty good, probably due to the new $500,000 drainage system they installed last year. For a non-conference game, it was fun, even though actual attendance was just over 25,000. The alumni band played at halftime with the band, so at one point there were 700 band members on the field. The guys looked pretty good....go #1 ranked defense! I was excited to see Alley Broussard (who, in my humble opinion, is underutilized) actually playing---he was able to channel his anger into a couple of key runs. My only complaint (and coming from the amateur eye) is with specials----what's up with the weird formation for punts.....I swear it looked like it was close to two blocked punt returns. This, I maintain, should not be, boys.




Congrats to Notre Dame for, yet again, lucking up. I'm glad Tennessee won again---good luck to the Vols for next week----if they win again, we'll move up higher in the polls if they're ranked higher when we beat 'em...

Thank you for the birthday present, Dedra--I love it.
And Stacy, thank you so much for the cinemark card....dude, you are so cool. I'd share my tots with you. :)