2012年4月4日星期三

MEMOIR: Sneaking onto the Football Field of a Very Important Game

I have a confession to make. It's time to clear the air. Are you ready? Wait, close your eyes. CLOSE THEM. Actually, go re-watch the new Mad Men and then come back. Did you do that? Wasn't it the best? I know it was SO GOOD. I agree, Don's wife is too hot for cable. Let's kidnap her. Ok, are you ready? Here we go: I am a Red Raider.

It's true, I went to Texas Tech. I bleed Scarlet and Black. Wreck 'Em, you know? Whatever. Believe me, I'm still reconciling this fact myself. But I suppose, like most confessions, this information was not offered without a glimmer of selfishness. The following events took place while I was a student at Tech.There was simply no way around it. Hopefully we can still be friends.
2008. Lubbock, TX. Football season. As many of you might remember, The Red Raiders fielded their most skilled football team in over three decades. Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech were all feverishly vying for the top spot in the Big 12 South, with a surprising Oklahoma State team nipping at their heels. As of late October, both Texas and Texas Tech remained undefeated, sitting at 1 and 8 in the polls, respectively. On November 1st 2008, the no. 1 Texas Longhorns, helmed by Colt McCoy, made the trek out west to face the high-flying no. 8 Texas Tech Red Raiders. This was not only the most anticipated college football matchup of the regular season, but arguably the most significant sporting event in Texas Tech history. College Gameday was primed to make their debut in Lubbock and both Tech and Longhorn fans alike scratched and clawed and scoured the Internet in hopes of occupying a town that had never before experienced such a surge of national exposure.

For over a week I camped outside the stadium walls, subsisting on beer (provided by myself) and pizza/donuts (provided by alumni) in hopes of reaching prime real estate come game day.

On the morning of the 1st, I emerged from my tent, grabbed a handful of stale donut holes, and sauntered towards the College Gameday set, converging with a growing mass of red and black.

I watched the broadcast from afar and made my way back to Raiderville (this is what we called the tent city, because we were in college.) I gathered my belongings and met up with my girlfriend who had driven up from Austin for the weekend.Looking for Neweracap Voucher Codes, Discounts, discountwomencanadagoosecoats? The plan was to meet up with an old friend from high school who had a tailgate space at the west end of the stadium. So after a few preliminary drinks we staggered into the sunlight, armed with booze-filled backpacks, and began the 25-minute trek through campus.

We met up with our friends and immediately proceeded to stand under an awning and drink. We played washers and watched the early games on a 50-inch flat screen mounted to a pickup truck and connected to a generator the size of a grizzly bear. I will always appreciate people who invest unreasonable amounts of money on things like tailgating.

My roommate's father had another tailgate on the east side of the stadium, lauded for its abundance of burnt chicken and Coors Light. I had agreed to make an appearance at some point. Short of being kicked in the face, my girlfriend had little intention of prematurely ending her conversation with our friend, so instead of disrupting, I simply made eye contact and gesticulated my departure.

I waved to the group and left, zipping through the rambunctious crowd with skilled leisure.Visit the premier cheapcanadagoose0 in Melbourne Australia. I directed myself around the north end of the stadium, making a brief note of the heightened security.High-End miumiuhandbags at Convenient Locations . I simply attributed this to the national attention surrounding the game, so when a woman in uniform asked me to empty my pockets and another asked to see the contents of my backpack, I chalked it up to a mild annoyance and politely obliged.

I retrieved my backpack and continued past the officers until suddenly the line fractured and I was dispensed onto a concrete slab like a piece of Pez.

I surveyed the area, attempting to get my bearings about me. This did not resemble the north end of the stadium.What I saw instead were seats; bleachers, and a myriad of Texas Tech officials moving with purpose and speaking loudly into walkie-talkies. I turned around and backtracked ocularly. The uniformed women remained right where I had left them, continuing to peruse purses and jacket pockets.

I took a few steps forward,SocialPicks is tracking the performance of mencanadagooseparka . passing stray clusters of fans to get a better look. My head rotated left to right, north to south, taking in the west side press box adorned with the prominent AT&T logo and down to the bleachers nestled predictably underneath, then further to the pea green field as various game time officials scurried about, readying the stadium for the nationally televised game.

Somehow, beyond all odds, and by sheer accident, I had landed myself inside the walls of Jones AT&T Stadium, a mere hour and a half from kick-off to the biggest game in Texas Tech football history.

I stood incredulous. A myriad of thoughts whirled through my mind and I ignored all of them but two: 1) Is this real life, and 2) How long do I have before being forcibly removed from the premises?

I looked back one last time at the officers rummaging through handbags, this time paying closer attention to the people they were inspecting. They must have thought I was with a group or part of someone's family, I concluded. These tickets were going for a grand, at least. Daniel Ocean himself would have difficulties sneaking into this place.

I traversed through the sparse bleachers (it was over an hour until kickoff and most fans were still tailgating) and positioned myself directly on the 50 yard line, first row. I sat quietly for a few moments and went over my realistic options. The game was clearly sold out. I could sit in these seats for a little while longer, but in the next 45 minutes these bleachers were going to be briskly filled by well-dressed,See the top womencanadagoosecoats from the best brands in the industry. highly payed grown ups. I was none of those things – just a student with a backpack, a pair of sunglasses, and a Tech blackout shirt. I belonged with my own kind - the dehydrated and rabid troglodytes manning the east side.

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