Me at an Aggie Game

This is me at my second Aggie game ever.
I'm even wearing maroon under that pancho, can you tell?
This is hard to believe, considering how my husband loves Aggie football (or hates it, depending on the moment), I'm a Baylor Bear, and the fact that we live in Aggieland.
Most of the time, he watches the games at home.
Alone.
He doesn't like to watch them in groups.
He watches them standing up...the whole time...pacing.
Now that we have kids, he TIVOs them, and watches them without interruption.
He doesn't watch too many sports on TV, but Aggie football is important to him- so it's important to me.
Because we had been living far away in Amarillo, it had been years since he had attended a game when we moved back here. For his birthday that year, I gave him tickets to a game. We went together. Considering my first game experience, it is most surprising that there was a second.
We had just moved here, and I hadn't fully appreciated what the Aggie cult was about.
Now, keep in mind, I love living in Aggieland, and love Aggies!!!! (i.e. my husband!) So I feel one must embrace this world, to a degree, Aggie or not. I went to Baylor and loved every minute of it, but I will probably never again attend a Baylor game, and that's totally okay with me. It's not even on my radar screen.
So we went to this first game in 2003, in the afternoon, in the blazing sun. The sun was directly in our eyes the whole game, and we STOOD the whole time. I was wedged in on every side by tall, sweaty guys. (One of them was Rusty, which was okay, but the rest of them, I was not excited about sharing skin-to-skin contact with.) I could only see about a third of the field, and I don't know that much about football anyway.
There was sweating. Then singing. And SWAYING. It seemed to be constant, sweating, singing, and swaying.
Now I love you Aggie people, and have great respect for your tradition, but I draw the line at singing and swaying, yelling hell, and "sawing horns off." This is where I have a seat. I have some real thoughts about the fact that your school song is almost entirely about UT... I mean just love yourselves! Why is there so much focus on them? Is there school song about you? Isn't that kind of sad? But I know no one is interested in my thoughts on that, so I'll move on.
I think whooping is fun...except at my wedding...and I asked Rusty if someone brought one of those air horns to church and just blew that little tune, would everyone whoop out of reflex? He said adamently yes. It's a little strange, but a well-placed whoop can be fun. (Not for me, of course, but for others.)
At this first sweaty game, what followed the sweating, singing, and swaying was dehydration. I went out to buy $4 water! How wrong is that!!! It's like in NY, where the umbrellas sold on the street go up $2 when it's raining! On my way out to buy water, I watched a boy puke into a trash can. I'm thinking- THIS IS NOT FUN!
I was glad Rusty could attend a game. But I was sure he would be attending the rest of them without me. That was 3 years ago. He has attended a few freebie ticket games since then with guys, and had a good time.
Last weekend, Jodi and her fiance Andrew, who have season tickets, offered us tickets to go to the game with them. I was excited for Rusty! And I love hanging out with Jodi and Andrew, obviously! I know Aggie tickets are like gold, so I felt honored.
My weather savvy husband was up on the weather report, so we packed our backpacks like we were going camping for a week. We were fully prepared, with water bottles, rain panchos, towels, trail mix, and granola bars. (No lie!) This came in handy for the two hour rain delay. But this was a much better experience, barring the 2 hour delay...and the rain. It went fast in great company.
I love watching my husband revel in his Aggiehood.
Jodi and Andrew have amazing seats. And we had fun! (Thanks again Jodi and Andrew!)
But still- the singing and swaying! All the time! And that song gets so stuck in your head!
I enjoyed the Aggie Band. That really was impressive!
I have to say, coming from Baylor, some things are really different. (Like we don't often win games.) But our school mascot is so much cooler. We get to watch the bear drink Dr. Pepper at games.
You've got a dog who barks- a lot! A dog. We all have dogs at home.
If she were really like Lassie and saved children stuck in wells or something, that would be cool. But from what I hear, her only trick is biting people.
This poor dog lives such a strange life! I think she's wondering about the singing and the swaying too!
And the strangest Aggie thing I've heard so far is that you have former Revellies (sp? sorry) buried under the outisde scoreboard, so that they can always "look up at the score"! Come on! That's creepy, and weird! Give these poor dogs a break! And everybody knows all dogs go to heaven, so they are free from their duties as Super Aggie Dog. In heaven, they're free to just lick themselves and sleep all day, like other dogs.
All in all, we had a great time, and truly, I know I'm skating on thin ice with some of you Ags.
But I love you Aggies. I would be pleased for my kids to go to school here. You can't live here without just rolling with it.
Beside my husband, I have deeply loved so many Aggie girls since moving here! Starting with Camile, Arlene, Morgan, Sarah, Lisa, Jodi- and so many more! I adore you!
It's all a little strange, but I love you Aggieland.