Til Gabriel Blows His Horn

A few minutes after I posted the blog about the National Championship, we were able to secure some tickets. We had heard about a ticket broker from a law school friend (Barry's Tickets--we highly recommend it) and when Aaron checked it out on Wednesday night, we were able to get tickets without paying a service fee and for only $50 more than face value. Since it was so close to the game, Aaron drove to Calabasas before they closed for the night and by about 7:30pm, we had tickets in our sweaty, excited little hands! I think that we both slept better knowing that we were definitely going to the game. It made all the pre-game stuff so much more fun too since we weren't stressed out looking for tickets.

We left the house at about 9:30am. We made a stop at Ralph's to get some snacks for the day, got cash from the ATM, and got gas for the truck. I asked if we could take Aaron's truck to Pasadena since he has a Longhorns sticker on it:) Aaron had looked up an alternate way into the Rose Bowl and it was well worth the extra miles we drove to go north of the stadium and come down. We had little traffic and had no trouble parking in the designated area (a golf course, actually!) We were probably parked by about 10:45 and people were already out tailgating. One of the first things we did was buy lanyard/ticket holders because the tickets for the game were so big! They were laminated but we didn't want to take a chance on them getting bent, or WAY worse, LOST. So, we bought some lanyards that also had a pin that said "BCS Championship 2010 Pasadena-I was there"--pretty cool! We also bought some programs so we could bring them back to the truck and not have to carry them all day. The weather was so beautiful and so we just walked around a bunch. We were parked pretty close to the area roped off for the official Texas Exes tailgate which looked (and smelled) pretty good.

The area right outside the tailgate and going towards the stadium had a ton of booths with souvenirs and food. We hung out in this little spot we found and enjoyed a space in the shade and lots and lots of people watching. I was thoroughly enjoying the massive amounts of twang I was hearing, haha. I also couldn't help but notice just how dressed up some of the girls were from Alabama...heels and minidresses for a football game! Anyway, we decided to walk around the stadium because some people had mentioned an ESPN tent area. It was all pretty surreal to be there with all those people. Sooo much fun!

It started to get pretty hot when we ended up on the other end of the Rose Bowl.

We noticed that they had a whole bunch of areas roped off near the entrance so people were saying that the players were coming in. It was almost a little too early for that but we couldn't really go anywhere else so we just waited in the sun.

Turns out, all we saw come in was Bevo in his trailer...which is okay too, haha. The downside of these big games is that your phone service is pretty unreliable, if not non existent. We tried to get in touch with all of our friends that were at the game but we couldn't even send or receive any texts and so after awhile, we just decided to head into the stadium. It was cool to get in there about 2 hours before the game started because we were able to walk all the way around it and take pictures before it got crazy.



We were a little bit nervous about how high up our seats would be when we had them and looked them up on the map of the stadium. However, even though we were in the second to last row, it sure didn't feel like we were that far at all. As a bonus, we had actual seats...with backs, and arms, and a designated and guaranteed amount of space to occupy.

As it got closer to game time, we weren't in the sun much longer and it filled up quite a bit, as you can imagine.

Of course there were a cast of characters around us but it was a fun group. People always get a star in my book when they happily agree to take a picture for you. This is probably one of my favorite pictures from the day:

One of said characters who was sitting behind us and was, also, pretty drunk decided that we needed to take another picture with "our horns up like we meant it". Voila, this is us trying to appease her.

My last picture from the game was taken probably at the beginning of the 4th quarter.

As you all probably know by now, it was a rough night. There were high highs and low lows, but isn't that what it is all about? I wrote on facebook as the caption for this picture that I'm sad for the Horns and Colt and ME that I let Aaron get me so emotionally committed to this game and this college football culture. It's like it's designed to make you so deliriously happy, but there's always that chance of heartbreak--and you don't control any of it! We are anxiously awaiting the fall and another great season of games because of what makes college football so special: the fact that these are college kids who, most of them at least, will probably never see the NFL and that's okay with them. It's about heart, the game, and never forgetting what really matters (go to 0:40).


Happy Friday everyone!

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." Psalm 1:1-3