So yesterday was Purdue vs. Iowa game, and the morning of my first Purdue tailgating experience. I’d emailed my mentor since I knew he was a season ticket holder. They didn’t end up tailgating though so he didn’t call me until I was walking in to the stadium. That was a bummer.

I walked over to Lot D from my house. I had my camera with me, so I got a little camera happy along the way, making my walk a good 35 minutes. I made it over to Ben & Rach’s friend’s tailgating location…they have a site. So I was pretty impressed with how hardcore all those people were. The people next to us cooked a damn turkey. 

It was a fun group of people, but I just could not join them in drinking before noon. The thought of alcohol in daylight just makes me ill. That and I’m just not cool enough to drink beer, let alone Hamm’s. The guy in the middle of the pic reminded me so much of Will Ferrell, and the guy on the right reminded me of Quagmire, mainly looks & how he talked. Apparently that second guy runs 50 miles a week. That’s insane! He has 7 pairs of identical gold/black running shoes with “The Whig” written on them. I never cease to encounter interesting people.

Rach & I ran in to Sprinkles from CG, who is in my opinion the most notorious name in CG and he doesn’t even work in the field hehe. He was chipper as usual and strangely pumped about the game. My seat ended up being in section next to him and he spent most the game standing up and turning around to instruct everyone behind him on when to cheer.

This was my capture of the day. If only I’d had a zoom lens, b/c this is majorly cropped. We were 14th row though, so I was able to get some decent shots.

Half-time was pretty cool. They played some good selections, but I think the most amazing thing of the day was the Golden Girl. I’m pretty impressed by baton twirlers as is, but this chick had 3 of those bitches goin’. It was pretty damn cool.

The funniest part of the day was when they introduced the 25th anniversary team from 1980. I was really not caring who these people were until they called the names of 2 men, and I was like, “Holy crap, they are sauce clients!” I’d just met one of them 2 weeks ago. hehe so I immediately texted my mentor who mentioned he was pretty much directly across from me, but he didn’t respond so I had to be amused on my own.

**begin fan rant** The game was pretty exciting except for the 8-year-old chipmunk sitting next to me. I did debate turning around quickly like I’d heard my name, and strategically placing my arm so it would clothesline him. His dad was just as obnoxious, which made it all the more amusing when he told his son that he needed to be a “good fan.” I was like, wow you’re setting a great example. But yeah, during kicks, this kid stood on the bleachers waved his arms and made this horrible high-pitched “ee-oooo-AHHH” bobbling sound. My ears could survive the Indy 500 but this kid’s voice was just too much. I was also annoyed by people who repeatedly stood up & sat down. It’s like when something exciting was happening they felt they could magically see it closer if they’d stand up, when really all of us could have seen it better if they’d kept their asses sat down so we could at least see the screen. 

I enjoy sporting events. I just never survive them peacefully because I get entirely too annoyed by the people around me. Before the lil kid was next to me, his uncle, an Iowa fan, was there and if that guy said “jeez why does your turf suck?” one more time, I was gonna rip him in half.

I like participating in group cheers and yelling encouraging words to the team, but people screaming their coaching instructions and just being obnoxious in general is just unacceptable. I would completely go to more games if all these wanna-be-coaches and child-like-my-team’s-better-than-your’s asses would keep their asses on their couch. **end fan rant**

But I’m still glad I went. I had a good time, even though I was literally shivering by the time we officially lost…bad.