Rammer Jammer

I can finally cross something off my bucket list because I have now "seen the light"of the magnificence of Alabama football.

I strategically picked my first friend in nursing school for her access through her boyfriend to Alabama season tickets (she was really the girl I sat two seats away from the very first day, and after I bravely stroke up a conversation with her, I asked her if she wanted to sit right next to me...the rest is history). This is her below. Nursing school would be AWFUL without her.

My friend Katie texted me on Wednesday afternoon that I needed to immediately leave the gym and come back to the nursing school building because she had a surprise for me. At the same time, her boyfriend Zach (who is in law school at U of A) called Matthew to tell him that if we wanted we could come down to the game with them on Saturday. Hallelujah! Needless to say, Matthew and I talked of little else from Wednesday night to Saturday morning, and disappointed our BFF (best friend forever) Geoff by going to buy Alabama t-shirts to wear to the game (Geoff is an Auburn fan).

Who doesn't love free tickets to college football games? Who doesn't love free tickets to one of the most storied programs in the history of college football? Who wants to choke the athletic director of the University of Kentucky in 1953 for letting Paul "Bear" Bryant slip away? Answer: Andrea and Matthew and about a handful of other people who actually care about UK football.

Anyway... we got up Saturday morning to get some things done around the 'Ham before we left for Tuscaloosa around noon. It's only about a 45-50 minute drive so Matthew and I passed the time in our usual fashion on road trips by playing Famous People 20 Questions. The game was at 6, so we hung out at Zach's place for a couple of hours before heading the stadium.

Now.. I have tailgated at football games before, even at a UK football game. Nothing compares to the madness we experienced. There were RV's everywhere, with 50 inch flat screens on the outside, massive generators, more people than I knew fit into that stadium, enough food to feed an army, and if I never see another houndstooth article of clothing it will be too soon... it was like the Grove at Ole Miss on steroids. Or quite possibly it's about the same but I haven't been to Ole Miss since my freshman year of college... in 2004.

Zach is the one with the white hat..not looking at the camera. His roommate Scott in the blue shirt and their friend KT in the Bama shirt in the middle.

The game wasn't all that great, but neither of us cared. Alabama looked awful in the 1st half. We were just happy to be there. It completely fulfilled all of my wildest dreams of what I thought it would be. It's like a tractor beam, pulling you in to experience all of it's glory. So, when the Iron Bowl comes around... I may have to lie to Geoff when he asks me who I'm cheering for... Bama or Auburn?