Thursday, December 17, 2009

Tailgating is an Art Form


My cousins' grandfather (unfortunately on the other side of their family) is a New York Giant season ticket holder. That means these girls get to go to a bunch of games a season...lucky bitches. The great thing about cousins is that when an extra ticket comes along they help you out.

Truth be told I didn't even like football until I got to college. After my father moved out my mother swore off the sport and since I was hardly around men I never formed an appreciation for it.

Then I went to Penn State.

It's pretty much impossible to go to Penn State and not develop an appreciation for the greatest sport ever. After about a month I found myself glued to my television all day on the weekends. My weekend schedule was set in stone for the next 4 years of my life.

Friday Night: Beer Pong/discuss upcoming oponents

Saturday: College game day Penn State vs. whatever-hated-team-was-scheduled.
Saturday Night: Celebrate/Mourn Loss/Discuss upcoming oponents

Sunday: NFL game day: Giants vs. whatever-hated-team-was-scheduled

Despite the fact that most of my college friends were Eagles fans I decided to stick with the Giants. They were my father's team and I always held a soft spot for them in my heart.

My love for the Giants only grew when I spotted some pictures of Eli Manning...yum.

Anywho...ever since my freshman year of college I've wanted to go to a Giants/Eagles game. I felt it was my destiny. You can't imagine the excitement when the best cousin ever told me she got tickets. Family is truly a treasure.

Sunday afternoon was absolutely amazing. It was cold and it poured all day long but we couldn't be stopped. The tents went up, the tarps were hung, the grill was lit, and 3 packed coolers were rolled out into the mud. It was like college all over again. My cousin is a tailgating professional. She packs her car with everything one could possible want or need at a tailgate. She deserves a damn merit badge. We started out with 5 people and I think our highest count reached 20 at one point. Just laughing, eating, and beer pong.

It was just then that I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, this is absolutely amazing. Nothing could ruin this day."

Then the game happened...some of us cried.

6 comments:

Boozy Tooth said...

The best part about the NY Giants? You took Tom Coughlin off our hands. Yep. He came to you straight from sunny Jacksonville. What a sourpuss. To his credit, he did win the Super Bowl. Wish he's done that in Jacksonville. Speaking of the Jags... We gave our Thursday night tickets to my daughter and her boyfriend. We will be hosting the Indianapolis Colts... another Manning team. We expect to get shredded. They're still undefeated this season, right? Who wants to be up until 1 am for that.

Let me know if you ever want Jags tickets. Hard to even give those away these days... Sad.

Mike said...

Yea, that game sucked! The Giants gave it away!

My brother has Jets(I Know!) season tickets and they cook in the parking lot. I think that it would be stressful to me! lol.

Pesto Sauce said...

I can imagine the craze...some sports are a religion or even more

Brian Miller said...

nice. spent a weekend in college at penn state and went to a game...much fun. tailgating is almost more fun than the games sometimes...

Slamdunk said...

I was cheering for the Giants as well so I can feel some of your pain. I didn't have the great time that you describe before the game though--nothing then to fall back on.

Joanie said...

It's been nearly a week since the game. Is it safe for an Eagles fan to stop by?

I sent Dani (who goes to IUP) a care package. Some of what I sent were Tastycakes. She was very happy to get them, mostly because they had Eagles logos on them. Everything at IUP is Steelers/Penguin/Pirate. And there isn't a Wawa for 100 miles. Sheetz just isn't the same.