Okay, so Janet from Life with the Wisners, mentioned in the comments yesterday that she couldn’t picture my sister getting excited about a sporting event and yes, for many years that was true. She was the Texas A&M student who would actually miss a home game to go shopping while the mall wasn’t crowded because EVERYONE else was at the game.
I know…I don’t get it. I mean I love to shop, but this is Aggie football we’re talking about.
In case y’all don’t understand the level to which she was lacking in any kind of sports appreciation, I’ll tell you a little story.
A year after I graduated from A&M, P and I drove to College Station for a football game…and to see my sister. Mimi and Bops were also in town for the game, so pre-game we all went to Deluxe to eat lunch because they have the best cheese fries on the planet and what is better before standing and yelling in the hot sun than eating a plate of greasy, potato goodness? As lunch was winding down, we started talking about walking over to Kyle Field, when my sister announced that she wasn’t going to the game because she needed to study.
Excuse me?
Not going to the game?
If we didn’t look so much alike, I would have requested a DNA test to make sure we were related.
Anyway, we went to the game while she and her friend headed back to her apartment to watch it on T.V. and study. During this particular game, one of our defensive players named Dat Nguyen (pronounced WHEN) made several spectacular plays. We cheered and yelled and celebrated as the Aggies won the game.
When we got back to my sister’s apartment, we were all talking about the game and how exciting it was, when my sister said, “Boy, it sounds like it was really windy!”
Blank stares all around.
We asked what she was talking about since none of us had noticed any wind. She said, “Well, everytime I started watching the game, the announcers kept talking all about THAT WIND!”
Really? That wind?
Or do you think maybe they were talking about our star defensive player, DAT NGUYEN?
I am not making this up.
However, everything changed for my dear sister during her junior year in college when she started dating her future husband, who, to his credit, is a huge sports fan. All of a sudden, she began attending football games, soccer games, basketball and baseball games on a regular basis. Love had transformed her and she learned to at least enjoy the social aspects of sporting events.
Shortly after her inauguration into college sports, the Southwest Conference disbanded and the Aggies became part of a new conference y’all may have heard of called The Big Twelve, which is most commonly seen as The Big XII. My sister and her future husband were watching one of the first football games of the season when she looked at him and asked in all seriousness, “What are all those signs that say BIG times ELEVEN?”
Nevermind that she was majoring in math and should have had an appreciation for the use of Roman numerals.
Needless to say, she has come a long way and I couldn’t be more proud. There is nothing that warms my heart more than when she’ll call in the middle of an A&M game and say, “Did you see that play? Can you believe he caught that ball?”, and the crowning moment was when I called her on Sunday to see if she was interested in going to the Sweet 16, and she knew exactly what I was talking about.
So, in one of the great ironies of all time, she and I will be attending the game together, while her husband stays home and babysits their 20 month old daughter, which just goes to show that what she may lack in sports knowledge, she more than makes up for in negotiating skills.
And in other Sweet 16 news, because I really can’t think about anything else, well, other than the fact that Jordin Sparks on American Idol blew me away last night. She is 17 and so poised and talented. After she sang, I turned to P and said, “Do you know what I would have been like if I had been on national T.V. when I was 17? I’d have stood there waving like an idiot yelling ‘LOOK AT ME Y’ALL, I’M ON NATIONAL T.V.!!!'” which, in truth, may not be that different from my reaction if I find myself on T.V. while at the game on Thursday.
Sorry, I wandered.
Anyway, regarding my attire for the game, I would much rather white out than maroon out. I am going to have a hard time marooning out, due to the fact that all the sporting goods stores here in town are completely covered in burnt orange Longhorn paraphernalia, as if the Longhorns are in the Sweet 16, instead of home crying in their pillows about the whipping put on them by USC. It is a sad day indeed when a great basketball school such as Texas A&M is not properly represented in the athletic apparel market. So, due to the lack of good common sense by local retailers, I will be wearing a nice, white shirt directly from my closet.
And in truth, our tickets are so high up in the Alamodome that I could wear nothing and still not get on camera.