So here’s the thing: I am one of those annoying people who hates to be late. If you combine that quality with my fondness for wearing a clean pair of pajamas every single night, making sure the beds are made before we go out of town, and refusing to cross-pollinate detergent brands, you’ll begin to understand why I’ve started (jokingly) thinking of myself as THE FREAK OF THE INTERNET.
Really, y’all should get me some sort of crown.
And because I always like to be early, last night I suggested to D. that we should probably leave our house between 7 and 7:30 this morning in order to be in Starkville for an 11:00 baseball game.
Starkville, by the way, is about two hours from our house.
But I like a buffer, you see.
D., however, did not share my sense of urgency in regards to our departure time, and as a result we didn’t get on the road until about 8:20. At that point we were so far behind my ideal schedule that I twitched all the way to the Mississippi / Alabama state line.
We only stopped once – for some breakfast about halfway between here and MSU (DRIVE THRU! DRIVE THRU! GOING INSIDE A RESTAURANT WASTES VALUABLE TIME! CHOP CHOP, FAMILY!) – but we didn’t get to campus until about 10:30. I was not at all comfortable with our time frame, because we needed to park the car AND pick up tickets from Will Call AND find somewhere to sit – all within thirty minutes.
In a crowd of over TWELVE THOUSAND PEOPLE.
Alex and I took care of getting the tickets while D. looked for a parking place. Fortunately he found a spot about twenty four miles from the baseball stadium, and it was just a little bit of a dream come true for him when he got to hike all the way back to the ticket gate where Alex and I were waiting in the 139 degree heat.
You know, outdoor spaces would really be so much more enjoyable if they were air conditioned.
D. made it to the stadium surprisingly quickly, and since we hadn’t gotten the chairback seats we initially requested (because there was such a high demand for tickets), we started looking for three seats in the general admission bleachers on the first base side.
Y’all, I am not kidding: those bleachers were so packed that you couldn’t have wedged a butterbean between any two people sitting side by side. There was literally nowhere to sit, and for about ten minutes I thought we had driven two hours so that we could crane our necks to see over the fence, look at the field, talk about how pretty it is, and then turn around and go home.
D. suggested that we try the other end of the stadium, and I was happy to comply because it required that we walk underneath the stadium overhang – which meant we were in the shade. Since it was only 110 in the shade, the trip to the other bleachers was refreshing, really.
Once we got to the third base side, we spotted an empty space on the bleacher steps. It wasn’t ideal, but it was, you know, A PLACE TO SIT, and the people around us were kind enough to let us obstruct their path to the concession stand. We stayed there for about five minutes, and then! It was a baseball miracle!
The woman on the row next to where we were sitting had to leave the game unexpectedly – apparently an elderly family member in another section of the stadium was having an issue with her legs swelling, which really wasn’t a surprise to me because it was, after all, about 263 degrees outside.
And I don’t know what all the lady who was leaving had beside her on the bleachers – her purse, a small cooler, a queen sized mattress, a refrigerator – but by the time she picked up all her belongings and left the area she had commandeered for half of the first inning, there was plenty of room for the three of us.
And we were happy.
We made it to the third inning before Alex started to say things like, “I’m HOT, Mama” and “I want to go back to the car” and “I don’t love baseball.” By this point it was about 322 degrees, and I promise you that MY KNEES WERE SWEATING. I started to look around to see if other people’s knees were also sweating, and I couldn’t help but notice that the woman sitting in front of me – she was about 70, I’m guessing – was in absolute perfect form.
First of all, she had obviously been to the beauty parlor before the game. Second, she had on long pants WITH HER SHIRT TUCKED IN. Third, her make-up still looked flawless; for all intents and purposes she looked like she was sitting on the beach in 72 degree weather. She did not even so much as glisten, and right there in those bleachers I said a prayer to God that I will be just like her when I get older.
Because I would prefer not to be a grandmother WHOSE KNEES SWEAT when she attends public sporting events.
But here’s the best part: somehow, despite the heat and the sweating and the throngs of people, we had a really great day together. Alex and I shared a snowcone while we chatted with other State fans; D. carried Alex on his shoulders while they walked around Left Field Lounge. And after the heat got to be too much, the three of us watched the end of the game while we ate lunch at The Grill – one of my favorite college-day haunts – where Alex experienced the joy of cheering loudly for his team in a restaurant packed with rowdy fans.
Also: WE WON!
Just imagine the additional fun we could’ve had if we had only gotten there at 9:30 – as per my original plan.
Of course, that extra hour in the heat would’ve sent me straight to one of the first aid tents located conveniently behind the grandstand seats.
But it would have been a heat stroke caused by overly-obsessive promptness, and that is an ailment badge that any FREAK OF THE INTERNET can wear with pride.
“You know, outdoor spaces would really be so much more enjoyable if they were air conditioned”
…This is my new favorite quote. We must be kindred spirits, boomama. If we ever meet in real life we will immediately recognize each other in that “Hey, this person loves Jesus AND air conditioning, JUST LIKE ME!”. Kindred spirits I tell ya. ;)
This was a great day! I loved it and had such fun living it through you! ! Thanks for the Left Field Lounge info! I want to go please! I am making your Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake for my family tomorrow night! Go State, Go State!
Love you, BooMama! M.
I’m thinkin’ you need to move to Colorado…such wonderful breezes and no humidity at ALL! None. No sweaty knees!! However, you still can burn, so sunscreen is recommended. Come and see us…I think there are a few Mac users here (hee hee). Sorry, I’m married to an engineer…he doesn’t think Mac’s are very useful. I tell him it is great for design! Right?
So glad your team won! So glad also that you got to share it all with A.
Love ya!
Holly
Okay, so here’s something that’s funny….two weeks ago I wrote that I was sitting here reading BooMama’s latest and my husband said, “BooMama?” Well — it happened again only this time with my 20 year old son. He heard me laughing as I was sitting here at the computer as he was walking into the basement and just said, “BooMama? I read a little bit of her stuff today.” !!!
And speaking of sweating and 129.5% humidity. I used to live in Singapore. (note: 80 miles north of the equator where all the extra moisture in the world settles…) I hated when I would take a shower, then walk to my kids’ school about a 10 minute walk away, and was wet all over again — although, my sister called it “clean sweat” when you get all sweaty after you take a shower, but could never define for me the moment that clean sweat became dirty sweat. Just thought you might want to know that.
my husband is nutty like you about getting to games early. i rarely go with him because i am not the huge fan like you are but when i do i am perplexed and confused at why we have to get there 2 hours before the game even begins. then we get to sit on the bleachers while waiting for the action to start. i get bored quickly. i learned about the second game to bring a magazine or a book which as made me a FREAK OF THE BALLFIELD.
LOL– at the Bama games, we sit behind this elderly lady every week that is just as you described…perfectly coifed, made-up to a “T” and shirt tucked in long pants with a visor looking all cute and spiffy-like. Me on the other hand? surely 35 years younger, I sit with flat, lifeless hair, not a stitch of make-up remaining shirt untucked (cuz I can’t tuck ’em in anyway) and sweat rolling off the back of my knees like a waterpark attraction.
There is no justice.
OH Boomama! You just crack me up! I thought about you today as I was flipping through the channels and saw the State game. Glad y’all won!
Secondly, I am embarassed to admit this, but for all almost 30 years of my life, I thought “intents and purposes” was “intensive purposes.” If nothing else, your day in the 575 degree heat was lived out so that I could have this cleared up!
Your take on the elderly lady was so hilarious b/c it is soooo true! I don’t know how they can stand this humidity and still have perfect hair! Have a great weekend!
Ya sure the seventy year old lady of perfection wasn’t Martha?!?!
Totally with you on the sweaty knees thing. Nothing I hate worse than sweating when you are trying to look cute. It is just wrong!
Love your blog. You crack me up.
Very vivid–I love it!
My husband is like your husband. He is in no hurry to get there “on time” as I would call it. “On time” would be at least 30 minutes early. I like living with a bubble of time surrounding and cushioning me wherever I go. You might call it nutty or freakish, but I consider it part of my charm.
I also couldn’t agree more that it would be much nicer if the outdoors were air conditioned.
…queen size mattress!!! LOL!!! Sista, I feel your PAIN!!! If only the Lord had seen fit to air condition Alambama, Mississippi and Georgia! OH WHAT RELIEF that would be the ones of us that suffer greatly under this heat and humidity. Maybe there’s hope for really old age. I’m telling you, I’ve been known to pour my drinking water over me at sporting events, rather than drinking it.
Oh i know how you feel about being late! I don’t like being late either, it drives me nuts!
It sounds like it was an all out nice day for you all.
First of all, “GO DAWGS!” I’m so proud that y’all were there and that Alex got to cheer in The Grill.
Second – one of our favorite quotes from Loretta Castorini to Johnny Cammareri in “Moonstruck”: “Don’t stand directly under the sun – you got a hat, use your hat.” :)
xo
Warm weather? Oh how I wish we could have been there – we were getting snow up here in southeast Idaho! ) : My family thought it would be fun to throw snowballs at me and I told them it was just not permitted in June! I can do winter snowballs but not summer ones, well unless it is a scorching day – but not in 30 degree weather! I don’t know what we are doing here in this crazy place where it snows in June! ( :
Oh bless your sweaty little knees! I would have melted into a puddle under the bleachers. Sorry it didn’t quite go according to your master plan, but I’m glad they won!
My knees are sweating profusely just reading that.
Anytime we have ever gone anywhere Africa hot (Six Flags in Dallas, Busch Gardens in Williamsburg in August, any Aggie game at Kyle Field before November), I ALWAYS go out and immediately stock up on nuclear war-proof makeup. Then I treat my naturally frizzy red hair with so much straightener, “shine drops”, and de-frizzer that if ANYONE within 10 feet of me lights up a cigarette, I would blow like a human grenade. I then look at myself as we leave the house, impressed with how cute and attractive I can be, and venture off completely competent to humid lands known and unknown.
Then we get the pictures of our day back.
And, as always, I look like some sort of freckle-faced drowned rat with Rosanna Dana Dana hair swimming in a puddle of my own sweat.
But, you know, I tried. REALLY hard. And somehow, like the Pollyanna I am, the next time we venture off into humid lands known and unknown, I naively believe that THIS time I’ll beat the heat and look all fresh like a daisy.
My mother-in-law moved here to Texas from Indiana about 12 years ago. I thought the heat would drive her right back up north, but she LOVES it. She doesn’t even run the air that much because she is more comfortable being warm. Maybe it’s just something that happens when we age…
So glad your team won…since my Longhorns have already been knocked out…sigh. My Spurs, however, are rocking, so I’ll focus my attention there for now!
“You know, outdoor spaces would really be so much more enjoyable if they were air conditioned.”
That is my favorite line of all time! I’m going to have to remember that one!
I share your O.C.D., but certainly not about promptness! I am not one to ever be on time for anything!
I also hate to be hot and I “glisten” like most southern women…and that is not a good thing when you use mineral powder make up…powder mixed with sweat… hmmmm, it makes a nice dough!
I am watching the 2nd MSU game as I type with my five children. I am originally from Mississippi but have lived in Houston Texas for 25 years where all five of my little people were born. BUT something happened to the boys…they were bit by the bulldog bug at a very young age. They all wear state stuff, hats are on in honor of the game on at this moment. THEY LOVE MSU. My 18 year old daughter actually has a size 3 toddler MSU cheerleader uniform hanging in her closet from all those years ago. Your description of your day yesterday had me crying in laughter and my boys laughing out loud literally. Thanks for all of your words. They make me a little homesick. I believe I will be making lots of trips to Starkville, because my soon to be senior will no doubt choose MSU as his college of choice. Fondly, Dawn
I am also one of those early people and because the majority of people I know are not I spend a great deal of time waiting. (I try to always have a book with me.) I visited MSU for a game in college and found the campus quite lovely.
I have tears from laughing so hard at the story AND the comments. You have such a way with words!
I have tears from laughing so hard at the story AND the comments. You have such a way with words! I just love the way the temperature rises so quickly down there!
Ah. The south in springtime (but feels like summertime already!)…gotta love it.
I know that they probably wouldn’t make them in your colors or prints, but you know there are those little fans that mist water out at you, the backpacks that you can fill with water and sip and the ice vest that you can wear. (I swear, these things exist. My friend with MS has them. You think you have issues with the heat . . . ) Maybe we should just send you and the Boo Family in air conditioned clothing. I know that the get-up’s that the fur animals wear at the Big Mouse House have AC. Maybe that’s the way for y’all to go!
Gee. It’s 72º here today and cloudy. Yesterday was scorching 80º…
(Glad you had fun. My knees sweat too.)
Now see, in the great state of Oklahoma, ahem, it was a gorgeous fall day yesterday. We woke up to 58, and I had to wear a jacket during my whole 3 mile am walk. Then it was breezy and not more than 75 the rest of the live long day. And I loved it. Somehow I’m thinking I may not actually miss the heat of a Texas summer!
How very funny – as in I can relate to the sweaty knees, burning scalp, hair that does not do well in heat, humidy, rain, sun, well… any time other than the few minutes of preparing it each morning.
I have always envied the non-sweating people out there. I live in Colorado where there is supposed to be no humidity (and compared to other places we do not)but I still sweat, every day, all temps and it IS NOT FAIR!
Thanks for sharing your day so vividly. My husband would gladly accompany you to a game, two hours early and enjoy it! I don’t like being late, but really, it does take time to get 5 kids (oops, my oldest just got married and I don’t have to get her ready any more!) and myself ready for such an adventure. ;)
So when you get elderly do your sweat glands dry up or something? A wig could have explained her perfect hair. You never know!
I thought I was the only one who had sweaty knees…especially when we take the girls to Six Flags where it is hotter than anywhere on earth. Only guess what- this year, I conned (‘scuse me, I mean asked) my friend Lynne over at And Babies Make Six to use my free ticket and take the girls with their free tickets (can’t let free tickets go to waste, now, can we??)…so I get to say home in nice cool air conditioning with four children aged 3 and under, and she gets to go wait in the ungodly long lines in the 439 degree heat with 146% humidity and I get the better end of the deal!
Only at Dudy Noble can you sit thru that and still say it was fun. And actually, I think I have sat by that lady before…
Given that I live in the currently 53 degree and soggy Pacific NW, where summer doesn’t officially arrive till July 5th, and I STILL have air conditioning…I think I would’ve watched on TV. The knee sweat thing…I just can’t do it. I can’t. There’s an adverb which describes people like me, who can’t stand to have either knees or face (make-up) dripping in the heat: well, it rhymes with richy.
Watching the game from my bedroom in the A/C was wonderful. No Southern woman should have to be in the 322 degree heat. I didn’t even miss the crowd. And watching Ole Miss get beat in the A/C was even more fun!! Love your blog-one of my favorites!
This week we had a wedding to attend. When I “discussed” with Don what time he needed to be home, so we could leave on time, to be at the church ONE MILE AWAY he told me he felt I was threatening him. At which comment I remained silent to let him know I was in the nicest sort of way possible. I’m just not comfortable without planning in time to get lost three times, change a tire, and wait for a funeral procession to make it’s way through, even when it’s a mile away. We were on time, but got lost going to the reception and barely made it in time for the wedding party to walk through. Such fun riding around downtown Pittsburgh, stopping at fire stations and pulling over to talk to homeless people for directions….
OMG! I was actually getting TENSE reading about your LATE start! I hate, hate, hate arriving at the last minute and, God forbid, actually being late. A half and hour early is late to me. I go to AHL hockey games that start at 7:05 and if I’m not out of my house by 6 for the 10 minute drive, crankiness sets it. It’s a sickness, really.
LOLOLOL! Thanks for putting the Wikepedia link for Left Field Lounge! That is so cool – I forwarded it to my kids. I didnt know this until this year – you may know- every spring they have a parade in Starkville now called “Dudy Gras” (i.e. mardi gras) where all the old vehicles which have a reserved spot in the revered left field lounge parade on campus and park for the season. I just happened to be over there moving my daughter in or out of a dorm (9 times so far – we’re getting an apartment this fall).
This was, I promise, the first “blog” I have ever read and I did laugh out loud. I’ve told people it was a gazillion degrees. We said a thank you prayer for every passing cloud. I’m so sorry you missed the post game celebration, but I do understand the draw of the Grill/AC. On to Omaha!