Homer's Travels: Birthday vs. Football Curse

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Birthday vs. Football Curse

Saturday, the wife's birthday, we attended the Notre Dame - UCLA game. I was concerned that my football curse would ruin the day. Turns out the birthday trumps the football curse.

We had a slow drive to the Rose Bowl. Traffic was terrible with many of the freeway exits near the stadium closed. When we finally reached the parking lot, taking 3 1/2 hours instead of 1 1/2 to get there, we were about ten light years from the stadium. The walk to the stadium went past miles of tailgaters including one person selling "Notre Lame" t-shirts. By the end of the evening he should have been selling UCLAme shirts - HA!

We finally arrived at the stadium and looked for our seats. We had no idea where they would be. It turns out our seats were three rows from the field, right behind the goal post. We were 10 feet from the field - How awesome is that?!? The wife had donated two of our four tickets to Santa Clara art department and the tickets were sold by silent auction. The winners turned out to be really cool people. She was a UCLA grad and he was wearing an Irish sweatshirt. They turned out to be good company.

During halftime we noticed that there was one solitary male flag twirler. I wonder what kind of guy yearns to be a flag twirler? After the UCLA band played, a couple pee-wee football teams came on the field to do a play or two - cool for them.

The game was totally awesome. The wife has never been so happy. One of the best games she has seen in a long time. The luck just never ran out. All points of the game, both UCLA and Notre Dame, were scored at our end. The wife pulled out her rosary and shook it in the air each time the Irish scored. To top the evening off, USC lost to Stanford. When they finally announce those scores the entire stadium cheered.

When it became obvious that Notre Dame was going to win, the wife decided she was going to run on the field. She enlisted some other fans to block for her. She started to talk to one of the guards who turned out to be an very polite ex-marine with a smile on his face who gave her no slack. Not even her birthday would make him budge. As the clock counted down, the number of security people at our end of the field doubled then tripled. Then came the line of cops followed by the cop with the video camera ready to video all the unruly Notre Dame fans. What a joke. Anyway, the wife didn't get to run out on the field. The Irish players did come over to our end and celebrated with the fans. The wife did manage to high-five a couple linebackers.

I am not a football fan but even I had a good time. What a way to celebrate the wife's birthday. We had a great time - Notre Dame won their first game this season and USC lost. Only time will tell if the football curse is finally over.

I took quite a few pictures. The best are here.

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