I just got back from my first football weekend at Notre Dame, and I’m stoked to capture it all! But, writer that I am, I took in so many impressions I’ll have to break them up over a few days’ time.
Let’s get the preliminaries out of the way today.
This was a BIG DEAL for me. I imagine lots of people go to college football games every year, but I’m one who hasn’t.
Not that I haven’t wanted to.
It’s just that I live 500 or so miles from my alma mater (Go Rebels!), and that’s a pretty far piece to travel for a three-hour game.
So I watch on TV every Saturday, screaming at the screen, yelling with the fans, and scaring my poor Sheltie senseless!
And even when I was an undergrad, I was in the Band all four years, so I never really had to figure out the logistics of attending a game. Things like: how do you get a ticket, where can you park, what can you bring (or not bring) into the stadium, how do you find your seat.
That sort of thing.
So last year, when My Favorite Domer asked me to come to a Notre Dame game, I panicked and put him off. Couldn’t get tickets, couldn’t get a hotel room.
‘Fraidy-cat. Big time.
This year, he tried again, only he was ready for my excuses. He fired up his laptop and found me a convenient hotel (so it was in the next county, but Indiana isn’t that big!); he even sent me a link to order my tickets online.
How could I refuse?
My sister (who’s been married forever) said I was very brave to try something like this by myself. Several friends, jealous they couldn’t get tickets for the season’s first game under a brand new coach, insisted I take LOTS of pictures so they could experience it vicariously. Even my mom volunteered to go with me and stay in the hotel “so I wouldn’t be alone.”
They thought I was NUTS for wanting to be alone!
But I wasn’t. There were 80,000-plus fans screaming right alongside me!
Tomorrow, I’ll share more sights and sounds from campus.
Musings by an ND Domer's Mom 
Deb, I absolutely love your writing! You make me laugh right out loud. Good for you for going to this game alone. It sounds like a peak experience,maybe the first of many more. Looking forward to your sequels of your campus escapades!
Kathy
Thanks for the reassurance, Kathy! As a basically private person, it’s tough putting myself and my insecurities “out there.” I’m glad to know I have friends who won’t judge me for my foibles!
Yeah, what Kathy said! Plus this: I like football but prefer watching from home. Nothing beats being able to hit the pause button, go get a snack, return to my big comfy chair, etc. Except that when I do go to an actual game (USC or SD Chargers) I always enjoy the weirdly wonderful camaraderie in the stands. High fiving complete strangers, all of us exuberant over our team. I like that.
You hit the nail on the head with the camaraderie, Lynne! With all of us strangers in the stands, packed in like sardines, yelling our heads off, it was “weirdly wonderful” and “exuberant.” And yes, I liked it — lots!