Rain or Shine... It's Saturday in Athens!

Who's got two thumbs and insisted on going to the UGA game in spite of the downpour and flash-flood conditions across the state of Georgia yesterday?

This guy.

Yes, fellow Georgia fans who watched the game last night, we were two of the crazy kids in attendance in the monsoon.  John Mroczko gave us two tickets to the Georgia vs. Arizona State game, and we were very excited to go to Athens for a Saturday night game!  Of course, little did we know that we'd be attending the game in absolute downpour conditions.  Many people around Athens said we were crazy and tried to dissuade us, but we were going anyway, come hell or high water... and there was high water!

Saunders was  - of course - not going to not go to the game, no question.  But, I wanted to go also.  Sometimes, doing something crazy like that is kind of fun!  I do think Saunders was surprised at my good spirits - and before you ask - no, I didn't have a single alcoholic beverage the entire day.  I was just happy to be there!  Plus, it was exciting to do something absolutely insane like that together.  Walking through the hardest-raining storm either of us has ever been in was actually fun.  We just embraced the fact that we were going to  be totally, utterly soaked and enjoyed it.  At first we said, "Aren't you glad we didn't bring Katie Anne out in this?" (She spent the night with my parents.)  But then, we instantly both said that she would've LOVED the walk to the stadium and jumping the giant puddles.  I did get a little cold (aka shivered like a maniac) during the second half of the game because I was soaking wet and, after it stopped raining, it got cool fast. (My under-poncho raincoat idea wasn't smart... I think I actually got wetter because my inner hood stuck out farther than my outer hood, and water ran down around the sides of my hood inside my poncho and soaked my coat.)  However, I did not complain and just enjoyed the game!  Well, as much as you can enjoy an absolutely stressful, second-half nail biter, I did.  ;)  Let's just say I covered my eyes for almost the entire last drive.

Here are some more pictures of our fun, wet day!  And, be forewarned... the new haircut struggled a little in the rain, but what haircut wouldn't?

We started our day in Athens at about 2:30 with lunch at DePalma's.  Saunders tried something new - Fettucine Deparma.  Yum!

I skipped my classic Penne Charmaine in favor of the house speciality, Pasta DePalma- delicious!

*And, I know I look like a total speed freak here.  We took three pictures of me, and I looked the same in all of them, even when I was trying to look calm.  I didn't drink any alcohol, but I did chug a GIANT Red Bull on the walk from the car to DePalma's because I was already feeling tired ... maybe that explains the wild eyeballs!?!

After lunch, we walked to the bookstore to buy ponchos.  All the Athens stores we stopped at (Kroger and Target, and we heard Walmart was also) were totally sold out!  Thank goodness we didn't buy the highly overpriced ones we saw, because the bookstore had tons for only $3.95 each.

After the bookstore, we walked to the Carlton St. Parking Deck to meet Carlton and Trisha.  They were tailgating with some of their college friends.  It was fun getting to visit with them!  Carlton and Saunders got to talk football, while Trisha and I got to talk knitting, Christmas, blogging for money, the benefits vs. drawbacks of hair color, and dieting... just classic girl talk!  Someone had also brought some absolutely fabulous Texas sheet cake.  I'd never had that kind of cake before (almost more of a bar... you can eat it without a fork), but it was heavenly!

 

While we were visiting with them, the bottom absolutely dropped out of the clouds and it POURED rain.  The majority of people at the tail gate were not going to the game because it was raining crazy hard.  I tried to take a picture of it, and I think you can see the rain fairly clearly if you click on the picture to blow it up.

Carlton and Trisha (who didn't have tickets and drove back to C'ville by the way... nice and dry!) and their friends thought we were crazy, but we bundled up and started walking towards the stadium!  The roads were like rivers, and we were drenched in just a matter of minutes, but we still had fun laughing about it and talking about our classes in the different buildings as we walked by them.

When we got to the stadium, everyone was standing in the underhang "hallway" areas (don't know what else to call it), waiting until the last possible minute before going to their seat.

Then, it was time for the pregame stuff, and the fans poured in to cheer on the players during warm ups.  I was surprised at how crowded the stadium quickly became!  For the first half, the rain was pretty intense...

Here, I'm completely inside my poncho because it was just pelting me!

Just before halftime, the rain slacked off.  It would rain hard for a few minutes throughout the rest of the game, but the weather got much better for the rest of the game.  Unfortunately, I think the offense played better in the downpour!  However, the defense played a totally stand-up second half (especially after the turnover... that blocked kick was so exciting)!

My teeth are blue from my cotton candy... and my hair looks like Willy Wonka!

Finally, it came down to the final seconds, but Georgia pulled out a win!  This was a scene we weren't sure we'd see!

We headed back downtown, changed clothes in the car, and headed back home.  We got here about 2:30 am last night and slept in late this morning.

What a wet, wild, crazy day!

**As some faithful blog readers have noticed, we're not going to every UGA home game this year as we have in year's past.  This year, we sold the Jones block of season tickets to a friend of Doc's.  The tickets are still in the "Saunders Jones" name, but we just sold the whole lot this year.  Many people who know how much we love to go have asked us why.  Well, they're not cheap - around $4000 a season - and when it came time to put up the big cash in February, Carlton and Trisha understandably weren't sure they wanted to split them because they weren't sure whether they'd even be living in Georgia at football time.  We put out some feelers among our friends and family, and people were willing to buy individual games, but it was getting too confusing and still pretty expensive for us when you consider that part of the cost is the "donation" and part is the actual ticket price.  Also, Saunders's parents had sold the condo that he and Carlton lived in during college, so we'd have to factor in hotel rooms this year, too.  Since it was looking like a "rebuilding year" anyway, we sold the tickets and bought this instead.  We do miss going to the games, but it looks like a good year to skip the tickets since so far there's been a lot of nail biters.  Next year, we plan on buying the tickets again, but we'll make the final decision this winter when it comes time to make the donation.  So, if you're wondering why we haven't asked you to attend a UGA game with us this year, now you know!  :)