This season, I was blessed with the opportunity to get season tickets to both BYU and Utah. As a graduate of Brigham Young University, one would ask why I would get season tickets to the Utes, our fiercest rival. The simple answer is this: it was the only way to guarantee a ticket to the BYU vs. Utah game on November 22.
This season, I will be making real and personal blog posts for the first time in this blog, not just random commentary on local and national stories. It's a new style of writing, and I hope to keep it stimulating enough that you won't click back over to your Facebook account to see if something changed in the last 30 seconds.
Week 1: August 30, 2008
Northern Iowa vs. BYU: Why is BYU playing a Div. II school when Utah State is already on the schedule? It's because WAC ninny Nevada backed out of BYU at the last second, and we had to find someone to fill in the Labor Day home game.
Why would BYU schedule a game on home on Labor Day weekend? It's the last official weekend of summer and CLASSES HAVEN'T STARTED YET? Well, if you look at BYU's dismal non-conference road record, you can see why it's so important to open the season at home.
I woke up around ten (noon is the typical wake up time on a Saturday, unless odd morning commitments are scheduled). Today, my parents happened to be in town from the state of Washington, and we were planning to help my sister (who lives in Pleasant Grove) paint my niece's bedroom.
By the time I got to Utah County, the room had already been painted, so I headed over to Jon's (editor-in-chief of averagejoesports.blogspot.com) house to a pre-game meal. We watched some of the Utah at Michigan game (the Utes won at the "Big House" which was the news of the day), then drove down to Cougar stadium.
Traffic was about as bad as it gets in Utah County (this happens six times a year, all BYU home games). Finally, we parked in a decent spot, thanks to Jon's parents' extra parking pass, and hiked up to the stadium. See attached photo of typical BYU alumni tool posing in from of Lavell Edwards stadium.
It was a 4 p.m. kickoff, which was awesome because it was scorching during the first half. The heat was beating down on 64,000 fans wearing blue as if to say: DON'T SCHEDULE GAMES UNTIL AFTER CLASSES START!
Prince (my BYU student friend who hooked me up with the season tickets) missed the game BECAUSE SCHOOL HADN'T STARTED YET, so I gave the ticket to an out-of-town high school friend who needed one extra ticket (This friend happens to be a girl from WA who my parents want me to marry, and I would be totally cool with that). I met her at the gate and gave her the ticket. She said thanks and headed up to sit with her family.
I found that kind of awkward, so I headed up to my seat up at the very, very top. My nose started to bleed (that's a joke), so I got bored and went and squished with Jon and his brothers for the first half. See photo from Jon's seat as teams line up to kick PAT. It was super, duper hot in the stands, but BYU took a convincing lead against an inferior opponent. The guy sitting next to us was really nice, but kind of annoying because he was trying to brainwash his 4-year old boy into becoming a fan of his alumni (like any good father would do). But he was nice enough to not get mad about how squished we all were since I didn't belong there.
In the second quarter, I got an invite from my arranged marriage friend to sit with her and her nieces. I went up there at halftime, and enjoyed the game from the highest seat in the south endzone. By 6 p.m. the stadium had cooled down and I downed two beverages to quench the sweating of the first half.
BYU played dismally in the 3rd quarter and allowed Northern Iowa (how big is Iowa?) to come within ten points. By the 4th quarter, order was restored as BYU won 41-17. To be honest, I didn't pay too much attention to the game as I was trying to catch up with this friend whom my parents wanted me to marry.
We chatted about what's happened the past 10 years of our lives. She speaks fluent Chinese and has been to Asia at least once a year during the past decade. She had a Chinese friend named Thomas with her (kind of an odd name for a guy who speaks no English, but I guess that is better than me trying to pronounce his name in Mandarin).
After the game, we said goodbye as she headed back to her sister's house in south Provo, and I gave my roommate a ride back up to Salt Lake. All in all, it was so nice to feel football in the air. In fact on Labor Day Monday, it rained all day long as summer officially ended and football season is finally here!
Later in the week: Average Joe sneaks into hated territory at Rice-Eccles stadium!
This season, I will be making real and personal blog posts for the first time in this blog, not just random commentary on local and national stories. It's a new style of writing, and I hope to keep it stimulating enough that you won't click back over to your Facebook account to see if something changed in the last 30 seconds.
Week 1: August 30, 2008
Northern Iowa vs. BYU: Why is BYU playing a Div. II school when Utah State is already on the schedule? It's because WAC ninny Nevada backed out of BYU at the last second, and we had to find someone to fill in the Labor Day home game.
Why would BYU schedule a game on home on Labor Day weekend? It's the last official weekend of summer and CLASSES HAVEN'T STARTED YET? Well, if you look at BYU's dismal non-conference road record, you can see why it's so important to open the season at home.
I woke up around ten (noon is the typical wake up time on a Saturday, unless odd morning commitments are scheduled). Today, my parents happened to be in town from the state of Washington, and we were planning to help my sister (who lives in Pleasant Grove) paint my niece's bedroom.
By the time I got to Utah County, the room had already been painted, so I headed over to Jon's (editor-in-chief of averagejoesports.blogspot.com) house to a pre-game meal. We watched some of the Utah at Michigan game (the Utes won at the "Big House" which was the news of the day), then drove down to Cougar stadium.
Traffic was about as bad as it gets in Utah County (this happens six times a year, all BYU home games). Finally, we parked in a decent spot, thanks to Jon's parents' extra parking pass, and hiked up to the stadium. See attached photo of typical BYU alumni tool posing in from of Lavell Edwards stadium.It was a 4 p.m. kickoff, which was awesome because it was scorching during the first half. The heat was beating down on 64,000 fans wearing blue as if to say: DON'T SCHEDULE GAMES UNTIL AFTER CLASSES START!
Prince (my BYU student friend who hooked me up with the season tickets) missed the game BECAUSE SCHOOL HADN'T STARTED YET, so I gave the ticket to an out-of-town high school friend who needed one extra ticket (This friend happens to be a girl from WA who my parents want me to marry, and I would be totally cool with that). I met her at the gate and gave her the ticket. She said thanks and headed up to sit with her family.
I found that kind of awkward, so I headed up to my seat up at the very, very top. My nose started to bleed (that's a joke), so I got bored and went and squished with Jon and his brothers for the first half. See photo from Jon's seat as teams line up to kick PAT. It was super, duper hot in the stands, but BYU took a convincing lead against an inferior opponent. The guy sitting next to us was really nice, but kind of annoying because he was trying to brainwash his 4-year old boy into becoming a fan of his alumni (like any good father would do). But he was nice enough to not get mad about how squished we all were since I didn't belong there.In the second quarter, I got an invite from my arranged marriage friend to sit with her and her nieces. I went up there at halftime, and enjoyed the game from the highest seat in the south endzone. By 6 p.m. the stadium had cooled down and I downed two beverages to quench the sweating of the first half.
BYU played dismally in the 3rd quarter and allowed Northern Iowa (how big is Iowa?) to come within ten points. By the 4th quarter, order was restored as BYU won 41-17. To be honest, I didn't pay too much attention to the game as I was trying to catch up with this friend whom my parents wanted me to marry.
We chatted about what's happened the past 10 years of our lives. She speaks fluent Chinese and has been to Asia at least once a year during the past decade. She had a Chinese friend named Thomas with her (kind of an odd name for a guy who speaks no English, but I guess that is better than me trying to pronounce his name in Mandarin).
After the game, we said goodbye as she headed back to her sister's house in south Provo, and I gave my roommate a ride back up to Salt Lake. All in all, it was so nice to feel football in the air. In fact on Labor Day Monday, it rained all day long as summer officially ended and football season is finally here!
Later in the week: Average Joe sneaks into hated territory at Rice-Eccles stadium!
3 comments:
2 semi topic comments:
1) hearing the words joe, nose, and bleed together triggered so many visions of joe all-of-a-sudden rushing out of some crowded room (eg, sacrament in the sflc preschool), hand cupped over nose.
2) you might remember that during my early days living at the monson, i had about 6 different chinese grad student roommates. those who wanted to try and fit in with american culture chose american names to go by. unfortunately, as you found out, they seem to gravitate toward ridiculous grandpa and uncle names like gary or dennis. (all apologies to any readers named gary or dennis.)
Who is this girl and why have I never heard about her before??? Remember when BYU beat the U and you shouted "We're all getting married this year", but then only Clint did it.
Haha, you alumni tool!
Post a Comment