A Sporty Edition for my super awesome grandma

This entry is dedicated to my super-awesome Grandma who recently got her hip replaced and is making recovery from this hella-gross, hella-invasive surgery look easy.

One thing she's really into is college sports...of any kind really, but at this time of year is there really any other sport than

FOOTBALL

I thought not.

My dad had been up visiting for a weekend, and on Saturday we woke up early to have breakfast and see him off. I had known this was the first day of football season, but I wasn't planning on going to the game. I mean, I'm not organized enough to have a bunch of folks to go with, the tickets cost quite a bit, and Evanston is a jog away, but mom sent me an SMS saying something to the effect of:

I order you and Philippe to GO?TO?THAT?GAME

for some reason her question mark and spaces got messed up, but the spirit of it came across VERY clearly, and one learns quickly not to mess with the women of my family, regardless of age, so an hour and a half later, boyfriendo and I were on the eL to NU to see them kick Towson's rear end.

Question--Do you know what Towson is?
Answer--No, but I already dislike them!

Introducing foreigners to football is a lot of fun if you're into it, and I had a great time taking Phil around the stadium before the game started. First we got him outfitted in purple:

I LOVE guys who wear purple!

and then we hit the tailgates, which I explained to him were "chances for the older alumns to drink good alcohol and throw a football around before and after the games" but that didn't really convey the spirit correctly, so we walked into the VERY friendly territory, where I found this:



ZOMG!

I asked the woman behind the flags what the deal was, how one family could be cool enough to sport German AND Norwegian flags, and the answer was sort of a letdown, "we have German and Norwegian heritage, and we want people to find our car." Ok...no one's perfect.

From the tailgates it was on to Wildcat Alley to check out the beer tent and the games various NU sports teams throw for the kids (lacrosse was out in FORCE), and we were in our sideline seats by kickoff.



I won't go too into explaining the rules of the game, but I will say that it's a game with a lot of rules, but by the second quarter, Philippe understood pretty much everything except the penalties and was yelling along as we handed Towson their kiesters. I guess he's a professor for a reason! At halftime the peewee leagues took over the field for the least organized group scrimmage ever, and Philippe got to experience cheerleaders in training.

Actually, to him, cheerleaders were the big surprise of the game:



Them making pyramids and throwing each other aloft impressed him, I suppose because they think in Europe that cheerleaders just sit around and yell. In the video he's commenting on how our cheerleaders, after a touchdown, do as many push-ups as we have points, so when it was
21-3, they did 21 push-ups. At
28-14, they did 28. At
36-14, they did 36
...
Well, the game ended with NU winning 47-14,so they were quite tired, having done

7 + 9 + 12 + 19 + 26 + 33 + 40 + 47 push-ups!

They were hardcore! and, just in case you're counting, that's a total of 193 push-ups

So the game ended in gridiron glory, and we stuck around to sing the fight song with the student section (which is significantly more rowdy than the crowd, and that says something at an NU game), and then we walked through a very cheerful crowd to the eL. Interestingly, we got to see the Towson Tiger mascot:


He looks rather...funky if you ask me

walking back to the office where thye had his costume stowed, and he was lookin' quite close to extinction if you ask moi.

On the eL some UIC fan got a little mouthy when he asked "Did NU lose, like I hope they did?" but I guess some schools just sip on the ole' hater-ade more than others! Can't rain on the Purple Parade just yet, Illini!

More pictures will be up when boyfriendo gives me his, so for now, I hope that all of you, and grandma especially, enjoyed this almost uncharacteristically sporty entry.

Go U! Aren't we cUte?