No es futbol...

This is football. (or, What it was was...football).

I am happy.

Today, along with 84,150 other people (this is more than 2.5 percent of the state population), my father and I watched the Oklahoma Sooners beat the Iowa State Cyclones (whose mascot is a cardinal...) in Norman. It was...well. I was so happy my voice was gone by the end of the first quarter.

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to watch the game at first, because it made me dizzy to look down at the field. I wanted my opera glasses. I'm thinking this was probably the highest I've ever been on a man-made structure. Our section was over the 6th level of parking, and we were about 20 feet up in it (and yes, I know I'm a hick: think of the song from "Oklahoma" where the cowboys are singing, "everythin's up to date in Kansas City/ they've gone about as fur as they could go;/ they went and built a sky scraper seven stories high..."). I felt like I couldn't lean forward, or I might fall and keep falling. But I forgot about that when the team came onto the field. I hope the people sitting around me weren't too annoyed with the noise I made, but really, when 40,000 people are yelling, "Boomer," at you, the least you can do is give a rousing "Sooner!" (sigh. And I suppose most of you still don't understand this.) Being in a crowd like that makes one think a little of the Romans...and what could a mob like that do if they were angry?

Funniest part of the game: when the ref didn't realize his microphone was still on, and looked at a close-to-first down play, and we all heard, "we're gonna have to take a look at that..."

saddest part of the game: (which we didn't know until afterward) A.D.'s injury. Adrian "All Day" Peterson, a.k.a, "The True Freshman," performing in the first game his father was able to come to (for reasons of incarceration) since he was 12, had 183 yards (that's good!). But he also broke his collarbone diving into the endzone (that's bad--it puts him out for the rest of the season).

We got out of the stadium faster than the Romans got out of the Colliseum. The only bad part is that walking with my dad is a little like walking with Helen and MB--I had to jump every two steps--and I was wearing my ridiculous not-made-for-walking (but pretty!) new shoes...and now my feet are rather beat up. And I am tired and happy and hoarse.