Que Dia!

Talk about True Blue Cougar Fans!!!

I love taking the older kids to the BYU Football games. Go Cougars!!! You would not recognize the orneryguy at the game. I wear BYU t-shirts, I do all of the cheers (another cougar first down, BYU Cougars, etc.), I stand and sing the fight song and do the fist pumping rah-rah's, and I even stand and do the wave. In short, I am embarrassed to be me at the games, but I love it! It took me 38+ years to get over my self-consciousness enough to actually stand and yell and throw my arms in the air when the wave comes around. I even stand and dance when the band plays, moving my shoulders and shaking my bum. I actually have FUN!!! Dallin and Abby do not even recognize me at the game.

Oh yeah, baby, we sit at mid-field!!!

Except our seats are in the nosebleed section. This was a case of going in with low expectations and being pleasantly surprised. (No jokes about marriage here, please). Anyway, when I bought the tickets I warned the kids that we would be sitting on the next to last row and so they should not get their hopes up about enjoying much of the game. We took the binoculars and I was dreading the fighting we would have over who used them and when. But, when we got to our seats and turned around to watch the players warm up, we were shocked at how well we could see EVERYTHING! We can see the entire field at all times. Even all four corners of the end zone. And plays along the near sideline are not blocked from our view by the players. To make our seats perfect I want to move to the back row for next year. Seriously, the only better seats would be straight across on the top row of the west stands on the 50 yard line, because those seats get shade in the third quarter. But, those tickets cost a lot more. I get mine at a faculty/staff discount that is hard to beat.

A couple of Swinging Monkeys!

The people who sit behind us did not come to the Wyoming game today so we moved one row back to their seats. This picture was taken at the start of the fourth quarter. The diamond-plate box behind the kids is actually a folding platform that opens up to the light tower behind us. It is scary high and there is no way you would get me to walk out on it. Anyway, it is locked and it has chains attached to hold it level when it opened. The kids sat down inside of the chains for a minute when I got the genius idea to put their pads inside the chain. They loved it. Another reason I want those seats right behind us is because when the crowd starts stomping their feet to make it too loud for the opponents to call their plays, I was pounding on that gate with my fist and the noise was deafening to us. Banging on the wall around it just hurts your fist, but the gate itself is like a big bass drum. Again, I only like noise and chaos when I am the one making it. It is just another item on my long list of double standards!

MINI-ME!!!

Yeah, I am becoming a total nerd! A year ago you could not have gotten me to wear a BYU t-shirt, period. But, as a part of an assignment in my Organizational Behavior class, I wore a BYU sweatshirt while watching a game. It had to do with identifying yourself with your organizations culture. Anyway, anyone who knows me knows I am easily embarrassed by just about everything. If it involves having fun and allowing others to see you are enjoying yourself, well, it is just not allowed. Part of the dysfunctional upbringing I had. Ask Steph, she will vouch for the screwed-upedness we all got (he just made up that hyphenated word, didn't he?). Imagine being so messed up that you get embarrassed about what people will think about you for wearing a BYU shirt. Or being embarrassed sitting in a restaurant while people are singing 'Happy Birthday' to someone on the other side of the room. (Special note, we went to Los Hermanos tonight after the game, and I clapped and cheered along during one of those sing-a-longs, are you proud Steph? No, she is probably embarrassed that someone she knows was in a restaurant while singing took place :-)!)

No longer stifled by this weird insecurity, this year, we all got BYU blue before the first game and wear it religiously on game day. It doesn't matter if it is a home game or an away game. It is BYU Blue Baby!!! Before this game I bought BYU hats. Dallin and I got blue ones and Debi, Abby, and Emma got pinks ones. Then today we scored 5 more free shirts. They were handing them out on the way into the stadium. Now we have 5 matching BYU Blue shirts. We are the Nerd Herd (homage to 'Chuck', if you have seen it on NBC). It gets even worse, so watch out for the next paragraph!

You have been warned, so, proceed with caution. Tonight, at my insistence, all 5 members of the Crazy Lee family wore their BYU Blue shirts, and their hats, while we went to Los Hermanos and the grocery store. I am losing it. The mere thought of two of the five of us even dressing similarly used to be enough to send me into a tizzy. But tonight, I was the instigator of this unseemly behavior. Later on I noticed that Dallin and I were looking very similar and started calling him Mini-Me as we were walking around. I asked Debi to take the pictures. (Again, I usually run away from cameras). Help me, I am losing my orneriness!

I need to find something to complain about quickly before the orneryguy becomes mrhappy.

Grr, curse, grumble, :-(, etc !