BATTLE OF ALBERTA

The Battle of Alberta, that's what they call it. The Labour Day football game, and Marty and I had tickets. Going to the game sounded so fun a couple weeks ago when a friend of ours bought tickets for us, but yesterday it snowed and the fun factor went DOWN! Ok, it didn't snow in Calgary, but it snowed where we were camping and after spending freezing my butt off out there, I had no desire to spend an afternoon sitting in the stands of a football game in the chilly, winter (is it winter already?) air! We had committed to the tickets though and since the sky was blue, with no rain or snow clouds in sight, we decided we should go.

I prepared for this game like I would prepare for a major adventure. I started by switching purses. I took my wallet out of my small, fancy purse, and put it in a large, yet stylish "bag." I then filled the bag with winter mitts, mini mitts, toe warmers, hand warmers a ziplock of trail mix, one of spicy nuts (camping leftovers) and an apple. I added my sunglasses and the case and over the handles of the bag, I put my down vest. I wore a tank top, a T-shirt, a hoodie, jeans, long sockes and sneakers. I put the bag over my shoulder and tucked a blanket under my arm. I felt ready for a football game on a sunny afternoon in September. No, Marty didn't think I was over packed at all, in fact, he got down the "Winter Tub" from the top shelf in the garage and pulled out his ski jacket! He decided to leave it in the van once we got to the game, but the reality is, he thought he might need it!

We met our friends at 12:30, though the game didn't start until 2pm. The tickets we had were for "rush seating" so you had to get there early to get good seats. The gates opened at 1pm and we were herded like cattle into the seating section reserved for those fans to cheap to pay for seats with backrests. We found a bench that had 5 spaces and steaked our claim. The boys went to the parking lot where they knew some people having a tail gate party and us girls stayed in the stands, guarding our seats. This section is filled with rowdy, beer drinking, shirtless, body painted, cowboy hat wearing, flag waving, horn honking fans...and families, with small children,
like the one that sat behind me, kicking the bottom of my seat relentlessly and old ladies, like the 4 adorable ones sitting in front of us. The ladies were so cute. They each had one of those foldable chairs, the kind with a back rest, designed to be put on bleachers. They weren't shy about sliding them waaay back so that they banged our knees. One of them had brought 4 plastic cups, individually wrapped in plastic and another had brought a thermos of hot chocolate. They shared everything, including pizza and fries. There were some big, strong policemen patrolling this rowdy area and the ladies were in love! The cheerleading squad from Edmonton was awesome. They had men and women on the squad and they were throwing and flipping eachother in the air, it was amazing. One of the ladies leaned back and asked me "how do you suppose a young man, decides he wants to be on the cheerleading team?" Another lady piped up "it's the ones who don't make the football team!" Those ladies made us laugh all game!

We sat on a balnket and covered up with the other one. I didn't need to dig out my mitts or toe warmers. The sun shone all afternoon and though I won't go as far as to say it was a warm day, but it wasn't uncomfortably cold either.
Edmonton (I was cheering from them) beat Calgary with a score of 37-16! All in all, great way to spend last day of Summer Holidays! Tomorrow it is back to school, ahhhhhhhhhh!