First Trip to Auburn, Part II

Saturday, May 14

We got up bright and early to head to Auburn.  We stopped off by Chick-fil-a for some yummy breakfast and by Target so I could get a water-proof tote bag to take to the game (I didn’t plan for the rain…at all!)

We got there right before they did the senior recognition, bought our tickets from a scalper for three times face value (I wish we’d known about the stadium layout earlier because we definitely got screwed over), and got settled in our seats.

The view of the boys warming up from our awesome seats….

Yes, we were sitting in the last set of seats pretty much behind the right fielder.  I know you’re jealous… ;)

We sat behind a grandmother of one of the players, and she told us they were wearing their camo hats, that were previously worn for military appreciation, in honor of troops that are in Tuscaloosa helping out with the storm damage.  They also had a houndstooth ribbon on their jerseys, which has become the symbol of Tuscaloosa tornado relief.

While we are talking about the tornado, I will say I really admire these boys.  Several of them lost EVERYTHING, and 3 of the guys only survived because they held a mattress, with all of their strength, over themselves in the bathtub while their house literally crumbled around them.  Yet, they can still get out and be an awesome representation for our school.  Have I mentioned how much I love my town because I do ;)

Moving on….

Alex and I, pre-burn

 Brother Bear and I

Notice the lovely red top I am wearing?  Being the tanning connoisseur that I am (not really, but I have tried to master the art of not getting tan lines), I thought I would be smart and wear this tank top so I didn’t worry about a nice sleeve tan.  BIG MISTAKE.  Most of the sun we got was behind us and the back of my arms burned terribly (I had on sunscreen and never burn so I was taking precautions…darn overcast sky), so if I’d just worn a short sleeve shirt, I would have been fine.  Anyway, live and learn ;)

Unfortunately, we lost the first game.  Because so many people had bought tickets to the Friday night game, they were honoring those for the second game.  They cleared everyone out of the stadium, so we found another scalper and got seats a little closer this time.  Still way overpriced, but at least we had a place to sit….

Like I said, a little better

One of Josh’s high school friends, who is a student at Auburn came and sat with us for the second game.

Unfortunately we lost the second game as well :(  By that time, I was so miserable from the sunburn and the dropping temperature (yep, I was in a jacket by the end of the game) that I honestly didn’t care too much about anything but getting home and curling up on the couch.  We did stay for the fireworks show after the game.

I know you are seeing this and thinking I’m crazy for posting a “daytime” picture, but I kid you not, they shot off fireworks during the day. In fact you are seeing the puffs of smoke from them in the picture above.  I know, it was a first for me and a bit anti-climactic…especially when they seemingly knocked over the stand and the majority of the fireworks didn’t make it up past the fence. 

 Alex wasn’t too impressed with the daytime fireworks show…

Josh’s friend assured me that they don’t do this type of stuff all the time or anything.  Auburn, the daytime fireworks show definitely didn’t help your image….sorry!  At least I can now check “Watching fireworks in the daytime” off my bucket list (kidding, of course)

After that lovely entertainment, we headed back to Montgomery and had dinner at Red Robin…now everyone sing, “Red Robin…yummmm!” – you know you want to ;)  Anyway, it was yummy, especially after a long day in the sun.

Alex and I…check out that sunburn (and you can see where I got a little pink on the right side of my chest.  Thankfully that terrible tan line has already gone!)

  Josh wasn’t too keen on having his picture taken

Afterwards, we went home and I think watched a movie.  I’m not sure because I was definitely out as soon as I sat down on the loveseat….oops!

Next up:  Sundresses, jackets, and lemonade!

First Trip to Auburn, Part I

I am extremely overwhelmed with the amount of posts I have to write, so I decided I’d start with the most current and go backwards.  I still have the tornado post that has been sitting in my drafts because I can’t write on it without crying.  Never fear, I will get caught up soon!____________________________________________________________

This weekend, I took my very first trip to the town of our in-state rivals, the Auburn Tigers.  I honestly don’t know why it took me 26 years to make it there.  I remember being invited by friends in undergrad, but I always had something going on and before I knew it, I had “grown up” and still never visited there.  Plus, I have never really cared anything about just going to hang out (and honestly, still don’t)

Anyway, Alabama was playing Auburn in baseball this weekend, and my brother really wanted to go, especially since his former teammate would be playing his last game for Auburn.  He had mentioned to Alex a while back that he might come down and stay with him in Montgomery and they could go to the games.  The problem was that as of Thursday, Josh had not officially made up his mind about coming and Alex was trying to decide whether or not to come to Tuscaloosa for the weekend.  Alex was calling asking what Josh was doing and I was calling Josh and asking him, only getting an “I don’t know” response.  Why they couldn’t just call each other is beyond me….

We finally figured out Josh’s hesitation was that he didn’t want to drive by himself.  He’s spending the month in North Alabama, so it was going to be a good three-hour drive to Montgomery.  Once I figured that out, I volunteered to ride with him if he could swing through T-town and pick me up.

Let me preface this by saying that I have not had a free weekend in Tuscaloosa this entire semester, so my poor apartment has suffered neglect from me not being here OR being here and solely working on school stuff.  This past weekend was supposed to be my free weekend to catch up on stuff around the house and get my online course ready.  This option kept Josh happy and I could still see Alex, so win-win, kind of, for me.

We headed out around 3ish on Friday for Montgomery.  They had a game at 6:00 on Friday night, so we were hurrying to try and make it time.  It was pouring by the time we got to Montgomery and decided we didn’t want to drive all the way to Auburn (it is about 40 minutes away) if they weren’t going to play so we watched the Auburn baseball twitter feed (note that I didn’t say “follow”…I just couldn’t do it! ;)) and they FINALLY cancelled it and scheduled a double-header for the next game.  So, we got to spend a night hanging around the apartment and had some yummy Mexican food from a nearby restaurant that we’ve been dying to try!

Next up:  Sunburns, sunshine, and fireworks ;)