Of all the strange things

I'm going to the football this afternoon. For the first time ever, I'm going to a college football game. UT vs. New Mexico State. Wild. Karen sprained her ankle at a rave last night and isn't going, so I'm using her ticket. Melynda's enthusiasm for the whole business convinced me to see what it's like. Never had much of an interest in sports, but it wil be nice to hang out with my friend for the evening.

Melynda's terribly excited. It's great.

Visited my mother this morning, and helped her clean some. Gave her a framed print, a picture of me sitting in Havel's seat in Cafe Slavia. Gene's picture was so incredible that Hana ordered the prints for me, which was terribly kind and sweet.

I'm doing a little better. The sharper edge is passing.

Football

Very strange and novel experience. Fun, in a weird kind of way. I think the phsycial effort expended by screaming and singing and standing for three hours on a bleacher relieved me of a large amount of the residual tension from this week. It also kept me from screaming at my roommate or her cat, so that is good.

Football is strange. Especially here, where it is such a big deal, always. This is probably the place to have a football experience, even just one. Because it's taken so seriously, and every person in the stand is wearing this odd shade of orange. No one looks good in this color, but they wear it. There are traditions, things the entire crowd will shout, rattling keys.

Almost 83,000 people in the stadium tonight. Eighty three thousand. I don't think I've ever been in such a crowd. Especially one that could cheer in one voice. In a creepy way, it automatically associates itself with facist rallies in my head. But I've never really liked the sport.

Probably because along with the football culture of Texas comes the jock supremacy, the high school ranking system, the push for athletics over academics. It's horrible, the way football players are pushed through even when they can't read, and how they can often literally get away with murder in this state. Those of us who read, we remember the murder in Amarillo years back when the football players fought with the punk rockers and ran a boy down with a car. It's evil, and twisted, the way football becomes all important.

Today, I felt a bit like an anthropologist in disguise. Camoflauged in a burnt orange shirt, screaming along with hordes of people I would probably not associate with on a regular day. Lot's of boys with the same haircuts and girls in tight clothes, the annoying sort of people I want to chase off campus with sticks. For the most part, I ignored them and tried to follow the strange game on the field. I think our team did a lot of dumb stuff, even though we won. I enjoyed the screaming and arm waving. Probably had fun because I was hanging out with some friends, and getting away from the problems of the week.