Tailgating

There are a few earthly things that are close to my husband's heart. First is me, and second is William. After that, there are his family and brothers and sisters in the Lord. And then...NC State Football. He really, really, really likes football. And he really, really, really, really likes NC State football. He has bought season tickets to the football games for probably...well I don't know for how long, but I'm sure for more than 10 years.

Part of the season ticket deal is getting in on a parking place close to the stadium so that you can tailgate. Tailgating is an all day affair that begins many hours before the start of the game and then continues for about 1-2 hours after the game. This holds true no matter when the game starts. The game may begin at 12:30 p.m., in which case we leave the house at about 8:00 a.m. The game may begin at 7:30 p.m.. If that is the case, we leave the house at 2:00 p.m. (if we are going with Robert) and don't get back until about 1:00 a.m..

Mentioning Robert brings me to explain that Russ has been tailgating with Ricky, Ray, and Robert for as many years as he has had season tickets. Ray is a Wolfpack Club member and a really important one. He gets the tickets and then sells them to Russ and Robert and Ricky. He also is the reason we have such great parking places for our tailgating parties. You know how you rate in the Wolfpack club by how close your tailgating place is to the stadium. Ours is really close. Russ has always ridden to the games with Robert. Robert and his wife Christy plan the tailgating menus and bring most of the food. The ritual is for Robert to set a time to leave for the game and then call the night before or the day of and up the leave time by at least 15 minutes. If you are a true fan, you just can't leave early enough; and if you actually leave at the scheduled time, you feel like you are leaving late.

There are all kinds of traditions ascociated with NC State football. Those who are into college football understand this but for the uninitiated it is a whole new world. It's been fun learning all about this sort of thing since its so important to Russ. It's also been interesting being a spectator of the true fan. I can understand since I'm a Cardinal fan. But still, there are some things that seem almost comical. However, this post has been far to long so I wont go into all of that.

Incidentally, my husband is out of town and the thought of having to go to bed with no one to snuggle with is not apealing, hence the long post.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAny way......

At the beginning of this goofy post I said, "There are a few earthly things that are close to my husbands heart. First is me and second is William." One of the ways I know this to be true is that this year Russ only got tickets to HALF the NC State games. AND there have been two games we've gone to where he has not ridden with Robert. Which means he has left later. Not only that, but for one of the two games he actually had to park in a different parking lot and walk to the tailgating space. Let me tell you, that is true, true love.

And now to the point of this ridiculously long post. These are pictures of William's first tailgating party and game. It was a beautiful day, and he did great. I had a great time being with my wonderful husband and sweet little boy. William and I didn't see much of the game since he slept in his pack and play for the first half and then wanted to walk the stadium for most of the second. But never the less, it was still fun.