Fanatics asked me about baseball memories, which turned into my post about baseball the other day. Well, in the spirit of Football season, they asked the same question about football. I took my baseball post back to my childhood, and while I have the same types of memories with football -my brother played football too- I figured I would switch it up this time and talk about my first (an so far, only) Georgia Bulldogs game...So, here's to thinking back to that day...
Alarm is buzzing! Rise and shine. It's game day! It's time to get ready and hop in the car for that short, but long, drive down to Athens.
Coming down 129, passing by the fields and pastures, as you pass the 10 Loop and continue onto Prince Avenue, the excitement begins to build.
Find a lot & pick a spot.
From there, as you emerge from your car, you observe the excitement of people around you. You sense the camaraderie of strangers gathered for the same reason. Maybe even smell the smell of hot dogs, burgers or maybe even ribs cooking over a grill. you hear the clinking of bottles, and everyone begins to celebrate. You see people mingling and playing games of cornhole. Ahh, tailgating.
It's time to make your way down the streets of downtown Athens. It's a nice walk, and a great small city to walk through. As you're making your trek, passing the shops, restaurants and bars you can tell it's undoubtedly game day. Passing the historic Georgia Theatre, you then make your way down Lumpkin Street, and then Broad Street. You'll soon come face to face with the iconic black iron arch. Pass under that arch and through the campus, reaching Sanford Drive.
Many people don the colors, red, black, and white, are also making there way to the same destination as you. The atmosphere is exciting.
You're there,..
Sanford Stadium.
Ticket scanned, snacks and drinks purchased, it's time to make your way to your seats.
It's amazing, once you take a step into the stands. The seats slowly start to fill. The field is freshly painted, the infamous hedges are trimmed. Teams are on the field stretching and warming up.
Hairy Dog is on the sidelines. Uga is in his nice, cooled down, dog house.
Almost time...
The field clears and the UGA Redcoats Marching Band starts to play...
the planes fly over,
the banner is set up....
and the team bursts through, reemerging ready to play!
Then, by the flip of a coin, just like that, it's time for kickoff.
And this? This is what we've been waiting for.
The anticipation, the excitement, the nerves...
Football season has returned and it's game time!
Not everyone's journey to Sanford Stadium is the same but I can imagine the excitement is all the same. The Dawg Nation is a loyal fanbase. We love our football and we love our Dawgs. Seeing a game Between the Hedges is such a fun experience. If you get there in time & can get a good spot, you can see the Dawg Walk before the game. And on victorious days there is a long line for the bell, students and fans alike get to ring the bell. I have unfortunately only attended one game in person (that needs to change!) but it's a whole different experience being there in person. I haven't been able to experience the Dawg Walk, but I hope that is something I can do in the future. If you are a Georgia Bulldog fan, I definitely recommend you catch at game at Sanford Stadium, if you haven't before!
As football season is warming up, I am SOO ready to get back to watching the guys on the field, both college (and Pro). We wait around all year for it to return. And it's back, a few short weeks to kick off and I'm praying for a great season! Good luck to you and your team.
As for my team..
We say, GOOOOOO DAWGS! SIC 'EM! WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!
U-G-A! U-G-A! U-G-A!
I've gotta give another shout out to Fanatics for asking me to be park of this. Check out their site & all the goodies on there. I've seen plenty of shirts that I think are SO cute. Like these...
pair them with some jeans, or some black skinnies, or shorts -cause it's hot down here-, and I think it'd be a good practical game day outfit!
As far as my pro teams...(Falcons, Broncos, Bengals, Lions....and I'm gonna be watching a bit of the Dolphins this year too...-Oh, Knowshon, the things I do for you....-) Some of my favorites are....
I'm not going to include and Dolphin gear just yet...I'm probably only "bandwagon" status right now. Gotta ease into these relationships, ya know! ;-)
So, how about you?! Who are you cheering for? What colors are you wearing? Do you have any football stories or memories?!
Go link up with my lovely friend, Erin, for FOOTBALL FRIDAY and talk football with the rest of us!
Great news! The internet is back in my home! Since Wednesday!
The thing is, I haven't known what the hell to post the last two days since I have actually been able to, so I just didn't.
But I need to try to jump back into it.
So what better way than with a shit ton of link ups all in one post?
It'll be a little lengthy.
At least it gives me stuff to talk about! ;-)
Today I'm linking up with a lot of lovely ladies for about 4 different link ups! Pretty sure this is my first time doing a 5 on Friday & I'm not entirely sure if there is a certain thing you're supposed to do...so here's to winging it!. Linking up with Darci, April, Natasha, and Christina.
One....
First and foremost, it's Friday the 13th! I'm one of those weirdos that loves this day! So in spirit of this day, I just want to point out how extremely excited I am about all of the Halloween stuff in stores! Y'all, I really am a weirdo. The whole gothic, old, scary/creepy, horror, haunted kind of feel,...I love it. I've already been to Spirit Halloween to check out everything & then of course all other stores getting all of their stuff out: Wal Mart, Target, Michaels, JoAnn, Party City... Love it. To celebrate we are going to watch Freddy vs. Jason tonight, per my nephews request. This is a big deal. He's 10. When I was his age I already loved horror movies, but he is just now showing interest so it will be interesting to see how long he watches or how many times he covers his eyes, aside from the mandatory covering your eyes during anything sexual or whatnot. It is rated R after all. lol
Two....
It's also Football Friday. I unfortunately don't really have much to contribute. I have no food ideas, or outfit ideas or anything like that. Sunday DirecTV had a "free sample day" for NFL Sunday Ticket -which I don't have-, so I decided to take advantage of it. I live in GA and while my Top NFL team is the Atlanta Falcons, I also follow 3 teams out of my region so I miss actually getting to watch A LOT of games. Well, I still ended up missing huge chunks of them since 3 games were on at the same time. It's so hard to juggle! Anyone else had Sunday Ticket? If so, do you find it better or worse as far as keeping up with all the games? It aggravated the shit out of me that I would turn it to one game and they see a bad play or two only to finally switch back to another and see that I've missed a good play or two. At the end of the weekend two of my teams had lost & 3 had won, I will take that. I am still on cloud 9 about that UGA/USC game. This weekend/week I'm hoping that My Falcons & Bengals can pull out a win, and my Dawgs are on a bye week, so they'll be back next weekend. I'm so glad Erin, Erin & Tiffany are going to periodically have this link up going on throughout Football season, maybe next time I will have something better or more to contribute! I'm excited to hop around and read others posts.
Three....
Wish my Daddy, bro & hubs luck! They are leaving tomorrow for the night for a gator hunt! Last year my brother was drawn for it & he nabbed a 5 footer. This year my dad was chosen so I really, really hope my Daddy can get one! He'll be just so excited. It was supposed to be 2 nights, but he couldn't get Monday off of work so they had to shorten it to one night. Since Doug already took Monday off for it, I told him that he and I could do something! So I'm excited to get to spend a weekday with my man. It really is kind of different from a weekend, especially during school, not quite as many kids out. We were thinking about going to the Zoo! But we'll see what the forecast looks like.
Four....
Stuff to do! This weekend isn't too planned for me. It'll just be my mom, myself and my nephew on Saturday & the main plan is his baseball practice. I'm excited to see him finally be able to play sports, even though it's not on our county. So, other than that it will be relatively low key, aside from helping my mother clean her room. Next weekend is Nopi Nationals & I'm excited to go and see how it is, compared to the last time we went (2007..or 8). I don't like change and it's at a different venue now that's it's returned. It started back last year, but my brother's gator hunt fell on the same weekend & so I sucked it up and let Doug go to that instead of us going to the car show, with the condition that next year (aka this year) we were NOT missing it. Now the bummer to that day is that my niece will be here and I won't get to see her. Devastated is an understatement. Then weekend after next is the Fall Out Boy/Panic! At The Disco concert. The fact that I have loved both bands for about 8 years, and the fact that this is Fall Out Boys tour & I bought the tickets back in Feb., or March, not even knowing yet who they would have with them only for it to be announced that it was Panic!,..I mean...it's like fate! It was MEANT to happen! I'm SO stoked for this! The rest of September looks good.
Five....
Helene did a "Songs That Define Me" link up yesterday & luckily it's still open. Being a avid music lover, I was excited to hear about this, but then quickly realized how hard it is to picks songs the truly, truly define you. I mean everyone has "their" song(s), their favorite songs, or whatever. But think about it, what song(s) define you. My answer right now is simply, I really don't know. So, I chose a few songs that I love & that may have some meaning or bring some level of comfort to me. Since I'm doing a 5 on Friday, I'll stick with the 5 theme & pick 5 songs. 1. Linkin Park- Crawling
I was 12 when this song came out & it couldn't have been a more perfect time. I began to really struggle with the typical pre-teen, hormonal, whatever-you-want-to-call-it depression. Only mine didn't really go away. That's a whole other story on it's own. The entire Hybrid Theory album was amazing therapy to me. Even today, when I'm in a hole, it's still one of my go-to songs/albums. There's a weird sense of sadness yet comfort with it. When you find a song that expresses exactly how you feel, it sticks with you. Linkin Park has and will always hold a special place in my heart for being there for and helping me.
2. Incubus- Pardon Me
"Pardon me while I burn & rise above the flame. Pardon me, if I never be the same." Change. A phoenix rising from the ashes. Coming to the end of your rope with whatever it may be & finally deciding that something has to change. That's what this song says to me. I've loved it for years! But really in the past 2 or 3 years it's stuck with me a lot more. I have changed, and I feel like I still am, and this song is just even more fitting than ever. I mean extremely fitting, where it's like, "wow, this song IS me right now." Besides who doesn't love Incubus?!
3. Jessie J- Who You Are
A song about being true to yourself. Who couldn't benefit from a song about that?! It's amazing. If you haven't listened to it before, go ahead and do yourself a favor. I have to take this song in from time to time. It so easy to beat yourself up or compare yourself to others. Jessie J is awesome. Check her out.
4. Bill Withers- Lean On Me
I have always loved this song. I remember singing it on the bus in Elementary School. I remember singing it with my mom as a kid...and now, haha. I'm a nurturer by nature & so I often times will be the person someone can talk to about things. And I like that. I like to be able to help people, even if all I do is listen to them. It can also be a fault, I overextend myself sometimes. But anyway, I just love this song. And it makes me think of my best friend. This is our song for each other. Since we are so far apart, just a reminder that no matter what I'm always there for her and vice versa.
5. Zac Brown Band- Chicken Fried
"I was raised up beneath the shade of a Georgia pine, and that's home you know." You'll always hear me say that I'm proudly southern. A song about the small, simple things that mean the most. At the end of the day that's what it's all about. As much as I'd like to do, see or have all of these different things, when it comes down to it, I'm a small town girl who would be/is happy with a happy home, husband and family. And I'm a Georgia girl. So this song seems a little more personal. Plus, Zac lived here for a few year and still comes around every so often -although I haven't seen him yet.- ;) And now I want fried chicken and beer. TGIF!
I'll leave you today with Eminem's new song!
"Take your shoes off, let your hair down, go berzerk! All night long!"
Happy Friday!
Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
♥♥♥
Brandy
I am SO stoked for this Link Up! Are you a football fan also? LINK UP with Erin, Erin & Tiffany and tell everyone about your favorite(s)!
I almost don't even know where to start, so I'm just gonna go based on the areas that Erin suggested.
But I'll start by saying screaming...
I AM SOOOO HAPPY THAT FOOTBALL SEASON IS AT THE DOOR! I mean, it's basically HERE!
I'll start with Pro...
My Favorite Team(s)-yes multiples- & why:
1. Altanta Falcons. Usually growing up, you kinda of are a fan of your states teams by default. Or you're fans of whatever team your parents are. It's no different with me. I'm a Georgia Peach. My teams are the Falcons (the Brave & the Hawks-even though I don't really watch baseball or basketball-). So I have been a Falcons fan forevvaaa! & I wouldn't change a thing about it. I really do love them, and always have (it even shows in my email address, the 32 was the number of my favorite player (at the time) Jamal Anderson, babyyy!) I still have my superbowl shirt from 98.
This team...in the past few years has came closer and closer to the Super Bowl, and even with that they are STILL, STILL underrated as hell. We have some amazing players. Rowdy Roddy, Matty Ice, Tony G, Julioooo Jones, Kroy Biermann (aka -for all of you reality tv watchers- Kim Zolciaks hubby), among many others. I mean, I bleed red & black (x's two -you'll understand that in a minute-). They've been through controversy, with a certain team member getting in trouble in 2007, and then their coach just up and quit on them before the season was over in 2008. WHOOO DOES THAT?! But they bounced back. With the entering of head coach Smith & new QB Ryan. Don't count them out just yet. I'm hoping for an amazing year for them! Dirty Bird for Life. Falcons Rise Up!
My favorite Falcons commercial.
Such Pride we have!
Before I talk about the next couple of teams, I'll be the first to say that bandwagoner fans annoy the piss outta me. Buttt... that is actually exactly how I've come to be fans of these teams.
2. Denver Broncos- This my number 2 team. Initially, I followed my faaaaavorite college player here. I literally cried when he decided to forgo his senior year & enter the draft. In 2009 he was drafted in the first round (12th overall) by the Broncos & just like that I was a "Bronco fan". I pushed myself to "get to know the team though", so I could be a Bronco Fan instead of just Moreno. Which turned out to be a good thing because got injured, then in a little trouble, and then injured again, poor fella. Now this team has frustrated the shit out of me to no end. I mean they got rid of Kyle Orton (aka their QB) a couple of years ago for that gator ass boy. Yea, everyone's precious Tim Tebow. I'm still trying to figure out why the fuck they thought that would be a good idea. And I literally questioned whether I wanted to cheer for them anymore. Then they finally booted him & got mr Manning! So it all worked out. I always said they Peyton finally grew up from a colt to a bronco! Horse humor, ftw! My most recent frustration is them cutting Willis McGahee. I feel like that was huge mistake, I'm REALLY hoping that doesn't hurt them & that Moreno settles back into his role. Other assets? Of course Peyton, he's been great for us since Te-whatever. Von Miller is great & I LOVE watching him do his little jigs! Champ Bailey, Eric Decker, Demaryius Thomas. Oh and their newest asset, which has me sooo much more excited for this season, is that they drafted Tavarres King aka TK!! during the draft. (another college player from my team -same team as Moreno-). I am soooo facking excited that they got him & SOOO ready to see him and Moreno on the same field again! My Moreno! WOO! Go Broncos!
3. Detroit Lions- I followed Matthew Stafford here. Our amazing QB was drafted to the Lions, so naturally we keep up with him & cheer him on. They also have Shaun Chapas and now Kris Durham (both from the same team as Staff). While I admit I haven't gotten to know this team 100% as well as I need to, we still cheer for them. Even though he's [Stafford] been with them for a good number of years now, we are still getting to know the team. They are a great team.
4. Cincinnati Bengals- Who Dey?! Who did I follow to this team you ask? AJ Green. LOOOVE him! Was so sad to see him leave us. I just read last week that he will be out for several practices due to a bruised knee, buttt, hopefully will be ready by game time. So that's what I'm really hoping for. And then they obtained Orson Charles during the draft a couple years ago. Huge gain. He was amazing for us during college. There is a bit of still getting to know this whole team that we have to do. We catch as many games as we can (same goes for the Lions) but when you like multiple teams, that can be tough. lol
You know, like I just said, when you like multiple teams it really can be hard to keep up. What makes it harder is that we don't have Sunday Ticket so we can only watch games that are being broadcasts on our local channels or ESPN, we sometmes miss a lot of games. And then there are games that overlap and ugh, it can get challenging! But we do the best we can. We really need to invest in Sunday Ticket though...
NOW...onto COLLEGE!
Saturday Down South. We love the SEC. Football is a religion. We take it seriously.
There is only one team, ONE, that gets my whole heart.
Nope, it's not the Tide, not the Gay-tors. Scar Cocks? Nope. Not the Vols or Vandy. LSU or The War-Damn-Tiger-Eagles (lol), & no, not Mizzou, the Aggies, or the Razorbacks. Not the Wildcats, or the Rebels. It's the Bulldogs...not to be mistaken for the MSU Bulldogs though...it's the..
GEORGIA BULLDOGS!
The Bulldogs. UGA. DAWGNATION! My Dawgs! Who meet in Athens, Georgia at UGA at Sanford Stadium, Between The Hedges. Where we love every Ugga (Ugg-uh) that we have ever had & continue to have & we love Hairy Dog just at much. When I said I bleed red and black x's 2, this is why. Both team colors are Red and Black. It run DEEP in my blood. We take pride in our team. The Florida/Georgia game is an event, not a game, it's a big damn deal. This teams is love. Same as with the Falcons, I've been a fan since birth. I get emotionally invested in them. Like I said I cried when My Moreno left. I LOVE watching him. Ah! I'm really hoping we will do amazing this year. Hoping my Gurley Man & Mr. Marshall come out in full force and do just as well as, if not better than, they did last year. The 2 of them were rookies last year and BLEW everyone away. Gurley became the second truefreshman (second to Herschel Walker in 1980) to rush for more than 1000 yards! They (the Dawgs) came so, so, so close to getting to the SEC Champ. game. I really hope they can get there this year. And it's be better if they won. If Aaron Murray could leave college football on that note I'd be on cloud fackin' 20! Hunker down, boys! Who to watch on my team? Welp, our QB is pretty fabulous (Aaron Murray). Todd Gurley & Keith Marshall -aka Gurshall, combination of their names AND a nod to Herschel Walker (on of UGA's GREATESTS) whose number was 34, just so happens that Gurley is number 3 and Marshall is number 4. How crazy is THAT?!-, Michael Bennett, Chris Conley, Arthur Lynch. My biggest frustration with them is MIKE FUCKING BOBO. This little mother fucker needs a knock in the head! He has got to change it up a little bit. Mark Richt (head coach) really needs to step in and be like, "No, just..no." But alas, we sit and cuss the hell out of him. And John Theus, baby, I hope you've gotten it together a little more this year. No more false starts and such, please. Look we ain't perfect. No team is, I don't care who you are. We fuck up, sometimes a lot, sometimes more than I would care to admit. But they are an amazing team. We love them. We are sad, but happy, to see players graduate/enter the draft. To be a fan, a loyal fan, means sticking with them even when they are losing.
Let. me. tell. you.
Doug & I have fought over this. Don't get it twisted, Doug is a lifelong, loyal fan also, but he'll get pissed and discourage REAL quick, and he gets negative. I'm talking minutes into the game he "knows they are gonna lose" just because they've missed a few plays or something. UM NO! Give it a little more time. When I say we've fought, I mean it. I've had to walk away from him and watch the game in another room. There have been times where by the end of the game I'm just like, "I don't even want to hear you right now." It's serious business here. You would think we loved rival teams, but no, we love the same team.
But we will always be Dawgs. Always. & We're forever Gator Haters. Yellow who? WE RUN THIS STATE!
Dawgs to watch in the NFL: Knowshon Moreno (Broncos), TKUnoDos -Tavarres King (Broncos), Matthew Stafford (Lions), AJ Green (Bengals), Jarvis Jones (Steelers), Alec Ogletree (Rams), Cornelius Washington (Bears), Bacarri Rambo (Redskins), Orson Charles (Bengals), Kris Durham (Lions), Brandon Boykin (Eagles), MoMass Mohammad Massaquoi (Browns), Champ Bailey (Broncos), Akeem Dent (Falcons)...I mean, just to name a few ;) (I may have mentioned some different ones above.)
And a lot of SEC fans, no matter the team you belong to, will cheer for fellow SEC teams. Meaning should your team not make it to a bowl or championship game, but another SEC teams does, you want them to win. You want the SEC to win. But then there are those teams that you just cannot cheer for. Everyone has them.
You catch my drift there, right? ;)
Between the two, Pro & College, we usually prefer college. There is just something about college football in the south that really meshes well. It's synonymous with the south.
But I think we can all agree, college and professional alike, those damn referees are evil little bastards! I really feel bad for them, that's got to be a lot of pressure. Because man, I know how many times I have wanted to ring a refs neck for giving the game to the other team. Biggest pain in my ass!
And another think I don't like is how quickly change comes. I really don't like change. With the NFL you never know if a player you love will be traded or cut. With college you know they will leave in 4 or 5 years time, but you still don't like it. It's like impending doom. And it's even worse when they skip their senior year & go into the draft. You're sad, maybe a little mad, but then again happy to see how they do and where they go. And then injuries, I don't even want to think about injuries.
As for food...
We don't really have a plan when it comes to food for game days. To be honest I'd like to try to become organized enough to have things made at a timely manner and shit, but I'm just not there yet. And, we live in the south...flies like our food too, a lot. Leave stuff sittin' out too long & we'll... haha We do the typical wings &/or pizza & beers. Chips and dip. Sometimes burgers & fries. It really depends, but we don't do anything "special"...yet. If y'all have any recipe suggestions send them my way, I'll check 'em out.
Fashion:
Well, mainly sport your colors of course. In whatever way. From a tshirt to head to toe red & black (or whatever your colors are). A lot of girls down here go all out dressing but, I'm really just a jeans and tee girl. Jersey if I have it, but my moreno jersey doesn't fit anymore. Boo.
Predictions:
I kind of don't want to make predictions because you really never know how the season is actually going to go for any team. I'm excited but nervous as hell. But, in my perfect world, it would be Falcons winning the Super Bowl & Dawgs winning the NCAA Championship. :)
You know, I have never been to a professional football game. And I've only been to one Bulldog game. Crazy. That needs to change! Real quick like!
I honestly don't know what else to talk about.
So,...ya know...that's about it for now...
now since I'm 200% more ready for shit to kick off, I'm gonna just go read everyone elses posts and get more excited.
& I'll leave you with this!
GOOOO DAWGS! SIC 'EM! WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!
Love my Dawgs!
Any fellow Dawgs out there? Falcons, Broncos, Lions or Bengal fans?
Let me knowww!! We can be friends. :-)
