What I did last night: Sewing and Innuendo

As some of you know, our dear Riders are in the Grey Cup for the second year in a row!  The Guy is going with his sister and two friends to Ed'ton for the big game.

I am staying at home with Monty and Maddy  and LynnieC and we're going to have a girl weekend.  Poor Monty.  I expect he will hide under the bed when we start putting pink bows on him.

Last night, The Guy's sister, K, came over with what looked like the pelt of Oscar the Grouch.  She also had white plastic type material and some cheap Rider neck warmers which we cut the logos out of.

We sat down for supper and I planned what to do with them.  As soon as I put my fork down, I was up and cutting material.  An hour later, we had the final project.  The THREE of a kind RIDER MUFF!

The muffs in all their glory

These immediately lend themselves to bad jokes, but they are pretty awesome.  And by awesome, I mean terribly ugly, but no one else will have them.

They are trying to kill me

After not bothering to play the first half, the Riders managed to play awesomely the second half and led us through two overtimes.  Finally, they pulled it out at 41 to 35.  Thank goodness.  I'm sure I had a stroke.

Now we're in the finals!  Only one more win to Grey Cup.

I'll tell you, my life was easier when I didn't care.

Rider fans in Ukraine

I'd heard that Rider fans influenced culture all over the world, but I had no idea!

I want to hug all the Riders. Some more than others.

Tonight was the Grey Cup.  For those who are not CFL fans (like me up til 3 years ago), the Grey Cup is the big one -- the Super Bowl of the Canadian football.

Our team has won three times.  In almost 100 years of Grey Cups.  Do the math.  We're the underdogs.

Tonight, we faced a team with a 15 - 3 record.  A good team.  We knew it would be a tough game.  I didn't expect us to win, but I knew if our boys played well, it would be a good game.  A close game.

If I only knew.

Our boys played well.  They played really well.  They were ahead. Unbelievably, amazingly, fantastically ahead.  For the entire game.  By a lot for most of it.  It was an intense and wonderful game.  We thought we might win.  In the last minutes, the other team came within 2 points of our score.  It came down to the position on the field.  A field goal chance.

They missed the field goal.  We went ballistic.  And then we noticed the flag.  A flag.

Against us.  For having too many players on the field.  A mistake. A miscommunication.  And they got a second chance at the field goal they had just missed.  And they got it.  They won.  By one point.  And we were crushed.

The entire auditorium went silent.  Everyone slowly put their jackets on and plodded to the doors.  People swore and stewed.  Others were silent in their grief.  I just wanted to go home and hide. 

I find it funny in a game that three years ago I wouldn't have known was being played, I am near tears in the disappointment.  Not only for myself, my friends, and the other fans, but for the players themselves.  I feel heartbroken over a game.  Not for how the game was played or what it meant, but for how disappointed those poor players must feel. 

Riders are a strange bunch of fans.  We dress our pets up, we dress ourselves up, we paint our face, we wear watermelons on our heads.  We get married with Rider themes, we name our children after players.  We bleed green.  And tonight, we cry green.



Late addition: Maryanne wrote a beautiful addition to this post about our heartache.  Go here.

Monty says "We're going to Grey Cup!"

He's excited. Can't you tell?

Ready for the season

I mentioned before that The Guy is a football nut. Okay, I take that back. I've complained before. The Guy loves anything Rider affiliated. I have gotten to experience this joy and it is catchy. I now have season tickets and wear all the silly gear. I even booed Burris once*.

The Guy was very excited today to announce he had bought something for the dog. I should have known what was coming. It wasn't a jersey, like I feared. Montel now has a matching shiny green Rider collar and leash.

Look at how happy he is with his Rider pride.

All I can say is "Is nothing sacred?"


*I am so against this kind of sportsmanship. But the chant was really catchy that day.

Pros and cons of football

I went to my first football game as a season ticket holder last night. After it rained all day, the clouds moved on just in time. It was a good experience and not nearly as bad as I had been dreading. I am still considering buying tickets to Reba McIntyre and Kelly Clarkson's concert just to make The Guy go to something out of his element, but we'll see how it goes.

While I was at the game, I started making a list of things I like and dislike about going to football games.

I like:

• stadium hot dogs
• smell of the ozone coming off the lights
• exciting plays I actually followed and understood (sorta)
• the guy 5 rows down with the homemade combine hat
• little girls with pigtails and face paint
• fire works
• parachuters dropped from a plane into the middle of the field
• the mascot. (Yes, I admit. I think Gainer is funny. Even if he "likes women"*)

I do not like:

• drunk people
• heckling
• booing the visiting team
• yelling "You suck" at a coach or player
• the cost of drinks and hot dogs at the stadium - ($7.50 for a coke and a hot dog. What?)
• drunk people getting louder

I have a hard time with what I consider unsportsmanlike conduct. That was my least favourite part of the game. They say it's worse when Calgary comes to play. I'm going to skip those games. I just think it's tacky and uncalled for. You can watch a game without getting drunk and offensive.

Although, I am new to the sport.


*edit: I forgot to explain this. Janny was at a gas station when Gainer happened to be there. Gainer tried to hug her repeatedly and followed her around when she tried to evade him. A strange trucker who was standing by said to her, "Gainer likes women" in a leery Ozarks kind of way.

All sorts of excitement

Saskatchewan is in a bit of a tither. Since the Riders won the Grey Cup tonight, the whole city is in an uproar. I was expecting more along the lines of looting and pillaging, but it turned into a great big neighbourhood party. Everyone was hugging and crying and laughing and drinking. It was a blast.

I went to watch the game at the casino again. The show lounge was filled with Rider fans and one lonely little Bombers fan. He, of course, was with us. But he didn't get beat up which I was disappointed surprised. We had a great time. It was a fantastic game. And yes, I got a little teary when our Quarter Back cried.

Upon returning home, I figured I would get the dogs night walk out of the way. I bundled up and set out to forcibly exercise them and me. I discovered there are many things my dogs do not like about the Grey Cup.

The dogs do not like:

• being honked at
• being cheered at
• having people scream "Go Riders"
• having people come up to give high fives to their human
• sirens of police cars (there were 4 riot squads out tonight)
• people laughing loudly
• fireworks

When the fireworks exploded, Vicki took off at a dead run. It's the first time she's ever led the walk run home.

Hell has frozen, News at 11

Janice has told my secret. Roger is going to die of shock. Jamie is going to laugh her head off.

I am enjoying football.

I will let that sink in before I move on.

• I went to my first game with The Guy this year.
• I am now the reluctantly proud owner of a season ticket to the Riders for 2008.
• I went to the Rider vs BC semi-final game with a group of people tonight
• I not only followed what was going on, but I cheered loudly. So loudly, in fact, that my throat hurts.
• and here is the worst of it... I took time off from work to watch the Grey Cup. Me. Time off from work. To watch sports.

I feel sick. I think I need to sit down.

Green is the colour

I went to a football game today. Not only a football game, but a Rider game.

The last time I went to a football game, I was forced to attend by two friends. I didn't want to go, I told them I didn't want to go and I said that if I had to go, I was bringing a book. They didn't believe me. I showed them. I brought Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and read most of it during the most boring 3 hours of my life. The book was fantastic. The drunken idiots screaming around me were not. My friends were furious at me and even to this day (almost 10 years later) will not speak to me about it. They just get quiet and surly.

In Saskatchewan, not cheering for the Riders is a crime. Seriously, it's in the charter. Well, not really, but it might as well be. Everyone and their dog shows up to cheer for them. Winning or losing. And believe me when I say, it's usually losing. But we're nothing if not loyal. Oh, and you think I'm kidding about the dog? I'm not. On the way back to the car, a dog with a Roughrider's jersey was sitting on some one's porch. Apparently, the dog is trained to growl at anyone in a non-Sask jersey. Yikes.

So, you will ask why I was at the game? Well, The Guy is an avid fan. Correction, a rabid fan. Everything he owns is green and has a logo. He threatened to buy me a jersey for my birthday. I am sure he bleeds green. Or, I've been told that's what Rider fans do. So, when he asked me if I wanted to go how could I say no? Especially when I said no to going to the Ozzy concert? I couldn't. And, I thought I should be supportive for this thing he enjoys.

So, I went. It was about 8 degrees (45 F) and we were on the sunny side. The wind was a little sharp, but not too bad if the sun was out. Which is was for lots of the game. Which is why my face and lips are burnt. Oh, that's from the wind too. And then it hailed. Yes, it hailed. HAILED. While it was still sunny. Uh huh.

I had a surprisingly good time. Although, the first few minutes I was there, I spilled ketchup down the front of The Guy's jersey he lent me to wear. Oops. Well, you can't take me in public, I do things like that. The game was really interesting and I learned a lot. I can't say I would make it a regular occurrence (mostly b/c I don't want to be one of those people. I mock those people.) but I did agree to go some other time as well.

The Guy's highlight of the whole time was the Rider's first touchdown. After the touch down, they kick a field goal and set off fireworks. Which no one told me about. So, I jumped a foot in the air and screeched. The row behind me burst out laughing and continued to do so as I jumped every time the fireworks went off.

I am threatening to make The Guy take me to a Dolly Parton concert. Or, to watch a marathon of So You Think You Can Dance.

Photographic proof I was there. (Gah. I look like my Mom)