October 11th, 2009
I don’t remember who said this metaphor, but it seems to accurately describe the weather last week. Texans are not used to the cold, so when it is about fifty degrees outside, we get our parkas out of the closet, put on some gloves, and look as if we are prepared for a blizzard. I even saw one girl wearing a scarf (I didn’t even know they sell those in the south).
I wish I would have looked up the weather forecast on Saturday morning, or at least stepped outside for a few minutes to see what the weather was like. When I walked to my car, I realized it was kind of cold, but I thought it would either warm up or that it was warmer on campus (I live about six miles from campus, so I’m not sure why I thought it would be warmer a few miles up the road). One of my friends had told me that it was going to be about seventy-six degrees at game time, so I drove to Kyle Field wearing a t-shirt and shorts.
I don’t quite remember the game. I just remember that I was very cold and thirsty; I always freeze my water bottle before the game, so it will stay cold, but in this case it was too cold. You would think that with seventy-eight thousand fans at Kyle Field the body heat would keep me warm, but somehow the wind seemed to penetrate the audience and blew directly on me. I tried to use my 12th Man Towel as a blanket, but that didn’t seem to work too well.
After the game, we had a barbecue at one of my friends’ apartment. This was the first time we had tried to barbecue by ourselves, so there was a learning curve. The only mistake we made was that we forgot to take the meat out of the freezer before the game, but thanks to the “auto defrost” button on the microwave, we were saved. We set the grill on the balcony, but since it was still cold outside, we stood inside by the sliding glass door and watched it. Who says that college students aren’t problem solvers?
The food that night was great, but because of the game I now have a cold. I can see tissues and cough syrup in my near future.
