Sugar Bowl Aftermath

Man, was that trip to New Orleans great! Parking; no problem. Hotel; no problem. Food; no problem. Seats for game; no problem. LSU fan and ND fan next to us; Big Freaking Problem!

My wife and I arrived in the Superdome about 5:15, two hours before the game. We went in early because yours truly had to do #1 some kind of fierce. Anyway, two Irish fans from Bawston showed up shortly thereafter. The missus and I chatted rather pleasantly with these two hardcore Irish fans. Next, enter young, drunk, and obnoxious Tiger fan. I knew this was going to be a test of my patience from the get-go. For the next hour and a half I had to listen to 'Dude, Notre Dame Sucks and you guys need to play in a real conference.' about 20 times. Granted, I may believe the same thing, but diplomacy is a good thing when meeting people for the first time. Thus began the WWE Wednesday Night Smackdown in New Orleans.

No fight ever broke out, but it was pretty touch-and-go most of the game. The ND guy next to us was just as boisterous as the drunk Tiger fan in front of us. My wife was getting pissed, because I had to difuse several infamitory comments from both sides for the entire 3rd quarter. I wish that I would be eloquent enough to recapture the intense arguing, errrrr. . .debate for the first 3 quarters of the football game.

I do truly believe that Les Miles actually had a good game plan for this matchup. He actually gained some respect from me on this account. Last year, he had the team very prepared for that beat-down of Miami. And LSU's second half explosion on ND showed dude actually might have some coaching skills. Now, don't get me wrong. I am still not a huge Les Miles fan, but I am hoping he can win me completely over in the next few seasons. I want LSU to be a top level program year in and out. I hope he can do it.

I only have one real wish for next football season. I want to go to Tuscaloosa and beat the living dog mess out of the Crimson Tide. I will be there, tickets or no tickets. I have already taken vacation for that weekend.

And finally, JaMarcus, GOOD LUCK at the next level. I and many Tiger Fans out there appreciate everything you have accomplished here at LSU. We will definately miss you when you are gone!

Officially, Sugar Bowl Bound

When my wife and I found out that LSU was going to be in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl she said, "We need to go!" I was pumped. After about a half of a second I became more realistic.

I said, "Honey, how are we going to get tickets without selling off our youngest child?"

She replied, "Look, I don't care how you get them, just do it!" "Within reason, of course," she added.

I approached several of my contacts for tickets that I received for past games. No luck. At work the next day I had an epiphany. I'll just go on ebay. Let me fill you in on a little secret. I have never bought or even bid on anything on ebay. Needless to say, I was going in blind, but I was going to give it a shot. During my lunch break, I decided to take a look at what was on auction at the time. It was about 23 minutes past the hour and 'lo and behold' there were a couple of tickets being auctioned off in the nosebleed endzone of the Super Dome. There were only 7 minutes left for bidding and the top bid was $405. I preface this next statement by saying I have NEVER paid that much for any sporting event and didn't think I ever would. Anyway, I put in a bid for $410 with my upper limit being $450. Well, with 1 minute left in the bidding I was still the high bidder. With 30 seconds left the top bid went straight to $450. I was thinking, "Aw Hell. This guy is going to out-bid me with a $455 offer." My computer chose this particular time to freeze up. After rebooting, I logged back in to ebay to find out that I was, in fact, the winning bidder for the tickets. Well, I called the missus and told her about the tickets. She screamed my ear off through the phone. She was very excited about the chance to go see the Tigers in New Orleans.

This is where it gets interesting. I paid the seller for the tickets and opted for the Fed Ex delivery option. By the way, make sure you check the sellers feedback before placing any bid requests. I bid on some sucky seats but what the heck, I'll be amoung friends, huh? Well here it is December 27th and no tickets. My wife is about to strangle me for not having the tickets in hand yet. I'm wondering how I am going to evade the potential explosion if these tickets do not arrive before we go visit her brother in Houston this weekend. Well, yesterday I get home from work at about 5 A.M. and go to sleep. When I wake up, I go to our mailbox and happen to look at teh front door.

At this moment, I have a "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" interlude moment when the heavens open up and all the cheesy music plays. My Fed Ex package has arrived while I was sleeping. I tear open the envelope and find out that the seller has upgraded me from the endzone to 30 yard line seats. Granted, we are still in the nosebleed sections, but I'll be able to see some action. My wife was happy and I avoided another trip to the doghouse.

I am stoked about the game. I am really looking forward to attending my third bowl game in a row. I'll be sporting my purple and gold with the rest of the Tiger Faithful and I hope to see all of you there!