Sunday, October 27, 2013

His Grace in Making Memories

Before the college football season started, I purchased tickets to two games:  the Ole Miss game at UT and the game to be held at TCU.  For a variety of reasons, I decided not to attend the Ole Miss game after spending most of the week in Austin for a conference.  So my one and only chance to see my team play in person came down to this weekend's game.  The only problem:  the forecast. 

All week, the weather forecasters predicted rain would move in during the game.  And on the shuttle to the game, I thought the skies would explode at any minute.  But about thirty minutes after arriving, the sun came up and made it look like we were in the clear.


(Rob, whom I used to babysit, and I taking in the view from the endzone before making our way up to our seats.  At this point, I thought my rain boots were not going to be needed and probably looked out of place.)


(My friend Nick, who now works at Passion in Atlanta, came in for the game.  Our seats were eight rows from Heaven.)

With our lofty seats, we were in the perfect position to see the lightning move in shortly after it got dark.  And with a ton of time still left in the second quarter, we had to take cover as the deluge moved in.  The rain came down in sheets so thick that the other side of the stadium could not be seen.


Our "seats" for the next two hours ended up being standing-room only near the concession stand in one of the lower breezeways.  We passed the time by talking and watching portions of the World Series on the televisions mounted near the concession stand.  But we finally threw in the towel at the two-hour mark because Rob had friends with parking next to the stadium who offered to give us a ride to our vehicles, which saved me from having to walk to the shuttle stop in the downpour and the never-ending lighting. 

The rain delay ended up lasting three hours and six minutes, and the game finished around 12:30 this morning with a big W for the Longhorns.  Part of me wishes that I had stayed because it was open seating after the rain delay.  But the practical side of me was grateful to be dry and in my bed listening to the game as it wrapped up.

I can't say I've ever seen any game like this before, but now I've made new memories with my Longhorn buddies that will last a lifetime.

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