Best Year Ever!

So, I'm sure that most bloggers during this week are focusing on their New Years Resolutions or all the things in their lives that they are thankful for and hope to continue to be thankful for for many years to come. And I could do all that, but not today. No, no, today we are focusing on the greatest day of my life. New Years Day, 2011. Although it started kind of rough at 5:45 in the morning, followed by a brief jog to the train station, ten minutes away, it lead to the most amazing time that I could ever describe. Allow me to tell you all about the day. Alarm goes off at 5:45, as I mentioned, but it wasn't like I'd been sleeping at all. No, Laura and I were designated to a very tiny couch with springs that poked you in every place imaginable. And when you moved, the other person physically lifted off the bed. So, when you laid down, that is where you were to stay, for the entire night. This tiny slice of heaven was then followed up by the fact that during the night, my brothers two knuckle head room mates thought it was okay to turn off the heat and allow whatever was happening outside of their rooms to suffer. I didn't know that people actually turned the heat off in the winter. So, on top of the fact that stirring would wake the other person in the bed, you didn't really want to move because the spot you had worked so hard at making warm was now cooling down. All in all, sleeping that night was a luxury I was not afforded, which really sucks more when you add in that the night before I was only allowed 5 hours of sleep before boarding a plane. To say I was sleepy was an understatement. But there was no time for grumpiness this day. We were on a schedule and we had to keep it. However, due to the fact we were so tired, moving quickly was a little difficult. It took us 5 minutes just to thaw out, so we got behind schedule a little bit. Which meant that we had to book it at 6:15 am to make a train by 6:25, because if you missed that train, who knows when we would be leaving. Did I mention that in this process we were delayed a little longer due to the fact that we could not find the $100 bill that Laura had in her purse. Yeah, it was a rough 30 minutes. So, safely on the train for the next hour, we were able to relax and wonder just where we get off this sucker. Oh, and when exactly are we going to eat. As we transfer to our final train, we are greeted by a sea of red and white Wisconsin fans. It wasn't the only way I knew we were going the right way, but it was the moment I started to get annoyed they were there, and in droves! For the next 20 minutes, I'm staring at the map and wondering which stop we need to get off at. We were given no directions and there was no information on the website for the Rose Parade that told us which stop the route started and which stop the route ended. So, I assumed we were following the direction of the route and the beginning would be the last stop. Oh no, that was wrong, so we went one stop too far, had to turn back around, wait for the next train, which took another 10 minutes which now has us at 7:40. Parade starts at 8 and apparently our seats are at the front of it. And they don't stop for two girls that just didn't know where they were going. Finally at our destination, it is 7:45, we have 15 minutes to run 6 blocks up, two blocks over, and three blocks up again. We've been up for 2 hours, slept zero hours and had nothing to eat. We were in bad shape. Not to mention the fact that we had to RUN, RUN, RUN all the way to our seats. Which no one happened to mention was uphill, THE WHOLE WAY. By the time we sat down, at 7:57 we contemplated whether or not this whole thing was a good idea. Let me go on record by saying, YES, absolutely, 100%, no doubt in my mind how awesome it was. Sure it was cold, and by cold, I mean I literally lost feeling in my right foot and left hand. EVEN with hand warmers. They might call it sunny California, but if you are hidden beneath the shade of an orange tree, there might be very few things colder. However, these were our seats!!

Yes, this IS the start of the parade and that IS the NBC tower. I couldn't believe it! Whatever was supposed to happen, happened with us first! I almost felt bad being so tired at that point because I felt I couldn't appreciate what was happening around me to the full extent. So, as float after float passed us and the Wisconsin float passed, we started to anticipate when our amazing TCU float would be making an appearance, when then...

Full disclosure: There are very few things that hype me up as much as anything to do with TCU. I couldn't believe we were actually there! For our beloved Frogs no less. Yes, that is me screaming! I was like a kid at Christmas. AND I was sober, at that point. I probably couldn't have been more excited if I had actually been in the parade. Although the thought did cross my mind to just follow out the ending police cars to get people asking questions who was that crazy lady at the end of the parade, but we had some more walking to do.

As we were sitting at the parade, we were surrounded by locals who were giving us directions as to the easiest way to get to the game. The ticket website told us to take a shuttle, but Marge and her husband Larry (totally made up names) told us just to continue down the road which would take us right to the stadium. My thought was, if these two older people could do it, there is no way that Laura and I would be outwitted. However, huge suggestion of what not to do when figuring out how long it's going to take you, check your GPS on your phone. If you are already tired of walking, hungry enough to eat your travel partner, and tired of seeing red all around, you should probably not walk 1.3 miles to a stadium. Or, if you do check, make sure that the people who have your beer, that you are supposed to be tailgating with, are there, when they say they are going to be. Which ours were not. Here's how this whole thing went down....we leave the parade, text our tail gating buddies. They are "on their way". We are starving, tired, and I have to pee really bad. 10 minutes into our walk, we encounter little angels selling cookies, chips, and soda on the side of the road. I honestly would have given them all the money in my wallet, but they gave you three cookies for a dollar, so why waste the extra?!?!? I realized that I was so hungry that three cookies actually filled me up. So with one obstacle out of the way, we now needed to find a bathroom. Armed with the knowledge that this would not be my first trip to the port-o-jon, I wanted to find somewhere that wasn't too crowed at the moment. Luckily, I think God must have been looking down on me because right outside the stadium was herd of toilets with no one waiting. As I was emptying what seemed to be everything I drank for the past two days, I couldn't help but overhearing the "lovely" Wisconsin fans taunting a TCU fan to take a beer bong hit. Little did I know that this fan was old enough to be my dad, but in the true spirit of the game, the guy took it. I was so proud to be a Horned Frog at that moment. Even when the chips and the population is stacked against us, we still show up. So now, with both issues out of the way, we still don't have our beer. We now head over to the Pizza Slice area because hey, those cookies are going to disappear soon. We decide to forgo the eating, for right now and get right down to business. It's time for a beer. We've walked about 3 miles, ran most of it, who doesn't deserve a beer or two after that. So, we belly up to the bar and order two beers a piece. Why waste the time, honestly? TWENTY DOLLARS LATER we walk away. I would say it's the best $20 I've ever spent, but I really couldn't. The beer was definitely not going to make me stronger, but perhaps invincible. So we start to walk around the little village and notice a sign outside of the Taco Bell truck that said, FREE TACOS. Now you're speaking our language. By this time I'm already through my first 20 ounces of beer and onto the next. By the way, we still don't know where our tailgating friends are and we've been hanging out a good 45 minutes now. So, we continue to walk around until my phone finally tells us the location of tailgate, which happens to be NO WHERE around where we are. So, once again we are off walking. About seven minutes into our journey our white knight pulls up in a golf cart and offers us a ride to closer to where our tail gate is. This guy could not have shown up at a better time. I swear I was close to having bloody stumps at that point. Yes, I had tennis shoes on, but there is honestly only so much walking one girl can do. Oh, by the way, for those of you keeping track at home, it is now noon, and we have only eaten 3 cookies, a free taco and 40 ounces of beer. I am feeling AMAZING! 7 minutes later we arrive at the tailgate. Not much to report here, or that I want to share at this point, but we down about 6 beers a piece in the next hour and a half with only a tiny sandwich roll to eat. So now, we are about 10 beers in, on an empty stomach and heading into the game. As we hit our seats I am bombarded by the overwhelming feeling of having to pee again. I think I can hold it until after kickoff, but you know after you've been drinking, you just think you might actually pee your pants if you don't go at that exact moment. And you also know there is a line about 25 people deep out there and if you don't act now, you might pee in the seats. So, I went....to the bathroom, of course. Luckily I made it in the nick of time before kickoff. However, everyone around us was pounding food. Although I wasn't hungry, I knew we needed to eat something, but we didn't. It was just way too exciting. So, as halftime rolled around, Laura looked at me and told me we needed more beer. I disagreed because I had had enough, but her logic was not flawed and I knew I just had to follow along. Our first stop, the beer tent. So that we could wait in line for food with our beers, of course. As we stood in the MONSTER line, I guess I made friends with the guys in front of us, because the next thing I know, the third quarter is over, and we have two new fresh beers in our hands, nachos and a hot dog. These two wanted to continue to chat, but I wasn't here to make friends. We make it back to our seats for the next, greatest 30 minutes of my life. If you want to know how the game was actually played, you should have seen it on TV, but if you thought my screaming at the parade was a lot, you should have seen my craziness at the end of the game. I was jumping, and screaming, and high fiving EVERYONE around me. I was going NUTS! It's amazing how the Little Sisters of the Blind can over take such a tremendous power house of Wisconsin. No one really thought we could do it, but we did. That stadium had easily 8 fans to our 1 and we still beat them. It was a celebration of celebrations. These might not be the best pictures, but that's all I got on my phone.

It's honestly the little things in life that make the biggest difference. Yes, we had to walk the ENTIRE way back and retrace our entire trip. And yes, in total, I'm sure we walked over 6 miles, drank 14 beers and were up 21 hours. But honestly, I would do it all again the exact same if that last picture held true.

I'm really looking forward to 2011. So far it's been a hell of a year!