a little fun
Because not everything that happens to me results in whining/ranting. I'm actually really pleased at the amount of quality time I've been able to spend with people this semester, especially compared to last spring. I've had a chance to meet a lot of new people, drink a lot of coffee in that social way that makes it take upwards of an hour to get through the cup, and I've had a chance to try a whole bunch of new restaurants, which is always a plus. And I just finished a generally good weekend, so in the spirit of blog-as-travelogue upon which this page was originally founded, a year and thousands of miles ago, I present: Going to the LA Coliseum to see a USC game.
Dan and I had actually been casually discussing this since probably the first or second week of the college football season back in September. We're both Michigan fans, but he's a native of Ann Arbor (I'm a fan by way of my dad, who went there undergrad and law), so he's interacted a fair amount with the Big House in various capacities, whereas I've only marveled at photos, our home computer's mouse pad, and the like. One of the bits of senior-year baggage we found we were both carrying was anxiety at the prospect of our last season of college football while still being in college. Along with the same sort of "Oh god, their star QB is younger than I am" fears we shared was my worry about having never seen a real large-scale college game live. Sure, I've been to some of pomona's games, but a college that can only find 30 students to play on its team, no matter how hard they work, isn't going to be the huge community draw a major-conference D-I school is. That Saturday, whichever Saturday it was, we resolved to go downtown to see a USC game. By mid-week, we had picked the USC-Oregon game as our target--both teams were ranked at the time, but it didn't carry the historic rivalry (and thus inflated ticket prices) of USC-Cal or USC-Notre Dame. At the time, the date seemed so distant... and we definitely didn't do anything like buy tickets in advance or even really look up where to park to get to the Coliseum. So the trip had the right blend of lengthy anticipation and lack of planning that makes a trip off campus into an adventure.
I called Dan Friday afternoon to ask if he still wanted to go to the next evening's game (the same last-minute calls that eventually resulted in my having to wait til next spring to see a game at Dodger stadium), and he said he was down. I called again Saturday afternoon to see when we wanted to leave, and then around 5pm to see if we could maybe go a little earlier cause of traffic. And then I looked at google maps to figure out which exit would be most convenient. This was the extent to which we had planned the trip. As it turned out, we left with 90 minutes to spare before kickoff, hit traffic, and got off the highway with a bare 15 left to find parking, tickets, and wherever we ended up sitting.
Parking ended up being kinda scary--though the LA Coliseum website said nearby lots could be found for five to ten dollars on event days, everything within a couple blocks of the entrance was charging $60 - 80. Some driving around the neighborhood later, we found a small business's private lot, with a guy standing out front. He informed us that his lot was full, but that he was parallel parked across the street, and we could have his space for $40. He moved his car into the driveway of the lot, we pulled a quick U-turn to secure the spot, and paid him twenty each to park on the street. We paid for parking in cash, as we planned to pay for the tickets. Since we were expecting to deal with a scalper for high-demand seats, even the bad ones we were prepared to settle for looked to cost upwards of $140, at least based on some eBay I'd been bored and checked in the months before. To cover this and a margin of error above, we'd agree to withdraw about $200 each before heading downtown; it's definitely the most cash I've carried since I was abroad and paying my rent in 10000-forint bills every month. Needless to say, our surprise at the cost of parking gave me a little bit of a bad feeling about things.
We started following the crowd in toward the Coliseum, not really sure what to look for, but knowing we needed to get solicited with the cry of "need tickets?" ubiquitous to sports arenas everywhere. After probably hundreds of trying to avoid these brokers and a few occasions on which we sold them extra Rockies tickets back home, Dan and I were going to attempt to not get ripped off by one of them. As it turned out, a guy was standing not too far from the complex entrance, and he directed his question right at us, picking us out of the crowd of official USC apparel-outfitted fans by our nondescript clothing and possibly anxious expressions. He had only two tickets, and sold them to us for face value ($40) because he said he had to get out of there and head home. This seemed almost too good to be true, and the appearance of the tickets themselves seemed to back up our suspicions--unlike the large and colorful tickets we saw in the hands of passerby, ours were simple dot-matrix text on a generic white field, hardly promising. On the other hand, it was not an offer to be passed up, so we figured we may as well get them and if we were denied entry, return to the parking lot to try to find some last-minute spares.
The two of us made it past several cursory inspections at the door, and they even held up as I nervously stammered my way through asking our section's usher for directions. If nothing else was learned yesterday, I realized that I would be no good at talking my way out of traffic tickets, passport violations, etc. And that I should avoid playing poker. My guilt, even based as it was merely in uncertainty at the possibility that we really did luck out, showed clearly on my face up through when we sat down. I pushed the guilt to the back of my mind, until only the specter of two guys, showing up LA late to the game, tapping us on the shoulders, and telling us "Hey, you're in our seats" remained. By halftime, this too passed, and Dan and I could only marvel at the fortunate coincidence (or string of coincidences) that put us in place to meet the guy who just wanted to sell two more tickets before going home.
They were good seats, too, 60 rows up and right behind the goalpost. A lot of the key plays in the game, as it would turn out, took place on our end of the field; it was a lot better game than the final score would suggest, at least until USC cemented its lead in the 4th and people started to skip out early. I was warmed throughout the game by the satisfaction of hasty plans made good, and also by the realization I had near the beginning of the second quarter that the Coliseum's 92,000 sellout crowd is the largest group of people I've ever seen in one place. Overall, the game was a lot of fun, the experience holding up to the nebulous expectations I'd had for "big college football," I definitely enjoyed the spicy famous Louisiana sausage I got at halftime, a bargain for stadium food, the car made it through the night intact, and we even made it to In-n-Out on the way back to school before it closed. All in all, I think any karma I'd been accumulating this semester has been put to use, and good use to be sure.
The rest of the weekend was good, as well, but this definitely stands out against "I got some grading done" and "I sent a couple important emails I needed to send." Next week is Michigan - Ohio State, and you can bet it will be an event, but I will be watching it with a new appreciation for the meaning of "home field advantage." Spending a summer in the shadow of Beaver Stadium in PA didn't prepare me for the experience of an actual game, and watching USC in person gave me a chance to put a face on all that media hype and content I read each week as part of my internet-surfing study break routine.
Dan and I had actually been casually discussing this since probably the first or second week of the college football season back in September. We're both Michigan fans, but he's a native of Ann Arbor (I'm a fan by way of my dad, who went there undergrad and law), so he's interacted a fair amount with the Big House in various capacities, whereas I've only marveled at photos, our home computer's mouse pad, and the like. One of the bits of senior-year baggage we found we were both carrying was anxiety at the prospect of our last season of college football while still being in college. Along with the same sort of "Oh god, their star QB is younger than I am" fears we shared was my worry about having never seen a real large-scale college game live. Sure, I've been to some of pomona's games, but a college that can only find 30 students to play on its team, no matter how hard they work, isn't going to be the huge community draw a major-conference D-I school is. That Saturday, whichever Saturday it was, we resolved to go downtown to see a USC game. By mid-week, we had picked the USC-Oregon game as our target--both teams were ranked at the time, but it didn't carry the historic rivalry (and thus inflated ticket prices) of USC-Cal or USC-Notre Dame. At the time, the date seemed so distant... and we definitely didn't do anything like buy tickets in advance or even really look up where to park to get to the Coliseum. So the trip had the right blend of lengthy anticipation and lack of planning that makes a trip off campus into an adventure.
I called Dan Friday afternoon to ask if he still wanted to go to the next evening's game (the same last-minute calls that eventually resulted in my having to wait til next spring to see a game at Dodger stadium), and he said he was down. I called again Saturday afternoon to see when we wanted to leave, and then around 5pm to see if we could maybe go a little earlier cause of traffic. And then I looked at google maps to figure out which exit would be most convenient. This was the extent to which we had planned the trip. As it turned out, we left with 90 minutes to spare before kickoff, hit traffic, and got off the highway with a bare 15 left to find parking, tickets, and wherever we ended up sitting.
Parking ended up being kinda scary--though the LA Coliseum website said nearby lots could be found for five to ten dollars on event days, everything within a couple blocks of the entrance was charging $60 - 80. Some driving around the neighborhood later, we found a small business's private lot, with a guy standing out front. He informed us that his lot was full, but that he was parallel parked across the street, and we could have his space for $40. He moved his car into the driveway of the lot, we pulled a quick U-turn to secure the spot, and paid him twenty each to park on the street. We paid for parking in cash, as we planned to pay for the tickets. Since we were expecting to deal with a scalper for high-demand seats, even the bad ones we were prepared to settle for looked to cost upwards of $140, at least based on some eBay I'd been bored and checked in the months before. To cover this and a margin of error above, we'd agree to withdraw about $200 each before heading downtown; it's definitely the most cash I've carried since I was abroad and paying my rent in 10000-forint bills every month. Needless to say, our surprise at the cost of parking gave me a little bit of a bad feeling about things.
We started following the crowd in toward the Coliseum, not really sure what to look for, but knowing we needed to get solicited with the cry of "need tickets?" ubiquitous to sports arenas everywhere. After probably hundreds of trying to avoid these brokers and a few occasions on which we sold them extra Rockies tickets back home, Dan and I were going to attempt to not get ripped off by one of them. As it turned out, a guy was standing not too far from the complex entrance, and he directed his question right at us, picking us out of the crowd of official USC apparel-outfitted fans by our nondescript clothing and possibly anxious expressions. He had only two tickets, and sold them to us for face value ($40) because he said he had to get out of there and head home. This seemed almost too good to be true, and the appearance of the tickets themselves seemed to back up our suspicions--unlike the large and colorful tickets we saw in the hands of passerby, ours were simple dot-matrix text on a generic white field, hardly promising. On the other hand, it was not an offer to be passed up, so we figured we may as well get them and if we were denied entry, return to the parking lot to try to find some last-minute spares.
The two of us made it past several cursory inspections at the door, and they even held up as I nervously stammered my way through asking our section's usher for directions. If nothing else was learned yesterday, I realized that I would be no good at talking my way out of traffic tickets, passport violations, etc. And that I should avoid playing poker. My guilt, even based as it was merely in uncertainty at the possibility that we really did luck out, showed clearly on my face up through when we sat down. I pushed the guilt to the back of my mind, until only the specter of two guys, showing up LA late to the game, tapping us on the shoulders, and telling us "Hey, you're in our seats" remained. By halftime, this too passed, and Dan and I could only marvel at the fortunate coincidence (or string of coincidences) that put us in place to meet the guy who just wanted to sell two more tickets before going home.
They were good seats, too, 60 rows up and right behind the goalpost. A lot of the key plays in the game, as it would turn out, took place on our end of the field; it was a lot better game than the final score would suggest, at least until USC cemented its lead in the 4th and people started to skip out early. I was warmed throughout the game by the satisfaction of hasty plans made good, and also by the realization I had near the beginning of the second quarter that the Coliseum's 92,000 sellout crowd is the largest group of people I've ever seen in one place. Overall, the game was a lot of fun, the experience holding up to the nebulous expectations I'd had for "big college football," I definitely enjoyed the spicy famous Louisiana sausage I got at halftime, a bargain for stadium food, the car made it through the night intact, and we even made it to In-n-Out on the way back to school before it closed. All in all, I think any karma I'd been accumulating this semester has been put to use, and good use to be sure.
The rest of the weekend was good, as well, but this definitely stands out against "I got some grading done" and "I sent a couple important emails I needed to send." Next week is Michigan - Ohio State, and you can bet it will be an event, but I will be watching it with a new appreciation for the meaning of "home field advantage." Spending a summer in the shadow of Beaver Stadium in PA didn't prepare me for the experience of an actual game, and watching USC in person gave me a chance to put a face on all that media hype and content I read each week as part of my internet-surfing study break routine.
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