Roll Tide Roll

When did I turn into a football fan?! Seriously.

Seems like all I've wanted to do this Fall is sit around and watch a game. I have no idea why this came to be, but why fight a good thing, right? A couple of weeks ago a friend from work who grew up in Alabama talked me into watching the University of Alabama game with her and then convinced me that this weekend was a good time to head down for some good old Alabama Crimson Tide football spirit. And of course, I said "sure, why not?". Football, friends, food... Where's the flaw in this plan???
Some wonderful schedule fairy arranged a 6-day weekend for me at work, so this was the perfect time to sneak in an early Thanksgiving with Mom in Nashville and catch my first ever college football game. Mind you, if you count community colleges I've been to 5 - yes, 5 - colleges. And I've never been to one of my own schools' football games. So why not skip straight to the big leagues with a 'Bama game, where football is way more than just a game, it's a way of life? Seriously, they have a Roll Tide radio station. Just plays football coverage. Yeah.
So Friday morning I hopped a plane and flew down to Nashville, visited with Mom for a few minutes, and then headed on down to Alabama in my Ikea of rental cars. 3 hours of country music and bleary-eyed driving later, I made it to Birmingham, AL to visit with my good friend Jen who is in medical school at UAB. I managed to drag Jen away from her studying long enough to grab a bite at the most incredible barbecue place ever. They actually had a "pig in the garden" salad that may be the most genius entree the south has ever produced. I had barbecue chicken that was so tender it melted in your mouth and tasted more like slow-cooked ham than chicken. Delicious! And a mudslide, in a martini glass. I'm pretty sure they saw "Yankee" written all over me and pulled out the special glasses just for the occasion.
Wild and adventurous 30-somethings that we are, Jen and I didn't go to bed until the wee hours of the night (ok, 11:30pm), so getting up for that football game just didn't seem to be in the cards. Also, turns out we didn't have tickets, it was probably going to rain, and the stadium was a 2 hour drive in bad traffic to Tuscaloosa. Needless to say, I slept in and helped Jen study for med school stuff instead.
Alas, still no college football for me. But it was nice to get out of the big city and see how the rest of the world lives again. And Thanksgiving dinner at Mom's (one of three pending for this holiday) was absolutely perfect. Still to come: friend Thanksgiving at the Soup Maestro's apartment, and a work feast on Turkey day. That will make heading back to NYC not so tough!