elk's lodge, rose bowl and beer bucket

last night I went to the South Austin Elk's Lodge to watch the big game between USC and UT.

Let me preface all that follows by saying this is the first football game i have ever watched with even a modicum of interest. Football to me has always been a bunch of fat guys in tight yeast-innfection inducing pants playing gang bang withh a funny shaped ball. I never got it and would always clap for the wrong team when I was in drill squad in high school. Plus, both my highh school team and the Longhorns when I attended UT sucked really hard, we never won games and it was just demoralizing as hell. I just assumed any team I was supposed to support would always lose.

Last night, however, totally and completely rocked. I met a gang of pals at the Elk's Lodge. Yes, Elk's Lodge. The Austin Elks have been making a push for younger members to help support their AWESOME facilities. The lodge is located on a bluff overlooking downtown with sweeping views. They've got a pool; and a ballroom and activity rooms. But even better is the bar with $1.50 beers and $4.00 pitchers. A four buck pitcher to someone from Norway is like a swimming pool full of Evian being presented to a dehydrated desert dweller. Sheer abundance and wonderfulness. The folks there are a mixture of traditional older Texans, young hipsters, folks with kids and lots of folks with accents so thick you want a butter knife to cut through it. All the bartenders call you "sweetiepie".

So I had my pitcher of Miller Lite (hey, I'll drop my beer snob standards for a cheap bucket o' beer. Even snobs can bend.), my burger and my nachos and settled down to watch the game. We yelled we screamed and we drank. Valerie, one of the gang, came up with the best line of the night, which went, " I wanna see some white all over that mofo!", when she was hollering for the USC quarterback to get tackled by the UT team. I almost snorted beer out my nose.

I mostly got what was going on, with some helpful explanations about rules, etc. It was especially exciting towards the end, when, after two failed throws towards the goal, the one guy who had the ball just basically said "Fuck it, I'm running" and ran with the ball for a touchdown that won the game. You could see his thought process before he ran, which was "these guys can't catch and I can run like the wind, so here goes!" It was cool. I yelled and hollered with the best of 'em.

I swear, if football was like that I'd watch it ALL the time.....

Go Longhorns! Woo!!!!!

After the game we went to the Mean Eyed Cat for a post game beer or two and it was madness on the streets. Folks honking and hollering and cheering and honking some more. It was great. I'm so glad I went to the game. I had cancelled due to tiredness, crankiness and an almost bad incident involving me, a chair, some mini blinds and a drill, but when I realized I was not dead or hurt, just scared stupid, a hot shower perked me back up and I ended up joining the party.

last night was a true Texas night. Now if only Guinness came in $4 pitchers......