Go Noles

Saturday legend post missed yet again.... Oh, and Friday music day. Well, this is wonderful. You can imagine how great a morning routine I have by now, huh?

To explain the post title. Last Saturday, Percy, Seph, and I attended a football game. It was, in fact, the very first football game I had ever been to in my life. My dad grew up on baseball, you see, and thus our family has been more tuned to that sport than any other. Meaning I knew pretty close to zero about how football actually worked.

My cousin attended Florida State University, and while there became a rather enamored fan of the FSU Seminoles, who are, apparently, quite famous here in Florida. She was able to explain some of the basic rules of the game to me while we watched the various uniformed buff guys crash into each other and tumble over on the grass repeatedly whilst I attempted to pinpoint which one of them actually posessed the ball, and which ones were just getting knocked over for no apparent reason. With her help and a fair ammount of scrutiny, I managed to get at least the gist of the game enough to know when to be pleased and when to be displeased. AND, I'm quite proud of myself, I learned how to tell who was on the offensive and who was on the defensive just by looking, therefore relieving my cousin from the chore of telling me every other play. I confess to have gotten distracted more than once with people watching. Which was also fascinating, I must say. College campuses -- let alone college football stadiums -- are not locations I frequent by any stretch.

Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the trip was the marching band, the likes of which I've never heard or seen before. The Marching Chiefs. They were absolutely spectacular. I do not claim to be an especially talented person, so logically the ability to play any instrument consistently, march in an alotted formation, and do both of those in sync and in the Floridian heat left me significantly impressed. They preformed a pregame practice show, a half time show, and at varous points during the game to lead the massive crowd in a myriad of cheers and chants that every loyal Seminoles fan knew by heart, my cousin included. I only picked up on one of them: the war chant.

Probably the next coolest thing was their mascot. Rather than a disturbing figure in a fuzzy suit running around making a fool of itself, the Seminoles have Osceola and Renegade, a Seminole chief and his apaloosa horse. Before the game began Osceola rode to the center of the field bearing a flaming spear, paused at the Seminole symbol pained to the grass where Renegade reared up, and Osceola launched the spear downwards to embed in the ground, at which point the entire stadium erupted in wild cheers as he galloped off in triumph.

Really, right from the start of the game, the opposing team didn't stand a chance under such an oppressive atmosphere of dominance the Seminoles displayed right from the start. Murray State just couldn't compete. It would take a team of equal ranking as the Seminoles to come even remotely close to being challenge for them. All in all, the entire trip was a fascinationg cultural experience.

Go Noles.

Dia duit,
~Penny