Right before the weekend, Ryan and his roommate found out that at the game on Sunday, they'd have police officers unfurling that big American flag across the field and both Ryan and his roommate were going to participate. Cool!
So we Pricelined a cheap hotel room in Houston, and on Saturday morning we headed out. We had two main goals for Saturday: 1) Find Mason a red JJ Watt jersey in 2X to wear, and maybe something new for me to wear, and 2) eat at the Texans Grille, which is a sports bar/restaurant dedicated to the team. Mason decided way back before the end of the season last year that JJ Watt was his favorite player, and that was the jersey he wanted (in red, not blue or white). We've both been looking for that jersey for months, but we've never seen it -- in fact we've never seen a JJ Watt jersey in ANY color. It seems that there must have been some production issues with the switchover from Reebok for 2011 to Nike for 2012. But we've been looking in Austin, not in Houston.
So we hit Houston and went to Academy. We found some T-shirts and some jerseys, but nothing decent. So we went to a second Academy, and their selection was even worse, they had practically nothing. I said we should stop looking at Academy stores and instead go directly to the store at the stadium. I figured they'd have it for sure. They did not. Not a single JJ Watt jersey, not in any size or color. Mason was crushed, but he needed something to wear to the game, he didn't have any jersey at all! So he found an Andre Johnson jersey in red. Andre Johnson is a perfectly ok player, this jersey will be fine. That's what he kept saying, that it was fine. I also found a cute women's jersey for myself, and we left for lunch.
The Texans Grille was the swankiest sports bar I've ever been in!
They had all these changing red and blue lights, and the logo projected in light, dancing around the floor. They were showing college football, and whenever the main game's audio went to a commercial, they had a DJ booth where the DJ would spin music instead of listening to the commercials. It was swank, but we didn't like our food all that much.
After lunch we were still disappointed that Mason didn't get the jersey that he really wanted. So we decided, let's just check one more Academy, there's one real nearby the Grille. He goes into that Academy. He looks, he finds nothing. Then he sees a girl putting some jerseys back on the shelves. He spots a "9" and says to the girl, "Um, excuse me, I think you're holding what I'm looking for..." She pulls out a white JJ Watt jersey and says, "This?" Mason looks at it and it's a 2X! He grabs it. He debates some, because it was clearly returned, as there were a couple of pen marks on it and the numbers were already looking slightly worn. But he says, "Eh, I'll just mess it up myself anyway. It'll be fine. The important thing is that it's JJ Watt." So he grabs it.
Now I'm so excited that he found a JJ Watt jersey that I'm getting a second wind of energy. So when we think maybe just stop at o-n-e more Academy, see if we can find one without pen marks on it, I'm game. We stop at our FOURTH Academy store. I stay in the car because I'm tired, but then I get a call. Mason says in a shaky voice, "I need you to bring in my Watt jersey." I walk in, and he's standing up front holding a RED JJ Watt jersey in his size. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!!!! This is the exact jersey we've been looking for, for months and months! This jersey didn't even exist online, we didn't think it existed anywhere! We made the exhange and Mason told me the story.
He walked in and saw a guy of similar build at a rack of jerseys, holding up a red JJ Watt, and he thought, "Oh no! This guy is looking for the exact same jersey I am!" and he watched that guy put it back. Mason picked it up, it's a XL. As Mason rolls through that rack, he sees his competitor head over to the second rack of jerseys. By the time Mason heads that direction, his competitor was leaving the rack empty handed. Damn it. Then he thought, "Well, I'll just try on that XL, who knows it might fit". So he went back to rack #1. And this time, instead of looking at the size on the hanger, he looked at the actual tag inside the jersey. Which led him to a 2XL red Watt jersey which was hanging on a "S" hanger. He said he grabbed it, he clutched it tightly to his chest, and tears sprung to his eyes. :-)
So then we got to the hotel, made arrangements for meeting up the next day since between all of us we only had one parking pass, and then we met our friend Leland who lives in Houston for dinner. I don't have any pictures of dinner because there just wasn't any light for the pics to turn out.
Mason barely slept all night, he was so excited like a kid at Christmas. We woke up early the next morning, dressed in our Texans finery, and were ready to go caravan over to begin the tailgating at 8:00 am. We got really lucky, because a cold front came through overnight and it was actually cool enough in the morning to wear sleeves! This boded well for a comfortable morning of tailgating. Especially check out my Texans earrings and necklace, and the Texans ponytail ribbons. Also note Mason's Texans hat, which was a hell of a find considering he has a big head that never fits into hats:
In the Houston HEB, the whole grocery store was geared towards Texans tailgating. We had sausage, burgers, chips, soda, water, beers, and cider for tailgating
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Ryan and his roommate went separately because they had to get there super early for flag-unfurling-practice. So me, Mason, John, Laura, and Geoff all piled into Laura's Element with our single parking pass to go tailgate! (A parking pass is a completely separate thing from your game ticket and costs a pretty penny all by itself)
Holy cow, tailgating is some serious business for people!!! There were people who had giant inflatables, big-screen tvs, and live DJs! So weird to be walking among people who are drunk at 9:00 in the morning.
Meanwhile, we just had a $10 charcoal grill from WalMart...
Unfortunately there was a steady and overwhelming smell of both smoke and lighter fluid, and it made me sick. We had wanted to enter the stadium around 10:30, and by that time I was really glad -- by then I was laying down in the Element trying not to throw up the 2 bites of burger I'd managed to eat. That overwhelming smell of lighter fluid was just killing me. But now we cleaned up our tailgating and headed in to Game Time!
Reliant Stadium is air-conditioned, so by the time we rode 3 escalators and stepped inside, I was already feeling better. By the time we sat down in our seats, I was actually hungry. Figures -- we had all this great food in the parking lot and I couldn't eat any of it, and now I was hungry in a place that sells $4 sodas and $15 nachos. Oh well, whaddyre gonna do.
We saw our friend Ryan and his roommate do the flag thing. Despite the fact that they paid full price for tickets, as a result of their involvement in the police flag thing, they didn't take their seats to watch the actual game until well into the 2nd quarter. Ryan said it wasn't worth it and he wouldn't do it again.
Then Game Time! I couldn't decide between watching the game and watching how excited Mason was about being there.
At half time everybody else went for food and bathroom and I got bored.
So I went to the Go Texans Store and returned that original Andre Johnson jersey.
Soon the game was over. We won, yay! And Mason's favorite player JJ Watt was on fire, YAY! On our walk back to the car, people kept heckling John because of his Dolphins jersey, which was really just mean considering how badly they got slaughtered.
From the stadium, we went back to the Kroger where we'd met up and left cars, and everybody headed back home separately. Halfway home, Mason actually consented to let me drive, which he NEVER does. I knew he was tired and it made my heart happy that he would let me take care of him by letting me drive. He fell asleep sitting up, which also made my heart happy.
And then it took me 3 days to finish unpacking and doing laundry from our weekend.
And that was my first NFL game!
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