Man, I tell ya.  It is really really REALLY hard to get work done when, three stories below your office window, streams of Who Datians flood past hooting and hollering and chanting.  Damn!  I really wanted to knock out early today and join the flood with a beer and some hollers of my own!  But, job must get done.  Ah, Monday night football, and a home game to boot.

It makes me think of this REALLY REALLY COOL THING THAT HAPPENED last weekend.  J and I went to our very first Saints game in the Superdome.  Talk about a dream come true!  Especially after years of being Black and Gold sheep in a herd of orange and blue.  I have this really cool boss, see, who signed over a couple of our company tix to us for my birthday.  I coulda hugged him, seriously.  As it was, I did this squealy happy dance all the way down the hall at work, much to his grand amusement.

The magic tickets!  I am going to frame them.  For real.

So after what was already an awesome birthday weekend (more on that later!) J and I hopped on da streetcar, got off on Poydras, and finally, FINALLY, joined the Mama River of the Who Dat Nation.

SO proud to be in that number!!!!

What a riot.  The energy is tangible and incredible, everywhere.  Drink carts, party buses, people on bar balconies, and the Stream of Dome-goers, everyone yelling and Who Dat-ing and talking and laughing and dancing and drinking and just going right along.  We found our gate pretty easy, survived the purse check (Thank you Fleurty Girl!), got handed a couple of Saints car flags, and headed on in.

I have to say.  Milling around the curve, in this energetic crowd, FINALLY inside the magic Dome, I cried.  I did.  No joke.  I totally cried.  I was just so damn full of GLEE!  We found the gate to our seats (At the 40ish yrd. line, Saints side, aw yeah!), then grabbed some beverages and visited the Team Store and just kind of took it all in.  As J was purchasing his refreshments, I took in my first full view of the field.  And got lightheaded.  I did.  No joke.  I totally got all swoony.  Excitement overload!

Our view.

After that, it was all action action action.  It was so cool to see this stuff for real..the things you don’t get to see on tv.  Like the band.  And the Saintsations shakin’ their thing.  And the flags.  All that pregame stuff you miss because the network makes you stare at the jabbering commentary-heads instead.

Pre-game action.

And then.  AND THEN.  Our boys took the field.

It was 100% solid bonafied purified crazyfied RUCKUS from about that point on.  Infamaus has always described the sheer wall of sound that emanates from the walls of the Dome during a game.  Man did he have it right.  At one point, J handed me his styrofoam bowl from his culinary nibblings, and I could feel the crowd vibrating through it!  Needless to say, we added our part to that glorious cacophony.

They were RIGHT THERE.  I felt about as giddy as a teenager at her favorite band’s concert.  That’s truly what it felt like.

Of course, we kicked Cardinal butt. That was the first real huge slaughter of the season.  I’d like to believe it was because we were there…THUS, we surely must be sent to the Dome for every home game, right?  …RIGHT?!?!!

So incredible.  I loved being able to see in person what these guys are capable of.  All the replays in the world can’t quite capture it.

 

HAPPY WIN FACES!

After that, we made our way out through the Bunker Club (which we had access to but never really used) and back out onto the street.  The mayhem was even more amped up on the way out!  Even though everyone’s voices were kinda shot.

And then, as a special Lagniappe, we came across this guy…I was delighted.  It’s been forever since I’ve been able to collect…

A BEAD DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn’t sleep that night, I was so keyed up.  Amazing, amazing, amazing.  Again, again, again!!!!!!

Football season down here is downright addictive.

Now, kickoff is in about an hour.  Let’s go catch ourselves some Dolphins.

WHO DAT BABY!!!!!!