last weekend i met my friends angela, travis, and kyle in college station to go to the ole miss game.  the game itself was terrible [although NOTHING could be worse than today’s game… the ags are not having a great season].  i had such high hopes about this one because i thought we would come back strong after our first loss that had happened the week before, and i think everyone was pumped up, but it was quite the opposite, unfortunately, and all those big dreams of having an epic win were deflated pretty quickly.  [we did continue to be loud and proud and do our yells like a good ag should though!  despite the fact that we were crushed.] BUT everything else about the weekend was fantastic, and i was soo glad i made the trip down.  here is some of what went down:

: :  since i’m used to driving to houston these days, the 3-hour trip to CS felt so short!  it was a late game, so it was nice not having to rush out after work or early in the morning on saturday to get there in time.

: :  we were worried about the weather because it rained off and on [mostly on] all the way to A&M, but it stopped just before we arrived and didn’t rain the rest of the day.  on the other hand, i had a cute little outfit that i planned on wearing which didn’t end up happening as it ended up being pretty chilly.  travis convinced both angela and me to change out of our little shorts and skirt so we wouldn’t be cold at the game, and it was the best decision we made that day.  thanks trav – we appreciate you knocking some sense into us! ;)

: :  the ags broke the record of the biggest crowd to attend a football game of any level in texas history with 110,633 spectators, and we also set an SEC attendance record with that number.  it was pretty insane.

: :  within 2 minutes of walking out of the northgate parking garage upon arriving, i saw someone i knew.  ten minutes later, i ran into laura and meagan, some other friends from college [laura’s the one who recently moved to dallas].  this was crazy to me, considering that i had no idea where they were going or if they had even made it to college station yet.  this is what i love about college towns.

: :  we had lunch at chimy’s, which you might recall us trying for the first time in this post [it’s sad that that was a year and a half ago.  where does the time go??]  it was a nice way to get the tailgating started.

: :  i forgot just how much i love college station.  no, the A&M campus isn’t pretty, but it’s such a fun and happy place.  i recently met someone from out of state who had gone to an A&M football game for the first time and had then gone out on northgate, and he was so impressed by how awesome our games are and how fun northgate is.  “i never knew that there was such a fun place to go out in a small town like that,” he had told me.  damn right it’s fun.  the people are the friendliest in all the land, and everyone’s marooned out, so it’s bound to be a cool place. :)  also, it’s been a long time since i’ve been around that many people my own age[ish], concentrated in one city, and it was niiiiiiiice.

: :  thanks to angela, we had some pretty legit tailgates to go to.  the game wasn’t until 8pm, so we tailgated for a good five hours after we had lunch.  it’s serious business, this tailgating.  the setups were pretty incredible.  travis had been in ol’ ags, a men’s organization at A&M, so we even stopped by their tailgate, which totally brought me back to old times.  i frequented many an ol’ ags tailgate in my day, that’s for surrrrre.  and let me tell ya, there’s a world of difference between the alumni tailgates and the college kid tailgates!  i see it now with whole new eyes!  but we caught up with some old friends and enjoyed the people watching.

{yep, that’s giant beer pong.}

{see what i mean about the difference between the student tailgates and the alumni tailgates??}

{good times}

{trying to sell our extra ticket.  i was eventually successful!}

: :  now that kyle field has been renovated, it has the largest scoreboard in college football, which is also the first in college to feature 1000 HD resolution.  the stadium itself is now the largest in texas and the largest in the SEC.  it. is. MASSIVE.

: :  despite the depressing game, i’m so proud of our team spirit.  the 12th man always dominates, even if our football team doesn’t.  and our gameday traditions are not to be outdone!  i know i’m a little biased, so if you’re a non-aggie, i’m sorry if you’re like, gag me.  but whether or not you’re an aggie, if you’ve been to a football game, you have to admit that we have some pretty good vibes going on at this place called kyle field, or at any other team’s field, for that matter.  it’s the towel swinging, the yells, the “hump it” stance to ensure that your voice projects at the loudest volume possible, the mugging down, everything.  we’re even enthusiastic about our fightin’ texas aggie band [pictured above] and always stand the whole time they’re playing.  they’re awesome:

: :  after the game, it was a mad rush to northgate:

: :  while we were in college station, we of course had to do a “northgate tour” and visit all of our favorite bars and have our favorite drinks.  our first stop was dry bean, the tiniest shot bar you ever did see with a door on either end, for a round of green frogs.  the bar is fairly long and runs lengthwise from one end to the other, but it’s so narrow that you can squeeze no more than three people across [and three people is TIGHT], so you’re supposed to go in through the front door, order your shot, take it, pay, and then go out through the back door.

the shot menu is pretty extensive:

: :  next, we hit up kyoto for sake bombs.  it’s actually a tiny sushi restaurant by day and a wild little dance bar by night.  it’s always dark, with lots of strobing, colorful lights, and one bar at the back.  the kyoto sunrise sake bombs are the best.

: :  and for the last place on our drink tour list, it was cedar lane for a wake-me-up.  i won’t tell you what it is, but here’s a clue:

: :  we also visited an old favorite, mad hatters, and a new place called the backyard.  it was such a fun night.  we ran into people we knew all night long, and at the very end of the evening, we got to see our friends thomas and becca as well as some other friends that we all used to hang out with.

: :  we stayed at kyle’s brother’s apartment that night – he was the sweetest for letting us all stay with him.

: :  the next morning, travis and i both went outside to take down a load of stuff to our cars [i’m not just rambling – there’s a story here, i promise].  it looked gloomy outside and felt cool, but it appeared like the rain was going to hold off for a bit.  my car was only about 200 feet away from the door, and as i was putting my stuff in the trunk, out of nowhere, i heard a sudden sound of really heavy rain and then it was upon us.  it literally just started POURING.  no warning, no sprinkling or drizzling to start it off – it just went from nothing to beating down, hurricane-style, immediately – in less than a second.  i seriously wish i had a video of how fast it came on.  even with as close as i was to the apartment, i was very wet by the time i got to the door, and poor travis was completely drenched, as his truck was parked a lot farther away.  no one saw that coming in the less than five minutes that we were outside, and i never experience that kind of thing in dallas – it was so weird to me.  it reminded me about how bipolar the weather is in college station – you literally just never know what it’s going to be from one minute to the next.

: :  after travis got soaked, our plans of doing brunch sort of dissipated, and so we parted ways.  i stopped at one of my favorite places to get aggie apparel and stocked up on plenty of maroon items.  i forgot just how many options there are for gameday attire in college station!

: :  next, i headed to H-E-B to get my very favorite butter tortillas, made fresh there at the store [they were still warm and the bag was steamy when i purchased them]… sooooo good.

: :  i was also able to visit my old house that i lived in for two years with katlyn and lauren…

…and the delta gamma house, which was where i lived sophomore year and my second home every other year of college.

and since i passed by my old dorm on the way to northgate after the game, i got to see all the homes i lived at during my years in college station on this trip.  lots of fun memories!

: :  and my last stop before heading out of town was one of my favorite places to grab lunch/dinner and also a former place of employment for me – how do you roll.  it’s basically a counter-service sushi place where you go through a line and pick out what you want on your sushi roll, and they build it right in front of you.  it’s fairly inexpensive [i guess everything in college station is], but the ingredients are fresh and it makes for a tasty and healthy meal [if you want it to be].  i didn’t go the healthy route this time around; in fact, i was so excited to be there that my eyes were WAAAAAY bigger than my stomach because i ordered two rolls with lots of toppings.  i got 3/4 of the way through the first one and was like, what was i thinking?!  and i had been so close to getting some red bean mochi ice cream too, because it’s really good at HDYR.  thank goodness i hadn’t!

it was such a fun trip and i’ll say it again:  i love college station.  A&M was such a great place to go to school, and i loved getting to be there with all my old college friends.  i was just like old times.  now if only the aggies would start playing better football…

xoxo