never a dull moment

Until today, I had only passed out three times in my life. All three instances occurred when I was seventeen, within five minutes of each other, all because of heat/dehydration.

Now, for the same reasons, I have yet another shining moment of unconsciousness to add to the list.

Today was the first Auburn game of the season. I was super pumped. I had on my favorite navy dress. My roommate's parents were in town and brought with them "the best bar-b-q in Monroeville" (which really was amazing). It was the beginning of a perfect day. I love Auburn and was so very excited to celebrate with tens of thousands of other Auburn lovers.

as a little background, this is how typical pre-game festivities go down:

4+ hours before kickoff = tailgating

3 hours before kickoff = lining up outside the gates

2 hours before kickoff = fighting your way into the gates, claiming your seat and waiting until kickoff.

I made it until about 2 hours and 10 minutes before kickoff.

When you're waiting for the gates to open, there is really no hope at all for physical comfort. You're packed. There's hardly any spare air to breathe. You'd better hope and pray that no one around you is claustrophobic, or sick, or obnoxiously loud (because they will be yelling right into your ear (I know this from experience)). Also, being the beginning of September, it's still relatively warm. But with hundreds of other people surrounding you, warm becomes sweltering.

crammed. hot. stifling. The combination of these three things are bad news for me.

I decided at some point to move out to the edge of the crowd where a couple of my friends were standing, because I was beginning to feel light headed, and was begging for some circulating air. After standing away from the crowd for about five minutes, nothing improved. So I asked my wonderful friend Constance to walk the 50 yards from where we were standing to the student center with me so that I could sit down and drink some water.

Really, I knew at that moment that it was coming. And I knew I had enough time to get in there and sit down and avoid it from happening. What I didn't remember at the time is that Miss Constance is a power walker. We practically ran to the student center. in the heat. So I'm begging her to slow down, and she turns around, takes one look at me, and responds to the apparent look of terror/sickness/weakness on my face with "Oh my god, are you okay?". Way to put me at ease, Con.

By the time we're inside, I can't see. At all. And then my legs get wobbly, and before I know it, I'm leaning up against a wall (still standing by some miracle), and I hear some woman go into action mode and command Constance to "take my chair, let her sit, put her head down, and go buy her some water!" and before I know it, I'm gone. But I made it to the chair.

So eventually, I'm fine. Con bought me a bottle of water, fanned me off, and told me the wobbling stunt I had done made me look like I was drunk. We eventually made it inside the stadium, but I only stayed through one quarter of the game. So much for my exciting day of Auburn and football. It would happen to me. At least I'm appreciating the humor in this situation.

War Eagle.