People Watching

The other day I went to the Maryland vs. MSSD high school football game. It was pleasantly cool that night, instead of the windy, freezing, I-can't-feel-my-extremities, kind of cold we've been having lately.

I couldn't sit with The Boyfriend because his coach made the football team sit together, so I sat in the MSSD section. (Being a rival of Maryland deemed it impossible for me to sit in the Maryland section.) And the game ended up being boring as MSSD got killed, so I started people watching.

I watched two people in particular. I'll call them the Wave Girl and the Cheering Boy. The Wave Girl was desperately trying to get the MSSD section to perform a wave. You know a wave, it's when people stand up row by row and make a "wave". Anyway, Wave Girl was trying to get everyone to look at her and perform the wave as she commanded. But of course, everyone ignored her and went on watching the game/talking with each other/fighting over free candy. So while I was watching her, she actually got so angry that the crowd wasn't following her that she actually was beginning to cry. She crossed her arms and stomped off to the other side of the section where she began telling the one friend who would pay attention to her all about how lousy the fans were and how they needed better spirit to support the team, etc etc.

That cracked me up.

Now for Cheering Boy. He was standing on the very left of the section, (I was sitting in the middle of the section, both from left to right and from front to back.) and he was doing a chant from MSSD but he was butchering it. I mean he was doing it horribly--it was kind of hard to watch. But he was refusing to stop. Even after people told him to sit down. And told him again. And threw their free candy at him. He wouldn't stop. He says he was cold and he was shivering and "I'm going to dance until I warm up then I'll stop." After shifting my attention to Wave Girl for a while, I noticed Cheering Boy was missing. I finally found him on the other side of the section (the far right side) next to Wave Girl discussing how lousy the fans were. Then he proceeded to start up his chant on the other side amid a fresh wave of protests.

That cracked me up as well.

After a while, and a cupful of really good, really hot apple cider, I realized upon returning to my seat that Cheering Boy was now in two rows in front of me in the bleachers. And he was still doing his chant. While blocking my view.

Now it wasn't not so funny anymore.

Right then, MSSD scored a touchdown. Cheering Boy immediately turned around and said, "Come on! WE JUST SCORED! Stand up! Show your spirit!" then he nudged the boy next to him and said, "Wow, our fans are really lousy, they don't even support the team, if they don't want to show their support then why don't they leave???"...and I noticed that he was more concerned about yelling at the crowd instead of cheering for the actual touchdown.

Good times.