Male Cheerleaders Get No Respect

...this is what I learned last night at the football game. Apparently the Eskimos are the only team in the CFL with male cheerleaders (so someone told me, I have no idea if it's actually true) and people are so mean to them. I heard them called all sorts of names. Rodeo clowns, geeks, losers, nerds (honestly, nerds? The man saying that was well over 12, the last age at which you can actually use the word nerd and not sound like a complete eejit yourself.) I felt quite terrible for them, but I do have this question ...why is it that female cheerleaders must be extremely slim, fit and toned and the men..well, not so much. Some of those boys were on the wrong side of pudgy, I think. And seemed a little out of breath running around.

This is what else I learned at the game:
The $50 (well $49) ticket was actually $21. Those were for the seats in the stadium that we never used. I paid an extra $28 to have a tiny sausage on a huge bun and a wee bit of potato salad and coleslaw. I avoided the beans, as all sane people would. Later, we had a wee tiny piece of cake. We sat at ground level, behind a grille so couldn't really see the game. Another girl and I kept turning around to look at the jumbo tron.

I still don't understand football. The game goes right over my head. I have no idea what downs are or what balls on means. The score was 36-26 for Edmonton. Seconds before it ended it was 36-19. I never saw that other 7 points. I know that 7 points means a touchdown but I never saw the touchdown happen.

Those players are small! In the NFL some player just died and they said he weighed something like 345 lbs. I don't think there was a player on either team who would come close. We watched Montreal practice and we all commented on their lovely bums. Well, all the girls did anyway.

The atmosphere was amazing. There was 44,000+ in the stands, and they were very loud. There were fireworks when Edmonton scored a touchdown and at the end of the game. The mascot was hilarious and the cheerleaders and firefighters drove around in a truck throwing mini footballs to the crowd. It was alot more fun than I thought it would be.

The birthday girl is slightly mad, but not entirely. A group of men was raising money for her to streak across the field at half time. She actually stopped a cop and asked him what would happen if she was caught. He told her she would have a criminal record, a $2500 fine and community service. She then declined the offer.

So the night was good, I still don't like crowds of people I don't know, but she has so many friends from so many different places that not everyone knew each other. Oddly enough, aside from the crazy girl from junior high (who was slightly crazy, kept opening the door of the van while it was moving to yell at people on the street)
I knew 3 other people, a girl who I worked with for a brief few months, a girl I took Lamaze with 10 years ago and the cousin of a guy I went to school with. It's a small world.