Chargers/Raiders?

I was at the Chargers/Raiders game today, of all places. Jon ended up with an extra ticket, so it was a family day. Of course, he's a Raiders fan, but the good kind. We just wanted to see a good game. Hard to believe how some people get so into it, even at home, a zillion bouncing signal miles from where the action is. It's always an experience, with that many people thundering and screaming, enough energy to level a building, and hardly any room to move their arms. Yeah, let's serve them beer! Chaos all around. I won't talk sports -- that's already been on the news and gone. The people were an outrageous variety. When they all got howling and whistling, my vision started to tremble; if they kept it up, a vertigo would begin ... but it never went too far. (This time.)

I thought the Raiders fans would be the problem, but I was mistaken. Two rows in front of us, some guys were waving the Mexican flag, having a good time. That's fine. Have a good time. It was a bit annoying because when they stood up and waved the thing, we couldn't see the game. A guy behind us yelled, "F--- Mexico, go back home!" And of course, a large chunk of the audience was latino. Put that on your list of this to NOT say in a crowd. So it almost turned into a fistfight. We tried to shuffle aside, out of the way, and watch the game. But they just kept going at it. The flag dudes started shouting about how they're gonna take over this f---ing country and we all better f---ing get used to it. We're trying to look around them, over them, at the GAME.

That was something. Immigration is a tricky issue. It would be nice if folks followed the rules, but we're just too busy to care who does what. In the end most people work too much and mind their own business, and society goes on. If we're looking at a future world full of gangstas and dickheads, then I'm not voting for it. I actually do vote for things, though it hurts my head to try and figure out what the hell the lawyers are saying. Mellow Folks of the World need to unite. We let ourselves get pushed around, and the dickheads often get their way, though we're still okay with it, as long as they agree to go be dickheads somewhere else.

Now, I might be dense, but if you call America "this f---ing country", you've got some kinda f---ing problem. Somewhere a ball is being thrown, and guys are crashing together in a heap. It's all so tiny and so huge, and nothing at all. And someday the sun will swell up and swallow the whole world. Take that, humanity fans! No overtime. Now that I think about it, a big ballgame is not a good place for a sci-fi thinkaholic to be. But they're a spectacle for one and all.

In this case, it was just a bunch of guys who seemed pretty decent on their own, getting infected by the mob. Giving into the mob is a tangible line, there's cheering, there's hootin' & hollerin', and then there's the guy with the big plastic lightning bolt head shaking his thunderbolt at the audience - I know he's inside the helmet screaming with his eyes ready to pop out...

At one point I was thinking how antiquated the cheerleaders were. But they're kinda cute to have around. Yeah, yeah. Then my sci-fi brain kicked in and thought, hey, you know, if they were 24 feet tall then everyone could see what they wanted to see. But us reasonable guys would be looking around the boobs, trying to see the GAME.

Then, crammed on the trolley with armpits in my face and nothing to hold onto, I jammed my hand against the ceiling like Spiderman to avoid falling into people when we went around corners. Someone asked if there was a raygun that could shrink us down till we got where we wanted to go. How odd that would be. But hell, they'd just squash us into a 3-foot-long bus powered by hamsters, while all the big people drive Hummers.

Which reminds me (journals don't have to be linear): On the trolley ride to the stadium, we spent a few minutes stopped at one station for no reason, and there we were, a hundred armpit buddies getting restless. Jon & I were talking about mass transit a little earlier, so now I pointed out, "We've got the MASS, now we just need the TRANSIT."

Thanks, Jon. Was a fun trip.