Girlgating

This is the first year that I have gotten serious about tailgating. When I say “serious”, I mean this is the first football season in which I have arrived at the Rose Bowl before the sun was up, in order to get a “good spot” in Lot H. It’s also the first time I have been a part of (or witness to) planning tailgate details up to two full weeks prior to the actual game. The time and effort that goes into figuring out the menu, entertainment, and other various details is astonishing at first, and then it completely makes sense. Once you get to the Rose Bowl at 6:15 in the morning, you are surrounded entirely by other hardcore, practically professional tailgaters. These people are very interested in what you have, what you’re cooking, and what kind of TV/cable set up you’re watching. It is a total competition. And after only 4 home games of full-on tailgating, I already want to win.

This is an obvious carefully-planned out tailgate. These people definitely have experience, notice the dish in the back of the truck:

This tailgate is pretty embarrassing. It lacks…well, everything.




A few random thoughts on tailgating:

-These people who pull in at 6am are usually big, burly guys wearing head-to-toe UCLA gear. They are setting up generators, tents, and barbecues. They will have finished a beer by 6:15. But, before the beers, ALL of them will have finished some sort of latte from Starbucks. ALL OF THEM! Literally, every group of hardcore tailgaters I saw had at least 2 guys holding Starbucks cups. Should this even be allowed?





-I was the only girl that arrived in this early group, or so I thought. About 30 minutes after I got there, I spied another girl sitting in the car next to mine, doing her make up and using a generator to STRAIGHTEN HER HAIR! Girls: this is a football game. Of course the boys want you to look nice, but straightening your hair at a tailgate is just as bad as drinking a Zima at one. Either come to hang out and be chill, or don’t come at all.