(Cal) Bears, (USC) Trojans and (Emerald) Nuts

Continuing our series of travelogues: Asha and I were in Berkeley this weekend for the California-USC football game. Now, when we bought our tickets a few weeks ago, the prevailing college football wisdom was that this game would probably determine the conference championship, and maybe even the national championship. Since then, however, both teams have played poorly enough to make everyone forget about all that nonsense, and the stakes on Saturday turned out to be a little smaller: with a win, Cal would have the inside track for the nondescript Emerald Bowl (unofficial nickname: The Nuts Cup), but if they lost, they'd probably get stuck in... well, the Emerald Bowl.

So, not quite what we were hoping for (not that we Berkeley people care THAT much about football -- we are, of course, too cool for that -- but "game of the year" would have been nicer than "game of the region in the 5pm PST timeslot that day"). But, once it sunk in that dreams of the national championship would have to be replaced by dreams of sharing top billing with Emerald's "larger, higher quality nuts," we were able to move past it and get excited for the game.

It rained. Steadily, through the whole game. Cal played, eh, decent, and the game was close throughout. So close, in fact, that we didn't dare leave early. So we sat in the rain for four and a half hours, to see Cal lose the game in their final possession. If you're like me and have never sat in steady rain for four and a half hours: you do get wet.

When you're into the game, though, you really don't notice the rain ... as much as you normally would. And you do dry off, eventually (or so I'm told -- it's only been a couple of days).