DWP #34/SOL: WARM {10.17.17}

Mother Nature certainly knows how to spoil a party.

This past weekend, we went to see our kids at the University of Minnesota. Saturday night, we had tickets to the football game to see our son in the marching band. This was Band Parents' Weekend and the band had been rehearsing their halftime show for the past two weeks so they could dazzle the parents.

The weather forecast was not looking good -- in the low 50's with rain forecasted to begin at 4:00 pm, right when the band activities started before the 7:00 kickoff.

Sure enough, just as we left the hotel at 3:00, the rain started. We layered up our clothes, donned rain ponchos, and set off for the stadium. We weren't going to let a little rain spoil our fun.

By the time we got to the stadium, the rain was coming down a bit harder. Neverminding that, we followed Ryan's tailgate band around the parking lot as they played for the fans.

The rain kept up through band inspection and their pre-pregame show. It was now raining so hard that the woodwinds didn't carry their instruments for fear that they would get wet and cause swelling damage.

Finding our seats in the stadium, my husband reminded me that I was never going to be allowed to pick seats again because we were literally in the nosebleed section. (Really?? Okay!)

The football team cleared the field and the band came out for their pre-game show. They played one song and were lined up to play the national anthem when an announcement came over the stadium loudspeaker:

Ladies and gentlemen: Lightning has been sighted in the area. Please evacuate your seats and take cover in the concourse area immediately. 

Seriously??

We trudged back down the stairs and joined the rest of the crowd in the concourse area (which would not have been fun if you suffered from claustrophobia.)

The rain came down in buckets. The wind started up. It was a mass of humanity. It was not fun.

There was a man standing near me who had apparently had a bit too much of the celebration and passed out from the heat and lack of fresh air. I called 911 from my cell phone, not sure how to tell the operator where we were in the crowd for her to send help.

Twenty-five minutes later, they announced that the storm had passed and we could return to our seats.

But there was more disappointment waiting at halftime -- the markings on the field were getting too washed out from all the rain that they weren't allowing the marching band to perform. After all of this, we weren't even going to get to see the band. (Insert sad face emoji here.)

We were too soaked, to frozen, too exhausted to stick around. We went back to the hotel where there was one highlight to the day -- we remembered to leave the heat on in the room before we left.