Game Day

Never live in a city that has a chance of hosting the Super Bowl, and never live on the same street as the stadium - two mistakes Chris and I have made.  Tampa is nice for me because it's the biggest city that I've lived in.  I've visited most big cities in Europe and many of the big ones in the States and I've come to love them, but living in a city definitely has some disadvantages.  The biggest problem is traffic.  Tampa is big enough to have big city problems, but too small to feel like a real city (London, New York, etc.)  The traffic here is pretty insane most days, but with the Super Bowl in town it has gone from insane to impossible.  I had to drive to St. Pete Friday night, and I usually go down Dale Mabry (the street I live on) and get on I-275 south of downtown.  However, thanks to game day, that part of the street has been blocked off, and I've had to go up Bearss to get on the interstate.  That route takes me through downtown.  I don't just get screwed once by the big game, I get screwed twice.  I sat in traffic for almost an hour in downtown trying to get to St. Pete, and every license plate I saw was from somewhere else.  

Tampa is trying to start a train system sometime within the next five years, which is great, but it needed one about twenty years ago.  That's what I admired about British and European cities, they had train systems, even if they didn't need them.  The DART system in Dublin was amazing!  We need something like that here and fast.  My plan for today is to stay as far away from where I live as possible.  Chris and I are going to my aunt's house on the other side of town to watch the game.  We went to Target and Sweetbay a few minutes ago, and everything about the place felt kind of weird.  When we got back to the parking lot we noticed all of the Northern tags and realized that the guy asking where the beer was had probably been from Pennsylvania or beyond.  The Yankees are invading, and I only have palm trees and sunshine to defend myself with. 

The bay area about doubles in population during the winter because of all the snowbirds that come down to escape the snow.  One in every three license plates I see is from Ontario and three in every five are from New York.  With the Super Bowl here, Tampa seems to be bursting at the seams.  I met three Irishmen in St. Pete Friday night.  One lives in Seattle, and his father and brother had flown in from Dublin for the game.  They're smart, and they're staying in St. Pete.  They asked me if I was going tailgating at the stadium before the game, and they were surprised when my answer was that I was going to run away instead.  I'm avoiding like the plague what they payed thousands of dollars for.  I hope they enjoy their holiday, but I'll be in hiding.  It was great to meet someone from across the pond - it reminded me of my former life when I visited Ireland and made a distant shore my home.  

While everyone in other places can't wait for kickoff, I can't wait for Monday.  Maybe by then the invaders will be leaving or at least too hung over to be out in the city.  I've been waiting, since I moved here last year, for the moment when I truly felt like a local instead of a visitor or an out of state college student.  That moment was today when I was in Target and everyone there was looking at me like I was crazy because I was in jeans, flip-flops, and a long sleeve shirt, and complaining of the cold - it's 67 degrees.  To those people, I was a local, and, as I recall from a time when I only dreamed of living here, perhaps someone they truly envy.  

Like many who have gone before, I have left Tennessee for Florida, and I've made Tampa my city, my life, and at last, my home.  As much as I hate the traffic, the damn game day people, and the snowbirds, I love Tampa.  Even if it isn't a real city, it's bigger than where I came from, and that's big enough for me.  I hope the Super Bowl people enjoy the game and my city, but I also hope they'll be gone come Monday.  It is nice though, to know how it feels to live in the focal point of America, even if just for a day.  I hope everyone enjoys the game, and when the camera shows an aerial shot of the stadium and Tampa, look North and somewhere in all of those dots will be my apartment, my small life, and the city that I've come to know and love so well.  Enjoy the game!