i just spent the evening...

in a movie theatre watching Courageous with twenty guys from the Arizona Wildcats football team.

Talk about an experience.

It was sort of a joke at first because not only was I the only girl, but I was the only caucasian... cool Asian dude, affectionately called "Koala" (real name, Keola, running back) and a couple Hispanic guys showed up late and sat in the back of the theatre

Seated near the middle-front of the theatre, I was smushed between "T-Wade" (Trevin Wade, cornerback) and "Yates" (Victor Yates, former defensive back). "O.G." or "Coach Ed" (Corey Edmond, head strength and conditioning coach) was two seats down and "Dirty D" (Donald Horton, former defensive tackle, current assistant strength coach) sat in front of me.

["O.G." stands for, "Original Gangster," which is a term of respect. In gang terms, it's the member of a gang who's been around the longest/put some time in and is a higher class member. Basically, a very respectful nickname.]

Many of the guys all had their comfort seats, skipping every other one as not to be unmanly and sit right next to one another. It's a guy thing. I get it. But T-Wade and Yates sat next to me... probably so I didn't feel weird with two empty seats beside me. Ha.

The guys passed around 5 bags of popcorn amongst themselves and were even sharing drinks with Coach Ed cracking on 'em every once in awhile.

Yates talks more during a movie than my mother. He and T-Wade, Dirty D and a few others were like a bunch of cackling women... especially during the gang scenes or cop chases in the movie. All 18 would bust out with deep, "Ohhh! Sucka got punched in the face!" or "Man! Bet he didn't see that coming!" or "Brotha 'bout to get sacked!"

Hil-arious.

But I didn't feel out of place. Nope. I have "street cred" now because I'm with "O.G."

Walking out of the theatre with 20 football players all wearing their team colored sweatshirts, "Jordan shorts" (basketball shorts) and socks with Adidas sandals (classy), was quite the spectacle. A few families stopped and moved aside as we walked out, a few kids jumped up and down whispering to their parents, "It's them! Did you see --insert players name here--?!"

Coach Ed looked over at me grinning as I was cutting up with T-Wade and Dirty D. He said, "Now whatchu gonna tell your magazine people? Bet none of them ever gone to a movie with a quarter of the Wildcats football team. ::chuckles:: And, you tell Ted he missed out. He shoulda got a picture of this." He chuckled and strutted his pimp-limp out of the mall with the rest of us.

Maybe one day I'll be an "O.G." but for now, all I can say is, I really love my job.