Of the Busy Town

It's quite an odd time in Lawrence right now. There are no more home basketball games and while that gives me more time to study, it's kind of odd and disturbing to not be camping. I promised I would explain how camping so here's what I tell people when I give tours:

1. Lottery- this is the worst part about camping. The morning after a home game you have to be at Allen Field House BEFORE 6 a.m. Someone from your group signs your group up on a list. Then at 6 a.m., this jerk who is never going to graduate starts calling of the group names from the list. Once your group is called all of the people in your group line up and for every 5 people, 1 person gets to pull a poker chip out of a box with a number on it. That number dictates where you are in line to camp and to enter Allen Field House on game day.
2. Camping- I may complain about the Athletics Dept., but they do let us actually camp inside unlike other schools. On the weekdays, we camp from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. unless there is another event at the Field House (then we are kicked out) or if there is an away game that everyone wants to watch (then we suspend it). On the weekends camping is from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. One person from your team must be camping at all times.
   
3. To ensure that each group always has a person there, people will sporadically call "roll." Everyone there goes and huddles by a sheet that has the list of groups on it, and the jerk that called roll yells of each name on the list. If your team gets called and there is no one there to answer "here" then your crossed off the list. It's pretty much every person's goal in life the knock off a team in front of them to get a better seat.

That said, I waited through the longest lottery of my entire life for the K-State Game- over 100 teams were there. It wasn't until 7 a.m. (remember it starts at 6 a.m.) that our group at 50 was called. My team lined up and they counted us off. I should mention, I hate being the person that pulls the chip. I always pull the worst number! Well, a girl holding the box of poker chips is counting us off and she points at me and tells me to pull. I wanted to turn around and let the next guy do it, but there wasn't enough time. I grabbed two and dropped one back in the box, hand it to the guy in charge and walk off. I hear him drop it and say "one hundred... no wait, eight." What??? Did I just draw eight????? We went over and asked and the guy said "Yeah, your number 8 in line!" Out of 100 teams we were going to be the eighth group inside Allen Field House for the K-State game. Emphasis on were. Three days later I get a text message saying that we were bumped at 6 a.m. because someone missed roll call and are now 114. I was not happy. I still made it into the game, and had a lot of fun, but still, that would have been a fun game to have good seats!