We're back!

For photos of the pre-pre-game excitement I'm about to describe, visit Sarah's online photo album.

Last week, everyone with a UNO email account received an announcement about the city trying to assure that there were at least 1000 people to be on the field at the Superdome Monday to listen to U2 and Green Day just before kickoff of the Saints' first home game since December 2004. Sarah, Rachel, and I separately responded saying hell YES we wanted to go, but an email came down the pipe on Friday saying they had all the attendees they needed.

Saturday as we were leaving Walmart, some random guy who wanted to buy Reba an LSU shirt (because her service dog cape is "LSU purple") informed us there would be a lot of free concerts outside the Superdome all day Monday, including the Goo Goo Dolls. First step in the office door on Monday morning, Sarah said to me, "Let's go to the Dome. Let's go see the Goo Goo Dolls."

"OK," I replied without even a thought about the potential crowd we'd experience. I hate crowds. I'm in a wheelchair. I get tripped over. I get run into. I get elbows in the head.

Sarah's pictures give you just a taste of the sheer number of people we were hanging out with. At one point, we were twenty feet or less from the stage. In Sarah's words, "We're so close, the Goo Goo Dolls could spit on us if they wanted to." I couldn't see a thing. There were so many people there that even the pounding of music you normally feel in your body wasn't as intense as it should have been at that proximity.

I could hear and enjoy the music, but I couldn't see anything but Saints fans' hind ends. Sarah's apt description: "Dawn saw more ass than a proctologist."

I was jostled, I was bumped, I was climbed-over, I was driven into people, and I was a serial killer of beer cans and feet.

I had the time of my life.

I wish I had the words to describe the energy of the Dome and the city yesterday. It was love of football, it was love of home, it was a family of thousands coming together at the same place and the same time to say, "We will not be beaten. We will reclaim our home and our identity. We are still here. Nothing can defeat us."

The stickers and magnets you see all over the city say it all:

Rebuild. Relive. Rebirth.

The facts that the Saints played better than they have in years, that they made some amazing plays, and that they WON their homecoming game is due so much to the dedication and love and commitment of every single soul in the Dome and in the city yesterday. One could not be at the Dome all day yesterday or even watch the game last night and NOT believe that the fans helped carry that team to their phenomenal victory.

Rebuild. Relive. Rebirth.

Say it loud and say it proud, New Orleans:

We're back!