Rodeo Committee anyone?

Houston celebrates its American West heritage at the end of every winter with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. It is an annual extravaganza preceded by a number of historic horseback trail rides from points of origin well outside of Houston, converging in Houston in time for a celebratory parade leading to the Livestock Show and Rodeo grounds. At the rodeo grounds, more celebration ensues: BBQ contests, carnivals, private parties and livestock competition. Then ten days of ticket-holding visitors stream into the grounds to buy belt buckles, beer, get a close look at thousands of cows, and watch professional cowboys vying for prize money. Musical performances by notable celebrities are thrown in for good measure. People watching is also high on the agenda, a veritable red carpet of country-chic couture.

Last year Cristy and I attended together. We arrived early in the day and had plenty of time to scope out our surroundings. Among the assorted array of ordinary people, there were lots of girls wearing little dresses and cowboy boots. There were lots of boys wearing starched oxford cloth shirts, jeans and felt hats. But there was another highly conspicuous group of people at the rodeo: committee members. It seemed like there were thousands of committee members, everywhere you looked. They were easily identifiable because they all wore jeans and a shirt with a rodeo committee vest over their shirt. The committee vest proudly featured the well known Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo emblem and the name of the committee on which they served. The Steer Auction Committee, the Calf Scramble Donors Committee, the Horspitality (yes that is spelled correctly) Committee. Committee members also wore lanyards with an ID badge granting access to private areas of the venue off limits to the general population.

That is what I noticed. Access to private parties. The nerve! Flaunting a private party! In full view of the huddled masses.

It’s not that I want to sneak into a celebrity area or try to scam my way into the calf roping competition. I just want to see if I can get into one of the literally hundreds of parties in “private” areas. Here is the plan. So far, Cristy is not on board, and with rodeo season approaching in a matter of mere months, I need to move this plan from the visionary stage into some sort of active implementation in order to be successful.

I propose that we invent a committee that sounds plausibly legitimate, make some vests proudly proclaiming the name of our personal committee, and wear them to the rodeo on the day that we attend as bonafide ticket holders.

Cristy nailed it today, she said something about Hot Bloggers and I thought – that’s it! Our committee could be the Hot Bloggers. How cool would that be for the rodeo? Smokin!

So, this is how it might unfold. We get there and as we’re walking through the event hall, we stumble upon a private party tent. Actually, there are just rows and rows of these tents, they’re not exactly hidden. Well, we’re cute. Even if we don’t have an authorized ID badge, there is a chance that we could get into a private party or two, just to schmooze with the real committee movers and shakers, right? Maybe a 50-50 chance? It’s not like we’d be trying to crash a state dinner at the White House or anything.