Hey, there sports fans…

It’s been quite a year for my favorite teams. The Baltimore Orioles played like they meant it. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish went to the BCS National Championship game. I’m not going to discuss what happened once they got there, except to say that I hope it is in no way a predictor of my other favorite team’s success in their upcoming national championship game. Regardless, the Irish had a great run up to the game and it’s something longtime fans like me have been waiting for.

So what’s happening this weekend? Super Bowl something something. I lose track of all those Roman numerals, although I wonder if that’s why they keep teaching them in school (yes, my kids learned Roman numerals – and cursive). The Baltimore Ravens are heading to the Super Bowl for the second time. I have very fond memories of their first trip there. I was six months pregnant with my first child living with DH in my parents’ house. We watched the game in their basement, while they went out to a party.

In case you don’t have a photographic Super Bowl memory (I can’t even remember who played or won last year), the Ravens beat the New York Giants (oh, wait, I think they won last year – I seem to remember rooting for them because I hated the other team more. Plus, a chance to quote Madagascar is always a plus. “All hail the New York giants!”). My “baby” I was waiting on during that game is turning twelve this year. Twelve! How did that happen?

We’re supposed to go over some friends house for the game and, as always, the issue is what food shall we have. I’m thinking Purple Velvet Cupcakes. Why not?

My favorite day of the year…

Nope. It’s not my birthday, New Year’s Eve, Fourth of July or Christmas (although, for the record, my favorite holidays are New Year’s Eve, Fourth of July and Christmas, in that order). It’s the start of college football season.

I’m not at first glance someone you’d think would be into football. First of all, I’m sort of a reserved nerd. I don’t scream (unless Notre Dame is scoring a touchdown) or cheer (see previous comment) or yell (unless Notre Dame got a bad call – in other words, a lot). I am quiet. I sit back and watch and take everything in. I like to read and watch the History Channel the rest of the year.

Secondly, I’m a bit of a girly girl. I love the color pink and having fresh polish on my toenails and wearing dresses (not very often, but I do. sometimes. Okay, fine, I love the idea of wearing dresses, even though I never wear them). I am not outdoorsy. I knit while I watch football.

Thirdly, I’m not athletic myself at all. Sure, I’ve become a runner in recent years, but I’m not competing against anyone. I don’t have the team sport competition gene. Neither does my son, unfortunately for him and his soccer coach.

So why am I so into college football? It all started when I was twelve and my mother was a crafter. She went to an annual craft fair that was held Thanksgiving weekend and since it was out of town over a holiday, the whole family went. Except there was NOTHING to do. So we hung out in the craft fair’s dining area, where they showed nothing but college football for two days straight. We went every year until I was eighteen, so those weekends were somehow enough to infuse my soul with the sound of a college football crowd.

You know I don’t even care who’s playing? I love the sound of the game so much that I will turn on any college football game. Sometimes you will even catch me turning on a pro game (although this is usually brought on by college football withdrawal in December and January), but it isn’t the same. The sounds, the uniforms, the overpaid jerks (not all of them are jerks of course, but the ones who are tend to get more attention) – NFL football just isn’t as much fun to watch.

So from September through December, if it’s Saturday (or Thursday and sometimes Friday night), you will find me parked on the couch, possibly pretending to do some household chore that can be done in front of a football game (laundry is perfect and I can stretch it for a few hours).

Another big day...

The most wonderful day of the year (did I say that already?). It's the first game of the college football season. Holy heckfire! I'm so excited I can't even deal with myself. I'm so excited that I forgot a day this week in my pseudo-menu plan (only a suggestion, not really a menu). Actually that might be because I"m still really sick and have been for almost a week now. A lesser (read smarter) person would probably have been to the doctor by now, but since I'm pretty sure it's just a cold and there's nothing a doctor can do for a cold, I'm riding it out.

Less than 12 hours from now, my ass will be firmly planted in front of ESPN enjoying I don't even care who playing football. Yay! Actually, I do have a connection to this teams playinig this evening. NC State is ACC, which according to my grandmother makes them the team I need to cheer on. She's a major sports fan - I mean, seriously. But most especially Maryland basketball. Which transfers easily to Maryland football. So her rule is Maryland, then anyone in the ACC (if it's two ACC teams, whoever's playing Duke - which in football isn't even fair).

BUT the other team is South Carolina, where my BIL (who lives with us now) got his master's and PH. D. from. So I should cheer them on, since the connection's a little closer (as in sitting on the other end of the sofa). But I don't even care. It's football! Football's back!

Reunion.com claims people are looking for me...

Do you think I should let them know that very few people would be looking for me under my married name and it's probably some other chick whose maiden name happens to be the same as my married name? Yeah, probably not. But I still have to mutter that every time I get a junk email from them that says that.

So no Idol this week - I wasn't in the mood at all this week. Actually I've been in a bit of a bad mood in general lately. Probably due at least in part to lack of sleep. My allergies have been bugging the crap out of me - I feel like plucking my eyes out they itch so bad. So I asked my OB what I could take. She okayed Claritin, which I thought I'd never taken before. But when Tom brought it home for me, I realized I had and it had made me feel like I had lead weights pushing me down. So I decided to take it at night and hopefully sleep through the lead weight thing. Except I don't know if it was the dosage I took or the pregnancy or what, but I didn't sleep at all that night. So I'm paying for it now. I'm still feeling the effects 36 hours later. I still can't sleep. And now I'm beyond exhausted.

In some football fun, the only fun a college football fan like me gets until September, the NFL draft is this weekend. The Ravens (my local team so I hear a lot about them from the news and my family) should be interesting to see - will they go with best available player, as has been their stated policy in the past, or fill their need for a quarterback? Probably they can do both if the picks fall right.

Like I need a hole in the head...

Yeah, that's how much I need another hobby. Seriously. But I got all these gift cards to the craft store for Christmas. So I gave in to the hobby that's been teasing and tempting me for about a year. I started making beaded jewelry. I'm not sure I love it, but it's a fun new thing to do for now. I bought a kit to learn the basics and see if I was even interested in going any further with it. I made the pieces in the kit and now I'm kind of hooked.

I was a little...concerned that DH would freak out at the idea of my taking on yet another hobby, but he was surprisingly supportive (good damned thing, considering how supportive I am of his toy-collection obsession). He likes it when I wear jewelry and I like wearing the things I've made, so we both win.

And can I just take a minute to talk about how much I love that a two-loss team won the National Championship? All you BCS idiots who want to talk about how we don't need a playoff can blow it out your ears. We NEED a playoff. Never has this been more clear. I've finally figured out (and once I did, I'm not sure why it took me so long) why the conferences are fighting it so hard - they stand to lose a lot of money. With the exception of the national championship game, all those top (high-dollar) bowls have conference tie-ins. So my suggestion that the top tier bowls become the semi-finals puts a lot of conferences at risk of losing a lot of money. Somehow, I'm sure it all comes down to money in some variation.

Stuff floating in my head...

Someone very close to me is pregnant. Which kind of changes my plans. Tom and I had sort of decided to try to conceive baby numero quatro this month. But I don't want to steal this person's thunder, to be a little Friends Monica about it. We decided we didn't want Miss S and the potential fourth to be a full four years apart in school, like they would be if we waited until January, like I'd been planning. So now I'm kind of torn. I probably would advise myself not to worry about it and go ahead with what we'd already planned. I just don't know. We have to wait a while anyway, so I'm just going to see what happens.

And then there's that football team I like. Dude. What is up. I mean, come on. Although I have to say it's almost better than last year where I expected them to win all their games and they got demolished. It's almost easier to have low expectations.

Other than those two things, I guess the other stuff is pretty normal day-to-day stuff. You know, knitting some hats (all part of my winter plan - I hate taking Mr. T to school in the mornings with wet hair in the winter, but I hate my hair when I first wake up. So I've been knitting hats to cover it up. Then I can come home and shower and let my hair dry inside. Don't suggest a blow dryer. I don't own one and there's a very, VERY good reason for that. Frizzy hair + blow dryer = people running screaming from me in fright.

Quirky kids...quirky football season...

I sometimes wonder if I, being the quirky and appreciative of quirks person than I am, am a little too indulgent of my children's odd little habits. Like Mr. T likes things arranged a certain way on his bed. He always sits in the same spot on the sofa every morning. Just a bunch of little things that makes him a twinge obsessive. Miss G has her weird little things (like her Fran Drescher laugh that no one I know does, nor have we ever watched the Nanny in her lifetime, so I have no idea where she picked it up). I'm sure in time Miss S will pick up her own little quirks. And I'll encourage them. I like individuality.

Sometimes it seems Mr. T is a little too rigid in his habits and that laugh of Miss G's can really grate and I wonder if I indulge this too much because I like quirky types. Maybe I should be discouraging these things. It goes against everything I believe in, though. I guess really what I need to do is figure out how to encourage their unique qualities while helping them fit those into an often narrow-minded society (no offense, society).

Seriously, though, do not speak to me about Notre Dame. Unless it is to commiserate. In which case, dude. What's going on? ND and Michigan playing for their first win of the season? Yikes. College football is all shook up. My preseason picks to win it all haven't won a game yet. I really though Michigan had it this year. Returning some really quality players, fired up over their losses last season, but no. They had to go and lose my dollar I bet my brother. His preseason pick (Texas) is still in it, but not without some close calls. I'm kind of liking LSU for the national championship. I hate to say it after the way they beat up on ND last year, but they're looking just as strong this year. Some excellent games have been played though. Double and triple overtime? Awesome.

Up close and personal

Giraffe
Originally uploaded by christyc730

This is my middle DD's hand feeding a big old giraffe. Actually, she's a teenager, in giraffe terms, not old at all. I just felt like sharing one of my very favorite pictures from our trip to South Carolina. Can you believe you can actually feed the giraffes? We also fed goats and llamas, but they were way less exciting. The whole zoo is sort of set up to look like the animals aren't really enclosed. Now I don't know about most people, but me? I like the lions behind very sturdy bars. The illusion that they're roaming free is just a little unsettling. I had to investigate and they really are behind a fence - an electrified one at that, but it was freaky to see the lions, tigers and bears just lounging around, with the appearance that if they decided to walk across the rocks they could roam the zoo.

This picture is one of my photographic screw-ups. I tried to explain it to Tom but he doesn't really get it or see the big deal. I shot this - in absolute broad daylight - at ISO 1600. Because we'd just been inside and I was taking pictures of the tropical aquariums at that ISO. They turned out great. I forgot to switch it back to 200. So beautiful outdoor pictures like this are now full of noise or grain. I'd say lesson learned, but I had just done the same thing on our first day walking around the river. I have tons of cool kudzu growing on weird things shots that are all grainy. And when we went to Punta Cana in November, I went from our hotel room (1600) to the beach without changing ISO there too. So I don't seem to have learned anything. Maybe now I will. Yeah, I'm not hopeful.


And I can't believe I forgot. Do you know what happens one week from tonight? Oh, yeah. College football, baby. Looks like I"m going to be forced to watch the team that totally whipped my team in the Sugar Bowl last year when I'd rather watch the Rutgers game, but I'm so excited that the season's starting again that I'll take what I can get.

A brief sports interlude...

I need to talk NFL Draft. It's the closest thing I can get to college football in April, so I was way psyched for it. Turns out I shouldn't have been. It's not like I stayed home glued to my TV or anything, but I followed the coverage every now and then on tv and online. Here's what I have to say:

1. What the hell, Cleveland? And all you dumbasses who had picks 4 through 21? Brady Quinn? You passed on Brady Quinn? Y'all suck.

2. Baltimore, what the hell? Troy Smith? Are ya kiddin me? Sure he won the flipping Heisman trophy and he team only lost one game. But, well, I don't like him. And I won't cheer you on if he's your QB. If he's on the bench, I am willing to overlook him.

3. I would like to commend Detroit on the selection of Drew Stanton, who I think it going to end up being the best NFL QB out of this year's draft. (Sorry, Brady - but you're definitely be the hottest).

That's really all I have. Unless I start all over on number 1. I mean, seriously, Cleveland, Miami, etc. What were you all thinking? No one needs a quarterback? No one needs their team's hot factor to instantly quadruple? Really?

Wrapping up the first weekend of March Madness...

So my big huge family does a pool for March Madness because a) they'll bet on anything and b) they're major sports fans. So I usually just dash off a bracket and hope for...not the worst. I'm not a big basketball fan. I like the sound of sports, though, so I'll put it on sometimes if nothing else is on. And I usually watch Maryland games. My grandmother is the biggest basketball (and sports in general) fan I know. We all know to not even call her during a Maryland game (or at least call with caution or to purposely tease her). It's like calling me during a Notre Dame football game. It better be good. That's where my sports fandom comes from, I think.

So I go to fill out my bracket this year and decide to take a new tack. I will only select teams I don't hate in football (mainly these are Notre Dame grudges). So that means no USC, no Michigan State, no Boston College. Yeah, I didn't do so hot. I think all of my football grudges won. And any upset I took didn't upset. That's what I get for applying football rules to basketball. I think next year I need to revert to teams with pretty colors.

And can I just go on record right here as noting that if college football had brackets like this? OH. MY. GOD. I would have so freaking much fun. Incorporate the joy that is Bowl Season with the joy that is Bracketology. I don't think it could get much better. Unless Notre Dame won it. Then? Sheer bliss.

Shake down the thunder from the sky

On a lighter note, do you know what tonight is? I've been drowning, utterly saturating myself in football for the past five days in anticipation of having to go cold turkey until September (well, unless the Ravens continue to win, but college-free at any rate).

SUGAR BOWL!!! Notre Dame v. LSU. MamaChris is muy excited. And...well...a little (lot) nervous for her boys. Don't get me wrong. I think they're the best team Notre Dame has seen since 93 (and don't get me started on the travesty surrounding the national championship that year). But the big teams have given them trouble this year. So I'm worried. But hopeful. And determined to cheer her loyal sons onward to victory.

And in a super cute side note: I'm doing my best to raise little Notre Dame football fans. I've taught my kids the victory march. Mr. T hums it - he's embarassed to sing in public. Miss G, she belts it out. All jumbled up and misheard, but she sure is loud. You should see her accompanying dance to go with the title above. This girl. Baby S is my best hope, I think. I've been explaining football to her since she was born. Last season she was only a few months old, but this year she was old enough to seem fascinated by it. Next year, she probably won't sit still for it, but I tried.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

That's right, people. Bowl season is upon us. Day after day of football, all day long. Mama Chris is getting all tingly just thinking about it. Her husband, on the other hand, is already counting all the various ways he can think of to get away from the television and her mania. It's been three weeks! Three. Whole. Weeks. Since I watched a decent days' worth of college football. The pros have been subbing, but it's just not the same, although I must extend my thanks to the Ravens for doing so well in my time of need.

It started Monday (or was it Tuesday - I can't remember what I ate for lunch today so don't ask me specifics like that - unless it was about things that happened ten years ago. Then I'm good) with a, well, kind of boring game. It doesn't get much better really until New Year's weekend. And then once Notre Dame plays LSU, it's all over. I'm not going to discuss how that game might end up because I refuse to believe that ND doesn't have a chance and I'd hate to eat my words if I said they'll kick LSU's ass. So I'll just not say anything at all.

Yeah, I don't give a crap about OSU and Florida. Unless Florida wins. Then I'd be impressed.See, I'm always rooting for the underdog. Unless that underdog is playing Notre Dame.

The only thing that gets my dear old hubby through this glorious time is knowing that it's all over until next September. Seriously, how did I end up married to a total sports-hater? I'm not a big rah-rah type. I really just love football, especially the give-it-their-all way the college teams play. Okay, so I'm kind of rah-rah about Notre Dame. And Maryland. And whoever's playing Florida State. My father-in-law finally got someone to watch sports with when Tom married me. He's more into NFL and baseball, but we can hang, especially on January 1. Tom? Just not into it. Actually, kind of rabidly against fandom in general - you know the overbearing, all encompassing level that some people take it to? And really I agree with him. Football is entertainment, not a way of life. Not unless someone is paying you millions upon millions of dollars to participate in it.

I barely even have the heart to tell him that I'll be watching the Ravens in the playoffs. So, just until February (optimistically speaking). Oh, and then I'll probably get into March Madness yet again. But then once it's April, I'm off of sports until September. Mostly. I mean, if a baseball game's the only thing on, I'll probably watch it.