Avoiding the Superbowl

Well, it's about that time of year again. The time when I reveal to everyone how much I hate the superbowl and try to find an anti-superbowl activity to participate in.

I never used to really hate the superbowl. Growing up, we were tomboys. My sister Liz wanted to grow up to be a professional football player and her team was the Dallas Cowboys. Having a February birthday assisted her in having a football themed birthday/superbowl party. I remember the chex mix in a giant football shaped bowl, and the plastic tablecloth with the green grass and white yardage lines across it, like a giant football field. I remember the plastic Dallas Cowboys helmets and my sister sitting with all the boys in the living room watching the Superbowl. She would watch the games in the chair with her football in her lap. It was signed with black sharpie marker by her Manlius/Tampico "heroes" that year, Spencer Davis and Bill Phillips, back when Bill worked for Keith Bolin with the hog farm, and he signed it for Liz one day in the driveway at Barb and Keith's. Oh Nostalgia.

I was okay with football then. When I knew the people who played at the high school level and enjoyed going to see the games. When I could see a game in person. But I have never really been a huge fan of sports on TV. The only sports I can watch on TV are usually of the olympic sort, or volleyball, because I have always loved volleyball, and I loved playingin Junior high and high school, and I LOVE HOCKEY! Love love love it.

But ever since graduating high school, and then college, and giving up on the HS Sports scene... I have pretty much lost any interest in sports on TV. I can get more excited in person or on the radio. If there is a big game in the area I might catch a bit of it on the Radio, and it always helps that I know the announcers, like Dave Bickett and Jason Smith. I enjoy hearing their commentating.

But now, I am getting to the point of kids that I know playing again. This past year, with Bureau Valley winning state in football, I watched the final game on cable. It was worth it, because Reid Nodine and Garrett Barnas played, and Dave Moore Coached. Mr. Moore was my junior high science teacher and my high school biology teacher, plus he was our PE teacher and the guy who scraped cinders out of my leg when I wiped out on the track. He's just the guy that we all knew, and he was so fun. He made biology such a fun class to take. And Garrett and Reid were just little guys, like first, second, and third grade when I was in high school. I taught them bicycle safety and fire safety, and was the 2nd grade teachers aide at Manlius when I was in high school, and I went into the classroom and cut out things for bulleting boards, graded papers, etc. I can't believe those kids are going to be graduating high school soon! Getting Old eh?

And of course Mr. Moore married Garrett's mom, Judy, who is the daughter of my friends Jeanna and Kenny, and I love to go visit their house and see what Mr. Bourquin has going on in the fish pond, or the garden... or what vegetables he has canned from his garden this year. And Jeanna is a member of my computer user group, and a friend of my mom's.

So I am much more interested in sports when I know the players. Otherwise I really have better things to do with my time. Like clean. Scrapbook. Shop. Read. Take a Nap. Plus there is other better stuff to watch on TV.

SO it's time for me to find something I can do that gets me as far away from the superbowl as possible. Unless... MAYBE the bears play. That's the only thing that could get me in front of the TV on superbowl Sunday. Anything to see those cheeseheads cry.

The cool thing is, that I can watch all the funny commercials on the internet, so that I don't have to worry about watching or missing them on TV. The internet is awesome. How did we ever ever ever live without it?!

Any Ideas of non-superbowl activities are embraced. Please comment!