Anyway, football games in the middle of the week don't start until people have time to get off work, get some football food, and settle down onto a couch. There are some of us out there that don't pay for cable and regret it when the end of August comes around and we have no access to sports. For us, that couch is located wherever you can talk somebody into letting you take over their TV for a couple of hours, because unfortunately, getting off work in Salt Lake City at 5:00 doesn't give you time to drive up to the top of Utah to watch the game at your parent's house, so you have to swallow your pride, break your mothers heart by telling her you aren't going to make the drive, and try hard not to let her know you are probably going to end up watching the game at your mother-in-law's house and that you'll spend the majority of the two hours praying your mother-in-law doesn't pay attention if all of the sudden you have turned in the absolute Aggie football fanatic who sometimes doesn't say nice words during a ball game--what's worse, you pray she doesn't pay attention when her son turns into the crazed Aggie fanatic you converted him to be, turning him totally against her alma mater and all things cougar to the point where he is now more of a byu-hater than you are.
The point of that last paragraph?
It takes a long time for 6:00 pm on a Thursday to happen.
Things like cleaning bathrooms and kitchens and dusting just can't happen when you are waiting for a big game to start. Reading a book might distract you, but even then, sometimes that old stand-by fails. So what's a girl without cable to do?
The only thing left in this situation. She unplugs the Wii, plugs in the DVD player, and pulls out every football movie in her possession. Which one to watch first? Logically, she starts where all the great athletes start: with pee-wee football.
Let me interupt my rambling for a minute to tell you a little something about my daughter.
She loves football.
Last year, she went to all but two games with us. She even went to one in November. I felt like a horrible mother, but we didn't have a babysitter last minute and I just could not miss that game. So I bundled her up in multiple, multiple layers, and my mom and aunt brought multiple layers, and do you know what?
She sat like this the whole time, happy happy happy.
Perhaps it was the fact that we told my mother she was going to be a grandma during a time out of the USU v. Auburn football game (we were ahead at that point). Perhaps it was because Kevin heard "the Scotsman" so many times in utero she'll probably learn to sing it before she learns to talk. Perhaps it is because her dad's favorite thing about his in-laws is that he watches sports more often with the women than the men. Perhaps it was because Aggie football is just in her blood...
Perhaps it is just because, last football season, she was a baby who enjoyed sitting cozily on various laps, sucking on M&M packages, and watching people.
That was my theory. There was no way she could actually love football, right? That doesn't just happen. Even baby boys don't just take to football that young. So I told myself to wait and see what this season brings.
This was my thought as I put in the Little Giants DVD. I settled Kevin next to me on the couch with a sippy cup, fully expecting her to get down off the couch within two or three minutes. After all, the longest the girl has ever gone watching television (at least in the last six months) is about the 90-second length of the PBS Arthur opening theme song.
How long did she watch today before getting off the couch?
40 minutes.
When did she go down for her nap?
When the movie had ended.
What has she awakened in her mother?
Hope.
She might really, legitimately, love football.
Hahaha. :) I love this.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, my condolences about the game last night. I heard it was a good one... I will swallow my usual exclamation at this point. :)
By the by, I have started reading Anne of Green Gables on my iPod at night. Unfortunately, I had already started Jane Eyre and The Doctrines of the Book of Mormon... and I need to read Dandelion Wine, I can taste it on the air! But I asked for the printed Anne for my birthday. :D The printed word just sits with me better.
Thank you for your sympathies--you have every right to be excited that your team won! Although I wished for a different outcome, it was a fun game to watch up until the last five minutes (as is usually the case with the Aggies).
DeleteI am glad you are getting acquainted with Anne...I think she is one that needs to be read on the printed page!