Number 23, please.

My love affair with football has been well documented here and on other parts of the Internet.

While I think that this love would have grown with any batch of players on the field, I cannot help but recognize that my first year of Bears was also Devin Hester's. He made our hearts beat faster. 

So to know now (or to assume based on what the Internet has told me) that he will no longer be a Chicago bear fills me with sadness and so much nostalgia.

You might say that the Indianapolis Colts were the winners of 2007 Super Bowl, but I stand by the fact that D. Hest. won that game in the first 10 seconds. The rest of the game was a nightmare but I would not trade the win for that kickoff return (I mean if I did, Rex Grossman would probably still be the QB, big picture here, people).

And to know that he might break the return record with another team? Fairly irrational devastation. You're going to get so close to this moment with a player and then just shrug and move on. Clearly, I am not thinking so much as a football coach, but a very sentimental little girl - which is why they don't let me make choices.

This Friday I raise my glass (that is currently full of earl gray tea) to number 23. I will never hear the Soulja Boy song without thinking of the time that I saw liveandinperson one of his returns. It was magic.

I have never created a meme in my life, but the fact that this didn't already exist made it necessary.

Bear Down.

Goulden Oldies.

Football Sundays used to look like this:

Now, its far more likely to look like this:

I will say, it is nice not to have to put on pants. And it is ideal to get projects done with no distractions. And I have far more money to spend on dresses and throw pillows when I'm not paying a $100 bar tab every week.

I miss that face though. The face of irresponsible bliss.

So this Sunday, I'll work hard. I'll imbibe nothing stronger than coffee. I will go to bed knowing that I'll wake up in one metaphorical (and literal) piece on Monday morning.

Next week though? Next Sunday is a return to going for the Gould.

Another added bonus to this new version of Game Day:

my pride and joy

On Sunday night as I got ready for bed I took off my bracelet.  I took a poll of my friends that I watched the game with and they agreed - it probably made more sense to take it off and then put it back on before the season opener next year.  Embroidery floss does not really keep.

Biiiig Siiiiiggggghhhh.

Am I crazy sad that the Bears aren't going to the Super Bowl?  Of Course.  I am fairly certain that the fans of approximately 30 of the teams in the NFL are sad that their teams aren't going to the Super Bowl.  But it stings to get so close and then watch it all fall apart and have no one to blame it on but your own team.

This is the epic downfall of liking football.  I have enough disappointment in my life without relying on multi-millionaire professional athletes to do what I want them to.  They don't understand that I painted my nails blue and wore a ridiculous hat in excitement.  They don't really care that I was sooooo careful not to shittalk too much the week before the game because I didn't want to jinx anything.

And now its all over.  A Packers - Steelers Super bowl is going to be equally as boring as the Cardinals - Steelers super bowl two or three years ago.  The best part of that Super Bowl.  That was the first time I ever had my friend Alex's mint brownies - which are the best brownies in the universe (I will not listen to any arguments on this topic).

I did just find this (well, my friend J-dawg did) and I think it may be the funniest thing I've read in a few weeks.  Funny - and true for the most part.  I am sorry to hate, but I tend to call a spade a spade when given the opportunity.

This blog is kind of wandering - when I started writing/thinking about it on Sunday night there were a lot of emotions (mostly sadness and disappointment  - oh and pure rage) but its kind of all over now.  I'm over it - if the stress I felt over the NFC title game was a good indicator - I probably would have passed out due to Super Bowl stress - so maybe its better that the Bears only got this far.

And I'll put on the bracelet next Fall and we'll see how it goes.

Lost and Found

A crazy story to make up for the lack of posts recently.

Last Christmas (I think), my baby sister, 'Bear gave me a friendship style bracelet in the colors of the Chicago Bears:
It lived in my jewelry box until the beginning of this football season when I put it on and vowed that I would wear it every day until the Bears won the Super Bowl (obviously this is not entirely accurate for a variety of reasons, but its a fun hyperbolic thing to say).

So I wear pretty much every day but I take it off to shower because there is something about wet embroidery floss that grosses me out.

On Saturday I had to be at work at 8 AM, which was already poor planning but add that to the fact that I did not get much sleep the night before and it was super snowy outside, I was running extra late, so I threw the bracelet in my bag and put it on on the bus.

I got to work, worked a whole day, went out a whole night, woke up the next morning went out and had a show, a rehearsal, a trip to costco and a Christmas tree excursion. At some point in the midst of all that I realized that my bracelet was gone.

I was super bummed, because while I do not expect the Bears to make the Super Bowl it was kind of nice to think that my bracelet had magic powers that was making them do so well. I figured the bracelet had fallen off at some point on Saturday and having been to about 10 different places and having taken my coat off at all of them I knew it was going to be quite impossible to track it down.

I resigned myself to the Bears not doing so well anymore (despite the win over Detroit) and went about devising a plan to tell my sister what had happened without feeling incredibly stupid and irresponsible.

On Monday morning after taking the company van to run an errand and bringing it back to park it, I had to brush some snow off of the ground to see if I was parked within the lines of the spot (our parking lot is never ever plowed which is particularly fun two or three days after a snow fall when everything is iced over) and low and behold what did I find??

My bracelet! It was right there on the little step up ledge next to the drivers seat completely frozen to the car. Here are some crazy things about this state of affairs:

1-I had not driven or even been near that car (or at least that part of the car) since 8 AM Saturday morning - over 48 hours before I found it.

2- That van traveled over 15 miles between the time I lost the bracelet and the time I found it. At least six or so of those miles were on the highway traveling well over 40 miles per hour.

3- The door handle on that door is broken (classy, I know) which means that I never use that door to get into the van, only out of...which means there are about three or four times I actually used that door AND

4- During none of those times was I taking a jacket or gloves on or off (the typical culprits of lost wrist accessories).

How I managed to lose this bracelet in just the right spot AND it managed to freeze there almost immediately, I do not know, but I do know that it is a sign...maybe. We'll see how the rest of the season goes - and if it it goes well than it it is totally a sign, if it doesn't go well, than it is probably just a bracelet.

Super bummer...

I've only been on the losing end of a Super Bowl once. It was 2007 and I had only been a Bears fan for about eight minutes when suddenly there they were in the Super Bowl. I really was so brand new to this that I was just kind of cruising along for the ride.

By the time Super Bowl Sunday came around I had been on a three day bender and while the D. Hester kick off return for a TD was flippin' sweet, once the Bears started to lose it was a nice excuse to stop drinking as I was sweating Miller Lite by this point.

And then of course, the Bears became terrible and I became accustomed to a life of wanting to make the playoffs and not so much making the playoffs and understanding that that was the life of a Bears fan. Sucky, but, when a few years down the road, and things got better, I would have earned the right to cheer for some Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears.

Which is why I find it so absurd that people are all of a sudden Saints fan...and if you just don't give a shit, or are rooting for the underdog, Fine. I can get behind that... but if you decided that you are a "Saints Fan" this year because they crapped out a good season then I am calling Shenanigans.

Because while being on the losing end of the Super Bowl was sucky in '07, it wasn't nearly as bad as watching someone you love be disappointed in the outcome of the game. And it was just being a fan, it was a lifelong commitment to the Colts, a childhood of being hopeful and disappointed time after time.

I know the Colts ruined everything good and nice about Baltimore, but really, if the Colts are all you have and you're left with a cesspool of syphilis and underwhelming bars, than I don't think a football team is really to blame.

And so I had to watch as the Saints won and the Colts lost. And, it was pretty shitty. Not so much the game, but watching the disappointment on someone's face as he watched all his kid-dreams come tumbling down.

And let me be real, it was a fun Super Bowl. There was cake, and dip and juice boxes of wine. And I really enjoy watching Drew Brees play football. Just like I really watch Peyton Manning play football.

Anyway, this is what the losing side feels like, its not fun, but in a month, it'll just be a statistic.

Football is silly and it makes people crazy. However, I will say that the whole game was much better than pretty much every commercial.

How time trickles and flies...

So I've been in Chicago for a year now. Which seems crazy. I totally remember this time last year when it was hailing and I was thinking I had made a terrible mistake.

I haven't quite decided if that's still true. It hasn't been terrible. The weather has made me want to pull my hair out but I've made some amazing friends and so crazily rekindled some old friendships (seriously, if you had told me a year ago that I was going to reconnect with someone I went to camp with, I would have called you crazy to your face). I've experienced some awesome things: Circus class, break dancing, lollapalooza... I've finally decided what is important to me in life and what makes me happy.

I've been doing improv for 10 months now, and even though sometimes I feel burnt out by the fact that I've done it every week for almost a year, I still get excited by getting up there and doing scenes. I had a really great audition yesterday, and even though I probably didn't get it, the audition made me happy.

I am stuck in a rut when it comes to my job. I have good days and bad days. I know its not what I want to be doing, but I get paid enough to keep me happy and by happy I mean, I make enough money to buy stuff.

...like a Devin Hester jersey.

The football thing is crazy. This has been a trying beginning of the season I still love the Bears but they're making me pretty sad right now.

Right now I'm sitting in my Godmother's house which is gloriously circular; sitting on the same couch, eating the same pizza. This time, I'm so hungover I want to die because I went out dancing until 4 in the morning with some of my newest favorite people. In 2 hours I have to play soccer, which is going to be rough.

I just re-read this entry and realized I might still be drunk. Anyway, happy 1 year anniversary to me. Go bears.