I'm sure for most of you today is Thursday, March 20th. No big deal. You went to work, you picked up the dry cleaning, or maybe planned your night around catching another new episode of "Lost."
Not me. Today is a holiday for me. I look forward to today more than Christmas, my birthday, Arbor Day, etc. Today is day one of March Madness. In the past it's meant four solid days of college basketball. Literally, 12 hour days of nothing but laying on a couch, grazing on snacks, and periodic checks on WebMD.com to find out how to treat 'bed sores.' In our basement, we have a 100 feet of coaxial cable whose sole purpose is to be taped along the wall from our bedroom to the basement where I've carried it down and propped up as a second TV to complement the big screen, so I can watch two games at once via the March Madness package on DirecTV. I fill out tens of brackets. I manage a pool that is up to 65 entrants this year, and I make my students fill out brackets as a way of gaining extra credit in my class.
Since college, most years I join up with about 10-15 boys from my undergrad days and spend the four days collecting an aura about my body that is equal parts pizza, beer, sweat, and methane gas.
I'm sick. I know.
This year? No trip to be with the boys. No second TV in the basement. I still do some of the other things, but now that Megan is here I feel like I have a touch more perspective. For example, with 35 seconds left in the Marquette-UK game this afternoon I went upstairs to change a diaper instead of watching the end of the game.
A friend of mine gave me this book, "Crawling", and it's a diary-of-sorts about a father's first year with his daughter. It is extremely well-written and hilarious. One of the chapters discusses how his daughter 'disrupted' his entire routine. At first, he regretted it, but after looking back and allowing perspective to settle in, he realized this disruption actually made the mundane and normal things in his life more vibrant because you of the altered perspective. So I'm curious to see how Megan will make this tournament weekend more exciting.
Tomorrow will be the big day. We have a 'date' at 2 to watch Texas' opening round game. I plan to provide the play-by-play for her. At three weeks old, there really is no excuse for her not to know about the pick-and-roll, ball screens, and good, solid man-to-man defense.
What? I can only change so much.
1 comment:
She is getting BIG. Oh man....we need to see her soon, before she is walking, talking and graduating from med school!
Good luck with your brackets. Hope I don't have to beat you as fiercely as I did in fantasy football. Tell Megan if she wants some tips from a real winner, to give me a call. ;)
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