Challenge!

Surely today, along with the entire month of March, will be the biggest challenge for The Off-Season. Football is as much a part of my Thanksgiving tradition as it is many of yours, and I certainly won't be asking others to change their day around just for me. Because of all this, I wanted to set the stage.

I am only vaguely aware, right now, of what time the games are even on. I do not know who is playing (aside from the home teams, of course) or if the games are expected to be good or anything. Typically, my Thanksgiving hosts tend to have movies on until one of the guests ask to switch over to the games. This year, that guest certainly won't be me.

If and when the games come on I'm not quite sure what I will do. I won't want to be rude, and technically my rules will be fulfilled. I will not have actively sought out sports. So I don't feel the need to leave the room and isolate myself. I suppose I'll try to at least maintain conversations that have to do with something other than the game. Oh, and I can always play with the dog.

I plan to bring my backgammon set and my juggling equipment to see if I can create a diversion in another room, but if no one bites, I'm not going to sit alone. I don't think that is in the spirit of the experiment.

If you feel like keeping up with things, you can follow my day at @the_off_season

If not, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Football is the hardest

I thought the hardest game to stop watching would be basketball, for a couple of reasons. First off, the schedule is a bit haphazard. It's not like baseball, where they play so often you can be surprised by an off day. The Celtics play three or four times a week, and there never seems to be much rhyme or reason to the timing. They play every other night for a while, then three games in a row. It's easy to lose track. Beyond that, the Celtics are a team at the bottom right now. There is so much development to follow. So many plot twists stand between today and their next title. I have followed 7 teams from irrelevance to championship, and there is nothing quite like it. I will truly miss this first chapter of the Celtics next run.

Hockey schedules are the same way, but I have to confess that I've just never been that close with hockey. Die-hards tell me it's cause I have been to hardly any pro games, but I'm not sure that's the real reason. I just didn't fall for it the way I did basketball. I've not yet been able to understand how every single person on the ice can react to the puck the way they need to, and games can sometimes get to the point where it simply seems impossible to score. Don't get we wrong, I love a good hockey game. Maybe I just haven't seen enough of them.

Anyway, in both those cases, it's just easy to forget if the teams are even playing or not. But football is different. Every Sunday for the past four weekends, I have awoken knowing that they are playing football all day long. My team, the other teams, the rivalries, the amazing plays. It's all happening right now, and I'm not watching. That's been the biggest challenge. Before, it was a real pleasure to ignore the challenges and successes of my week, and the tasks that awaited me in the week to come, and just sort of camp out. Watching. Being entertained by something vulgar and beautiful. Being connected to friends in far flung places, who are spending the day the same way I was. One month in, that's been the hardest part to go without.

I'm certainly aware that the Belichick-Brady combination is a once in a lifetime gift. The fact that I am essentially turning away from one full season of theirs is a huge struggle for me. I am sure that any list of regrets I have for taking on this experiment will start with that. Based on some of the Facebook and Twitter posts I saw early on in last nights game, I seem to have more faith in them even while not paying attention than some Pats fans do while looking right at them. Something very special seems to have happened last night at Foxboro, where my Patriots play. The clues were there on social media, but then, just as I was laying down to sleep, I got a frenzied phone call from a friend out west who could hardly process the fact that I was missing what was happening. It was awesome. This morning, social media did the job again, informing me that whatever kind of comeback the Pats were able to mount, they made it stick and won the game.

I'm bummed I missed it, but I can tell you this. Though I was dying to open my phone and see what was happening in the game, I was also keenly aware of how nice it was to not be stressed out by the game. That was a new feeling, and it does not bode well for my return to full time sports watching when this is all over.

Going Out More

We go out more. 

Guys, I hate to break it to you, but it's the simple truth. I never felt like my interest in watching sports was preventing us from doing anything as a couple, but it's hard to think otherwise when I look back on the last couple of weeks since I stopped. We've been to a play, a stand-up show, and a very odd, but entertaining interview between Michael Kay (stop it, he's just an announcer) and Larry David. Beyond that, we saw a living legend, Charo, perform an hour of immensely entertaining humor and music (look up her flamenco guitar chops on YouTube, and make sure your chin has something soft under it) and spent an afternoon at a museum. 

Factoring in the cooking I've been doing, and this has been among the most culturally diverse two weeks I can recall. And it was all immediate. I really don't know what to say about all this. 50 weeks to go, and while I still struggle not to open espn.com, I'm really enjoying the space in my life to explore new things.  

This weekend I decided it was time to start playing around with advanced cocktails (read: more interesting than a rum & coke) at home. One quick shopping trip later and I have simple syrup, angostura bitters, and some rye on hand and ready to play with. I know I am behind the times, and you can all probably school me on more challenging drinks than old fashioneds and manhattans, but I am a believer that you have to learn the basics before you can start messing around with the advanced levels. Come on by, and maybe we can have a drink and talk it over. 

Oh, and by the way, the juggling is coming along. At the moment, I can't seem to help myself from throwing them forward. I'll keep working on it, but these drinks sure aren't helping.

Food Rushes In

It's impossible not to know what's going on. I'm aware of the beating the Pats put on the fading Steelers last weekend. I even saw something about the whole bullying thing with the Dolphins. I think the Celtics have won one game, if that. I'm also pretty sure the Bruins are doing OK, even though they seem to have lost the grudge match with their former players a few days ago. There's just no way to avoid finding these things out in this town. That makes this whole thing even harder.

I'm trying to stick to WBUR for radio, and they are more than happy to report when teams are playing, and what they did the night before. Boston.com, as I have mentioned on Facebook and Twitter, is hardly different than looking at ESPN.com when it comes to sports coverage. Every single time I glance at it, I find out something about at least one team. So far, though, I have managed to not click on a single link. It hasn't been easy.

So what have I been doing? Well, I just recently got a set of juggling balls and scarves, so I am digging in to that. The scarves proved pretty easy to pick up. I was able to keep them going for a few seconds right out of the package! The balls are a different story. I have heard from many friends that they were able to learn how to juggle quickly, as an afterthought, or even while drunk. Unfortunately, these stories have only served to make me feel worse as I have made very little progress. I'm now trying to get to a place where I can throw two back and forth without breaking rhythm. Baby steps.

The thing that has really sprung up in place of sports so far has been an ambition for cooking that runs deeper and different than any I have had before. I've always been able to follow a recipe, but now I'm trying to understand the role each piece of food plays in the success or failure of the meal. In the past, the idea of cooking something from scratch on a weeknight was a complete nonstarter. These days, without the constant curtain of a game starting at 7 or 8 on my mind, I have the time to think of and attack a real meal.

Maybe it's predictable. You remove a passion from your life and food rushes in to fill the void. Hopefully I'll be able to keep some of the skills required of this newish hobby, and not just the extra poundage. 

Face palm

So glad to have an extra hour to think about how I won't be seeing any NFL action at all today.

Walking the Talk

Well, it finally happened. The Red Sox season is officially over, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Looks like I'll have to make some space on the trophy shelf!

On this small shelf among our modest DVD collection (a collection that feels sillier and sillier to maintain with each passing year) sits a embarrassment of riches. Among these discs (and, yes, two VHS tapes!) is footage and/or retrospective from people who were there on every single championship that my favorite teams have won over the years. I love being able to go back to them to relive/relearn the memories.

I never thought it was worth buying hats or t shirts that commemorate victories. It just seemed so short sighted to me. After all, within about a year some other fans will have something better to brag about. So why bother? But the highlight videos are different. They sit on the shelf like any other grand memory of your life. But even better than photos or paintings, you throw them in and turn on the TV and get transported back to the magic. The night when your hopes came to fruition. When the others were conquered. When your team celebrated right along with you.

Of course, now is when the Off-Season really begins. I've already had a day or so to adjust, and this far I'm enjoying it. It's hard to avoid reading sports talk, especially looking at Boston.com, what with the parade and all. Still, I'm managing to not do much more than glance at headlines.

Here are the steps I have taken so far:

1. Removed espn.com and other sports related links from my bookmarks

2. Removed all sports related figures and teams from my Facebook and Twitter feeds

3. Removed all sports related apps from my phone/iPad/AppleTV etc.

4. Removed sports radio stations from car presets, iTunes, and Tunein app favorites

Secondarily, I've settled on Circa as my primary news app. It doesn't offer a sports section, and I like how digestible their format seems to be. There may come a time when I move away from that, but I like it for now.

Oh, one more thing. I also bookmarked a bunch of YouTube video that purport to teach one how to juggle in 5 minutes.

We'll see.