Happy Birthday Blog

Two years ago, the day after the Super Bowl, I started this blog when I did THIS ENTRY. Today I feel the same way, I felt on that day: So Now What? Now I have to wait five weeks until Selection Sunday when the NCAA tournament starts, and I have no idea what I am going to do without football. Last night when Peyton Manning held up that championship trophy, I shed a tear. Sure I was glad he finally won the big game, but my sadness was more for the end of the football season and losing my only justifiable reason to drink beer on Sunday afternoons. I do have to say the season went out with a bang thanks to my sister, Julie and Rozzy. I may want to stay away from Sunday drinking for a little while anyway after this weekend.

The Year In Review

On Tuesday my blog celebrated one year of existence which made me realize why I really have this thing in the first place. This blog has allowed me to go back and laugh at myself this year. And what a year it has been.

From my first entry, my love of LeBron, meeting a pro football player, my favorite burger, finding my religion, swimming in public, basketball winnings, funny memories with my mom, finding my apartment, shopping with my sister, reflecting on friendships, my new job, spending time in the suburbs, Fall evenings out with friends, my 30th birthday, enlightening moments, my Thanksgiving fall, Christmas, maid of honor duties, the wedding and a fun-filled first weekend of the new year, including a confetti-filled New Year's Eve.

It has been a great twelve months. Thanks for sharing these moments with me, either in person or through my blog.

No Seriously...So Now What

I started this blog the day after the Super Bowl with the scary realization I wouldn’t be excited about sports again until March. Now that One Shining Moment has played and all the prognosticators have submitted their early Top 25 rankings for the 2006 college basketball season, I am officially in a bigger transition period then I was in after the Super Bowl. At least after the football season ends, you have thoughts of March Madness. Now that March Madness is over, I am looking over my upcoming sports calendar and I am feeling a little disheartened.

For me nothing really compares to pro football or college basketball but there are a few things to help me get by until next September when football starts up again. I will now turn my interest to the NFL draft in April. I will spend the next couple weeks reading every Mel Kiper Jr. article to try and figure out how the Browns are going to better themselves next season. After the draft, the NBA playoffs will finally be getting underway and the season will start to get exciting. (I will also be spending my energy over the next couple weeks hoping the CAVS can hold on to a six seed in the Eastern Conference but this is starting to look bleak.) I really wish I liked baseball more, but it will be well into the summer by the time the NBA champ is crowned, and the NBA draft is held, so I will have no business sitting on the couch watching sports anyway. That is until August when my fantasy football draft season begins.

Don’t worry about me. I will be okay. I have a wonderful vacation and a large event this summer I am volunteering for over the next four months. The sports world is not the only thing that makes my life go--it just makes things a whole lot more interesting when it is going.

The Beginning

I can't believe I am doing this. I can't believe I actually have a blog or at least the beginnings of one. I guess I just think I spend a lot of this time of year reflecting and now these reflections have led to this brainchild. I read an article just a couple weeks ago that said January 24th is considered the saddest day of the year due to the winter and a lack of follow through with New Years Resolutions. This blog is inspired by what I usually consider to be my saddest day of the year: the day after the Super Bowl.

I guess they try to prepare you for it with the two week hiatus in between the conference championship game and the big game but that really doesn't help. Now I am stuck in between this time of the Super Bowl and the beginning of March Madness. If only I could get into Arena Football or regular-season college basketball games. I mean seriously...Arena Football...I wouldn't care if Jon Bon Jovi and Jon Elway actually played on the teams they owned, its just not the same. The regular season in college basketball is just like one long pre-season. Do these games really matter? If a team enters the tournament in March with two losses or seven losses, does it make them less of a team? (Unless of course your team is from the Mid-American Conference and you watch yet another team not get an at-large bid, but more on that when I write about the "mid-major" athletic program.)

So now I am stuck in this time period without a name. All the millions of crafty sports writers and I still haven't come across a name for this time of year. Hello Bill Simmons? Excuse me Don Banks? Hey Steve Rushin? Can anyone hear me? I suppose it is this lack of a label that has drawn me to creating this blog. I want this space to be fun. I will introduce you to myself and share the daily comings and goings of my life with you but I will always try to integrate some good tidbits on the sports world. I think it was what I was meant to do. I have a degree in journalism and a Master's degree in Athletic Administration, yet I don't currently work in either of those fields. Obviously I need some sort of an outlet or I may explode. Thank you for patronizing me and sharing this outlet with me