Anyone who knows me well is wholly aware that I have a huge aversion to the SEC. For those who aren't football fans, that's a college conference consisting of Alabama and LSU, just to name a couple schools, who always seem to dominate the rankings year after year. Now I'm not one to put down success and not give props to those teams who have great seasons and fight all the way to a normally well deserved national championship. But for some reason when a particular team develops into a dynasty and basically lords it over everyone with their cocky attitudes and entitlement mentalities, it just makes me want to vomit. Well I have to confess that all of those venomous feelings I've had were before becoming such great friends with my neighbor JK, who hails from Mississippi and is a pretty hardcore fan of Ole Miss. This is also the person who told me I needed to watch The Blind Side, which I have now numerous times and, yes, it makes me cry every time. Michael Orr ended up going to Ole Miss in the film and played through his college career there prior to being drafted by the Ravens when he went pro. Of course he's with Tennessee now, but that's neither here nor there I suppose. Thanks to JK I have had the opportunity to watch a couple Ole Miss games this year, including today's win over the Volunteers, and they have impressed me enough to make me a fan. I doubt I'll ever do anything but bleed Washington Husky purple, but there are a few other teams that I do follow with great interest and enthusiasm, and now Ole Miss is one of them. Yes, I know they are in the SEC, and yes, I still loathe and despise Alabama and LSU, harboring deep rooted wishes that somehow they would both be wiped from the earth in some sort of karmic nuclear disaster, but my hatred no longer applies to the conference as a whole. Ole Miss hasn't done this well in decades and they truly deserve to make it as far as they possibly can. I love it when you can tell a team wants it so badly and works together throughout the season to make things happen and be thankful for their success rather than simply expecting it. It doesn't hurt that Bo Wallace, the quarterback, is a cutie pie either, but I contend there's nothing wrong with some eye candy along the way! I figure the heteros have the cheerleaders to ogle so I'm just adapting!
The festivities lasted most of the day. I was able to make my famous homemade horseradish dip for the occasion and it was enjoyed by all. Jackie even stopped by to partake, though I doubt she was much into the games. That dip has a mighty powerful attraction for those who love it. I can't remember the last time I laughed and carried on so much. JK just screams obscenities whenever something bad happens during the games and gets all wound up. I must say today that kind of rubbed off on me as well. I'm glad we are both so fluent in French! Every score, one way or another, set off fireworks of excitement in my living room. It was great fun! I don't have all that many friends who are really into watching football games and this past couple of weeks have been really nice having someone to share and get all fired up with. Today we ended up watching Alabama beat the living crap out of Texas A&M, then the Ole Miss and Washington games flipping back and forth between them, and rounding it out with the narrow Notre Dame loss to Florida State. By the way, I still hate all of the Florida teams just as much, if not more, than LSU and Alabama. By the end of the evening we had absolutely gorged ourselves on chips, pretzels and horseradish dip and both felt like ticks about to pop. This, of course, meant I had a brief spike in my blood sugar but it didn't last long and it was worth every bite! I did get a wonderful offer to head out to Denny's for some pumpkin pie, but between the blood sugar and all the dip neither of us could justify the effort so we decided to save that for another time. Tomorrow brings at least one pro game worth watching but it isn't on until evening. I'm hoping the Broncos trounce all over the 49ers, yet another team I have no warm and fuzzy feelings for. I suppose I should watch the Cardinals game but I can't say I'm a big fan at all. Sometimes I feel bad about that since I live here in Phoenix, but then I realize that almost everyone here is from somewhere else and has a favorite other than the home town team, so I don't have to feel too guilty.
Football is such a great distraction, but I do have work to do over the weekend as well so I'll be focusing at least some time on the exercises I need to complete before Monday morning's group. I also have to prepare for a follow up phone call to the disability people as well, since I did not receive notification yesterday regarding the status of the claim. I did call them and a message was left for the person handling my case but she never called back. I'm not sure why I should be surprised by that, but I at least have a plan in case I continue not to get a response or they decide to drag things out further, which in many peoples' opinion is totally unwarranted. I'm even thinking of reviewing the situation with an attorney just as a backup. It really floors me that they have taken this long and that they don't seem to have any sense of urgency whatsoever. We'll see what happens, but I'm definitely past the point of doing all those unhealthy things like catastrophizing and jumping to conclusions. Everything will work out just as it's supposed to and I will deal with whatever outcome that might be. I still have a lot of work ahead of me in a number of areas, but I do finally feel like I have made some genuine progress and have begun to internalize the tools at my disposal to handle whatever comes my way going forward. I can still feel frustrated and angry to a certain extent since, given the situation, they are really very normal emotions. I just have to remember not to let them control my outlook or cause damage to my sense of self worth and esteem, which I am finding some success with. For now I can just revel in the day and take one thing at a time. Even though my Huskies lost to Oregon, I still thoroughly enjoyed curling up on the couch with friends and enjoying the fireworks and hilarity that ensued. Thank you Saturday!
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