A more calm approach to writing an entry

Okay, so the game is over and I still want to rant a little bit. It's my blog and I shall do as I please, and if you don't like it, then stop reading it. (Actually don't stop reading it, my membership is secretly growing. It's like word-of-mouth, but the mouth has a rag filled with Chloroform pressed over it.) I promise that I have calmed down from my previous euphoria and can now adequately write a more appropriate entry.

I have always been superstitious. I have cheered for teams throughout my life, and when I cheer for them hard I cheer in very superstitious ways. As you may know I rooted for the Diamondbacks in 2001. I was a huge Randy Johnson fan. I wore my Diamondbacks hat around for most of the playoffs and during all of the games. It started to smell so I traded it for the away cap. No dice, they lost three in a row. And that gave birth to the smelly, superstitious sports fan.

Eight years later I am just as bad, if not worse. I root for Chelsea in the EPL, and after watching them lose a game they had no business losing (Arsenal at home) I realized that they hadn't won a single game that I had watched since March. That was a six month dry spell. I haven't watched them since. (I'm still waiting for that one to start working).

Now my worst superstitions come when I watch the Tarheels. I hate watching with other people (mostly because I like yelling at the TV), I can't do anything else while I'm watching the game or they will get jealous and not play as well, and I have to sit in one place during the first half and not move or they will think I'm abandoning them.

Before you have the nerve to call me crazy let me bring your attention to 1200 members of one of our nation's elite academic colleges. They painted their faces and jumped up and down in a pit of B.O. and ugly women. They waited in tents for months for this privilege, one even catching a very well documented case of the plague (or something like that). And their teams lost. How stupid do they have to feel.

And these are our future leaders for tomorrow.

Where was I? It gets weirder in the second half. I have four options 1) If Carolina is coasting I stay where I am and watch the game out until the white guys at the end of the bench come in, and then I usually leave 2) If Carolina is down or not playing well, I switch TV's. I will run upstairs or downstairs or to a bar or to a gym or anywhere with a TV as long as I switch where I am sitting 3) I can start drinking (this is usually not a good sign for the Tarheels) and 4) I can get on my stationary bike (if I'm not already on it).

The stationary bike is a good way to work out while you are watching college basketball. There are usually only TV time outs every four minutes so you get a nice little workout. But I wasn't on there for my workout in the second half. When I peddled harder the Heels played better. When I slowed down, they laxed. I managed to peddle my way to a 57 point second half. I peddled so hard that Tyler Hansbrough hit a desperation three with the shot clock winding down. I peddled so hard that John Shyer, who misses free throws as often I go to work, missed one. I know the Heels are good, but I would like to take credit for this win. That 14-0 run, that was me.

I think it's healthy to root for a team this hard. It gives me something to do twice a week in the winter. It lets me last until spring. I think everyone should root for some team this much.

So moral of the story: I'm spent, sweaty, smelly, superstitious and smiling all because of a bike ride in the second half that sparked my boys to a win.