Return of Football
We are pretty game for any sport or activity... but Jen and i love football. College football particularly holds a special place for us. This particular off season seems to have taken far too long, likely because last season we had to settle for the occasional luck of stumbling upon a spanish dubbed game in a random mexican pueblo (reminders like this of what we were doing last year seem impossibly far away). We made the difficult decision a while back to buy season tickets to watch the oregon ducks, which also inevitably led to our decision to build a teardrop camper. The expense of season tickets seemed impossible with our tiny (and diminishing) budget, but this is one of those things i've always wanted to do and never had the time. Worked too hard/focused too much in college and grad school and attended very few games. Got a job and was suddenly traveling every week for work and had no control over my own schedule. Pretty soon a decade flies by and i hadn't been to a single game, much less a season of them. Now we have all the time in the world and affording tickets is difficult. Of course. But our whole goal right now is to do the things we love and figure tomorrow out tomorrow- so here we go.
We headed south to Eugene for the season opener and got a stark reminder of how crazy this world is. The droves of people and impossible amount of money spent every year by people attending these games is difficult to comprehend. After spending the last several years purging we found ourselves in a crowd of people unloading trailer-fulls of expensive tailgating gear and who spend $100 on each of four different jerseys colors. Jen and I pull into the grass lot wearing whichever of our very few clothing options we had on when we left town...
Don't get me wrong, im all for the passion behind supporting your local team- i love it... it's just another reminder of how easy it is to get wrapped up in a slippery slope of expense. As two people (almost) desperately in need of making money, it seems there has to be a way to profit from the excitement that comes along with fandom...i just haven't quite figured it out yet. In future weeks we may be those people walking around selling hand made somethings just to recoup the price of admission.
We slept in the mini the night before the game (our punishment for not having the camper finished in time). While trying to unfold our bodies in the morning we vowed to have the camper completed before another night away.
We also had to deal with the issue of not having the proper game attire. Luckily nike was hosting a pregame event where you got a free shirt for taking part in a skills drill. Our kind of event. Thanks to a well choreographed touchdown dance at the end, jen even got one of the expensive jerseys as a parting gift. Probably didnt hurt that the dance ended with jen throwing an uppercut at me...good to get out some of that teardrop frustration. The game was just as successful and we had a great weekend.
Back in portland we also decided to join an NFL fantasy football league. Obviously we've heard that these things exist but had no idea what it entailed. We also have never been huge NFL fans, but it seems like a good chance to spend time with friends and since jen won our poker party a few weeks back we simply paid it forward to the football league.
A quick how-to session, names pulled out of a hat for the lottery, a night drafting players into our imaginary teams and jen and i are now officially part of (and losing) a fantasy football league. If all goes well, by the end of the season we might even understand whats happening.
The camper has been moving really rapidly the last few days, thanks in large part to long days spent in the shop. The structure is now complete, insulation installed and we are psyching ourselves up to wrap the exterior skin in the coming days. All very exciting, but we are exhausted.
Seems a bit absurd for a self proclaimed deadline, but the risk of sleeping another night in the mini keeps us trudging forward. We are so close we can taste it, which sadly also seems to make it just that much further out of reach. Always seems true for any large project- the closer you get to the end the further you have to go.
Luckily, Karma loves being at the shop. Mostly because of the endless passing of people to give her belly rubs, but also because she keeps finding pieces of the camper to chew on. In terms of completion its one step forward and two steps back, but a happy dog is a happy dog.
