the game
"Who?" I asked. "Oh you remember? Three kids. He's short and grey and she's a big beast."
"Oh yes, those ones." I said. My grandmother always has a way of explaining.
The game is today. Later. 6:30ish. It amazes me they start on the dot, every time. But when it's supposed to finish is anybody's guess. Nobody cares.
They're inviting everyone over. They're vacuuming, cleaning, wiping, sweeping, brushing, yelling, huffing, puffing, walking up and down and up and down. Even the parts nobody's going. I'm a bit nervous as I just got out of the shower, where I shaved a lot of my body about 10 minutes ago, and forgot to check it.
Now she's scrubbing it. Scrubbing, I forgot that one.
The game is sacred. It's the big one. We've been in 7 the past 17 years. Now 8. It's exciting as always, we're in it. But what some don't realize is that'll probably be our last. A few coaches are leaving and our luck is up. I don't think we'll win either. There. I said it. But it is still important. It's the end of a lovely, exciting era.
Food will be made, people will yell, get drunk and mad even. I was trying not to be here, but it's late and i don't want to drive home with the rest of the fools. I'll tough it out.
My grandmother stated kickoff was at 8 so she wouldn't be up. It's 6:30 as I said. That's 8p.m. for gram. It really is. She's in bed by 6 most days.
It's only men playing catch. I once heard a comedian state men are dogs. We are. Most of us enjoy playing catch. We are goofy and silly and idiots. When we can't play catch, we are watching other men, play catch. We talk about catch, we dream about catch, we invest in catch, we wear catch, we bet money on catch. We live by catch.
Not me of course. I enjoy the hype, the aura around the big game, especially as this may be the last time the stars align. As I said, the end of an era.
And when catch is done, we'll talk about the game for weeks, and then another form of catch will start as the snow thaws. And so on until we die. We'll waste our lives on catch and perhaps at the end, we'll realize it wasn't worth it.
Not me of course, I'll waste it on other things.