I'll make this short. I just lied. How about I'll try to make this short. I had this long diatribe concocted about what bullshit the media has deemed worthy of review as "news" of the past year. "News" is a very subjective term of late, much of which I find to be useless supermarket tabloid crap. With that said, why look back at all? Aren't we supposed to be looking ahead, our past is just that; past. Why dwell on it. Particularly if it wasn't all that great. And if it was all that great, we shouldn't rest on our laurels.
Some of you have been following the saga of my father's futile battle with with Alzheimer's. I don't want the last blog of the year to be a downer, and thanks to two rather odd occurrences, I'm able to ring out the old year on a positive note.
For the second consecutive year I was part of a Fantasy Football League. Fantasy Football has been around for some time, I just never got into it. I know, how does a sports psychotic like me not get involved into everything that has anything to do with sports. Well, I did make a couple of pleas to my son to become part of his league, but each time the spots were always spoken for. So when I was approached about joining a league last year, I figured why the hell not. This year it was a given I'd be part of the same league again.
My team name this year was "Alpha Omega," and a more apt moniker was never uttered. Week after week I either won big or lost big. Only two weeks were the scores close. My team finished the season 7-6, hardly distinguished myself. Last year, I painstakingly studied magazine player evaluations. I developed various draft scenarios so I knew which player to pick for eight rounds regardless of who anyone else selected. I took Fantasy Football very seriously last year. Probably because of the ultra-competitive asshole I am. Hey, losing sucks...at anything.
This year when draft day came around, the only player I had preordained was my first round pick. After that, I flew by the seat of my pants. No pressure I said, no big deal I said, don't take this so seriously I said. I approached each week of the season pretty much with the same attitude. If one of my players got hurt, I picked up another. If one of my players shit the bed on a consistent basis, I dumped him and picked up another. They all look the same with helmets on. I'd give my lineup a cursory glance, spend twenty minutes or so making the moves I had to -frequently way before the Sunday 1:00 deadline- and let the chips fall where they may. If I forgot to put in a defense, oh well. If I didn't have a kicker, fuck it. My Fantasy Football team was not high on my priority list.
Funny, it mattered little in the standings as well. I was a mediocre team in a mediocre division. My one ignominious claim to fame was I beat a team that had only one other loss all season. My least seemed to be enough to reach the playoffs, but I felt I would go no further than the first round game, then it would be on to bigger and better things. But I didn't lose.
My trip to Ohio coincided with the weekend of the second playoff game against the very same team who lost only twice. Thanks for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts. I didn't check the scores when I was in Ohio. The first I knew of the situation was when we got home and I checked my e-mail. That night, I held a lead by the slimmest of margins. My opponent still had one player left who could accumulate points that evening in the Monday Night Football game. However, in the second half his receiver achieved the status of persona non grata and I won by 1.5 points, enough to advance to the Stupid Bowl.
Just to get this far was nothing short of a miracle. It didn't matter that I lost, I still won $210.00. It's not the $400.00 that the winner got, but it was more than I ever imagined back in August when we started this nonsense. And then things got better.
You die-hard regular readers may recall my angst about entering my author friend's Micro-Fiction contest. You may even recollect the source of my angst was this year's theme; romance. If anyone were to ask me what I write, I might answer depending on my mood, "whatever the opposite of romance is." Needless to say I was not brimming with confidence. Other submissions would come from creative writing students, published authors, published writers, I am none of the above save for this blog. Well today I found out I won. When I first found out, I was quite surprised, using "quite" for lack of a better word. Other words used to describe how I felt were delighted, tickled, humbled, thrilled,you get the idea.The money from Fantasy Football now seems insignificant even though I don't have a pot to wee-wee in.
In my wildest dreams I never gave a thought that I may win. I was sure my skills as a writer paled to those of the other entrants. I guess not. Today I've been validated by people who know what they're doing when it comes to creative writing. Winning that contest reaffirms my conviction to get not one finished book published, but now two. I'll keep cranking out this stuff for as many Wednesdays as I'm able, in my mind, my writing can no longer be ignored. Today someone noticed. I'm really grateful and happy for that. Bring on 2011.
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