After waking up incredibly early for 7am mass and running into my little brother there, with both of us wondering why the other was up so early on a Sunday morning, I made it back to my place to put some finishing touches on preparing the house for the big game.
The night before, with most of the work done, my wife and I marvelled at our house's cleanliness and wondered why we only get it this clean before we know people are coming to totally trash the joint. I got home from church, and crawled back in bed with the girl and the kitten for a bit, until she got up for work. Then I woke up, brewed some coffee and flipped on the stereo to shuffle some Velvet Underground, The Who, Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, and a few others while I finished dishes, sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming up the joint.
I moved the extra couch into the living room to provide the stadium seating, and just sat around enjoying the clean house and the music. It was past 1pm, and I was going to flip the basketball game on as soon as anyone got there, but I was just enjoying the music, the coffee, and the clean house too much to part with it before I had to. Nick finally showed, we cracked a few Molsons, and we turned it on, and it was pretty lopsided in MSU's favor. Ken, his nephew, and brother-in-law showed up and brought the huge meat and cheese tray, and some hard ciders, and mike showed up with some more beer and dip. The party was officially on.
I had Mike and Jeff help a friend of mine with his resume over a Sierra Nevada Ruthless (Rye IPA) and after that I just kind of popped into floating host mode, going around and talking to everyone. I bounced around for a while, had a couple Founders Dirty Bastards, and then went back with Mike and Jeff and had a ceremonial run on the Arcadia Shipwreck Porter. Then we jumped into the Atwater Vanilla Java Porter that I had loved and talked up so much. Only this time, At-Water once again lived up to their name and it tasted like flavored watery crap. I usually hate every beer they make, but this WAS good for the first two batches I had, and I'm hoping they haven't ruined it for good. Only time will tell. I made some guacamole, and bounced around a bit more, had some of Jen's enchilladas, made a store run with Jen and Jeff to get more enchillada materials, and came back with New England finishing up a long drive shortly before halftime.
The score was 10-9 at the time. I was barely watching the game, and I couldn't really care less about Madonna and whoever those other people were, so I don't know if the halftime show was good or not. Also, I can honestly say I don't remember a single commercial from last night either, and I don't think that all can be blamed on 6.6%, 8.5%, and 12.0% ABV beers. I just wasn't engaged by the game, and it didn't seem like anyone else was either. There was no cheering for TDs, no laughing at commercials, and not a lot of craziness going on at all.
I think the majority wanted the Pats to win, but I think everyone figured the G-men would win, and whatever happened just brought out very little reaction across the board. I spent more time in conversations than the game. I would put my watch total for the thing at maybe 20±5 minutes. It was just more engaging for me to be talking to people, getting things for them, showing them where things are, and just trying to be Mr. Hostman than sitting in a chair watching a game I didn't care too much about. I mean, did New Yorkers and New Englanders need any more reason to puff themselves up than they already do? I didn't think so. Either way, one of them was going to become even more intolerable.
Most of the second half, I spent realizing that my head was a little fuzzy and I started rehydrating and getting some absorbent food in me. Before I knew it, I'm looking at the clock, and just before 10:00pm, the whole thing's over. This had to be one of the faster Super Bowls ever. Also, my entire house was empty by 10:30pm. Nobody lingered or spent the night, and the house wasn't even all that messy. It was pretty incredible.
I spent most of my lunch break trying to tally calories from my memory bank of the night instead of actually eating food (because I was still full), and I blasted way past that 2,500 average they quote for the average Super Bowl consumption by a person. I'm looking at something more like 5,000-6,000 and probably over 2,500 just for the drinks.
This is essentially a motivational blog for myself to keep track of my renewed love for running. Well, maybe love is too strong of a word, but let's say I try to enjoy it, even when I loathe the very thought of it. I also hope it will serve as a motivator for others like me that aren't your typical sized athlete, but still have the grit to go out there and challenge their limits. A little motivation from anyone reading this couldn't hurt me too much either...
While I didn't personally watch the game (I was reading on the couch instead) it was on and I agree, it sailed by with little to no excitement--at least not from Spike. Sounds like you had a great time with friends and brew/food instead and you can never go wrong with a night spent like that! (Although you will have to starve yourself for the remainder of the week to negate those calories consumed!)
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