Ohhhhh it's music to my ears. The rustling of paper brackets being filled out and large bills (twenties) being counted. The sound of the person down the hall screaming in horror as their sleeper team bows out in the first round. The clinking of beer glasses at the bar.
Mad about March is what I am.
The bracket - well, brackets... I have way too many brackets - set. Cosigned by my fellow bracketeers in the office, wagers have been set, though bills have yet to exchange hands. I'm already overheating about scores, and sadly I have already suffered my first crushing defeat in the South. I mean Butler, seriously? Every year they are underestimated and every year they silence the critics. They are always my dark horse favorite. This year, someone shot my dark horse.
I've got other though - American with the early upset over Nova. Biased? Sure. A piece of DC got sent to the tournament, I have to support some way. Maryland, though an ACC rival, I have picked to take out Cal in the first round. That would thrill me. I had them losing to Memphis in the second round but the way Memphis scared me today, Maryland might actually come up with the goods. In which case my bracket ends up in the shitter.
I don't know why I obsess over this thing so much. You'd think I was either playing in the tournament myself or staking my very livelihood on my bracket selections. I get like this every year too, literally every year. But it wasn't always like this, at least not that I remember vividly. Could be that, due to strict television rules in the Davis household, TV hours were limited. As a matter of fact, TV channels were limited (they didn't get cable until 2006), so I'm guessing the only shot at a game was the final four or the championship game itself. The only one I remember watching during any point in high school was in 2001 - Duke, right? - when I had made my college choice, was shitting my way through classes (yet somehow getting the best grades of my high school career), and pissing off high school administrators with petitions and other various uprisings. So I had a little free time.
It's funny associating college basketball championships with random turns in my life. The two events are often completely unrelated, yet somehow they draw similar memories. I remember watching Maryland win the national championship game, and missing home. Somehow I remember starting a "wings" tradition in 2004 after a break up and I needed "company" for watching UConn win that year. Wings, in some capacity, have been a championship game fixture ever since.
These days, March Madness gets about as exciting as it can in the office. Back in the day, classes would be skipped for big games if necessary. That is clearly no longer an option, but at first tip, those brackets better be initialed and in the Official NCAA Bracket Folder in the top drawer on the right. I love being the bracket-keeper in the office obsessed with checking scores and running next door to report on who's lost points. Cross-country battles with the besties gives me something to look forward to each day when the games have ended, winner celebrate, losers pack bags and the lights in the gym go out.
I don't know what it is really. It could be the light at the end of that dank, dark wintry tunnel that finally serves as sufficient evidence that warmer, lighter, fresher days are coming down the pike. That finally I will have my chance to run around outside and play for trophies. That by the time I get home from work, their still daylight to look forward to. And maybe a light jog.
Could be the huge geek in me. Yes, that's it. I am a self-identifying nerd with a competitive streak.
Then again, I think it's just because it's an excuse to interact. To have someone to talk to about some particular thing. We've spend the whole winter at our desks, slaving and crying over spreadsheets, reports and other nonsense, boxed up in our zones for months. Finally - FINALLY - there's a reason to step out and talk about something else. For a change.
Yes. A thousand times, yes.
No comments:
Post a Comment