A deep breath before the season starts

This year, I decided not to watch the preseason basketball. There were several reasons for this difficult decision. I wasn't sure if I wanted to dive in deeply in the games which didn't mean very much and serve myself loads of stress of negotiating the price of extended cable service (they don't give you the preseason games on basic TV, actually they won't even give you all the regular season games there).

The regular season in basketball for me is a very specific period - it turns into this full of anxiety, missing sleep, losing weight time, when I don't really care about anything else but the scores, standings, injuries and schedules. So, I decided to catch a deep breath before I jump head first.

I found a new gym, close to home (each cardio machine had a little TV!). I called my family and friends in Europe, they were really long calls. I still have some emails to write before I abandon them completely... I prepared a list of books I have to read. And I served myself a selection of other sports which I won't bother myself with till June.

Friday was a baseball night. Although it usually puts me to sleep, I made it through the end and witnessed the Yankees' heroics in the 9th inning and win in the overtime. I hate A-Rod as anybody else, but, boy, was he good!

On Saturday I turned to soccer. And I really don't like soccer - it's boring and frustrating, that you have to work 90 minutes to score 1 goal! But I was born in Europe which makes an European soccer a part of my genotype. I live near the Small Poland in Toronto, and during my morning walk I discovered a pub with a Poland-Czech elimination game for the World Series. It started at 2.30 pm and provided a good reason to scream, jump and have several beers that early in the afternoon. I decided to join in.
I wasn't the only female. OK, OK, the other girl was the barmaid. It had its bright side, tho - I didn't have to pay for my beer. But there was also the dark side - during the intermission I asked my neighbor politely: 'How bout those Yankees yesterday?' and he looked at me in a very specific way. Did I break some unwritten rule - is talking baseball in soccer place a sacrilege, or is it simply a woman talking sports such an unusual occurrence around Polish and Czech folks?
Anyways, the game itself turned surprisingly entertaining - the Czechs were playing efficiently and with the sense of urgency... The Polish on the other hand were exercising a kind of formation which resembled a triangle offense in basketball (really!). Apparently, it doesn't work well in soccer, as they lost 2-0.

On Saturday evening I joined my hubby for a hockey game. He loves hockey (real Canadian) and convinced me that Maple Leafs were supposed to be so good this year, and they were playing Penguins and Crosby. I believe Crosby is some kind of LeBron for hockey, also he looks like a chipmunk and (worse still) he resembles one of my ex-boyfriends. All the reasons to cheer against him. Of course Leafs lost and I still hate hockey.

Sunday was a football day, but I took it really easy. I saw the first 30 minutes of Bills massacre and promptly fell asleep before the half time. I woke up to witness the last 10 minutes and it hurt all the same. Packers didn't play (it's always good to have a second fave team which can actually pull a win from time to time). I switched to Broncos and Patriots while baking a long-promised apple pie. The game was interesting enough for me to burn my apple pie. I hate baking! And as much as I hate the Pats - I wasn't too happy to cheer for Denver - this horrible uniforms! The last game in the menu was between Colts and Titans - Titans sucked big time, Peyton Manning is still a scary ugly beast and I went to sleep with the very image of his broken nose hovering over me. Brr... what else is new?

Now, I'm nearly ready to switch to the regular season basketball mode.