Never Say Never

I love football.

Let me clarify. I love college football. Professional football is fine too. In fact, as I write this, I'm watching the Chicago Bears play-mainly because former Husker Zach Bowman is starting today. but give me a college game and my Nebraska Cornhuskers and I'm a happy girl.

While growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, I thought that certain members of my family were a little uhm . . . over the top when it came to "the ways of the Husker fan." Don't get me wrong. I was a fan back then too, but the passion I observed in others was lost on me. At times it even seemed a little (dare I say?) silly.

Case in point: on football Saturdays, if it was an away game and my grandparents weren't among the throngs of red people trekking to another state, we would sometimes go to their house to watch the game all together-provided, of course, it was televised.

There was NO missing any part of the game if we were at Nanny and Poppop's house. There were at least 4 televisions all tuned into the game and at least one radio. You could be in nearly any part of their house and be tuned in. When the action proved to be too much for someone to handle and pacing was necessary to withstand the agony (usually Nanny), the anguished individual (Nanny) was encouraged to get out of the current room and go to a different television. If people (Nanny) wanted to speak at an inopportune moment, they were given a finger . . . pointing straight in the direction of a different room with a different tv. Television screen too small for comfortable viewing? No problem. A quick nudge in the direction of another tv location took care of it. By the end of a game, family togetherness was laughable. And if you were a kid who wanted to talk or make any noise (like breathing) during a game, forget it.

As a kid, I knew I'd never get like that when I grew up and became an adult Husker fan.

So yesterday, my mom called me. We had about 1 1/2 hours 'til kickoff.

"Hi Honey! Do you want to come over for the game? We're not televised, but we could at least listen together."

Me: "Uhm . . . Gregg said it might be available online at ESPN360. I don't know . . . "

Mom: (excited) "Oh wow! So we could actually watch it together?"

Me: (hesitantly) "You don't have wireless do you?"

Mom: (confused) "I don't think so . . . why?"

Me: "I don't want to have to share the screen . . . if I could bring my own computer and watch it, we could each have our own screen. Hey, I'll call Papa and see if maybe there's a way we could make this work."

When I hung up, I chided myself. I've become what I swore I wouldn't. I was turning down an invitation to my parents' house all in the name of not wanting to share a monitor. Duh. Oh well. No time to dwell on the issue. I had to call Papa Dean.

Sadly, the phone call resulted in no luck. No wireless. No splitter. Nada. I was relegated to watching the game solo (if it didn't fall victim to a blackout) or having to huddle with another person in front of the screen. Hmmm. Decisions.

You'll be glad to know that I chose the family togetherness option. And ESPN360 didnt fail me! The Huskers were not only audible but visible as well AND I never had to nudge anyone out of my way. Of course, I perhaps failed to mention that Gregg and Dean were both working-leaving only two of us to compete for viewing comfort yesterday.

If it weren't for the shushing and show of "not right now" in the form of my hand waving away the likes of Thing 1 when she appeared in the middle of some nail-biting action, I have to say that I did ok yesterday. I shared. I played nice. So did my mom.

Nanny would have been proud. Mind you, she would have been in a different room, BUT she would've been proud. :-)