There's a woman in here?

My husband and I just finished drafting the first of our (hopefully) three (maybe just two) Fantasy Football teams. It was quite the hoot - he gets incredibly intense over things that I am just able to laugh off (like whether we're picking our fourth running back or our first, and only, kicker, in the 11th, or the 12th round), and I get pretty fired up about stuff that just doesn't phase him ("We only have 40 seconds left. Okay, 35. 30. 25. There's 10 seconds left - we need to pick a player!!!"). Despite his threats of fining me for trash-talking to our fellow league members ("Shut the hell up Anthony."), and despite my threats of making him sleep on the couch for his refusal to even consider picking Reggie Bush first (who OF COURSE was gone after the first round....), I think we're going to have a lot of fun in this league. It is made up of kids from my summer staff, the Pastor of one of our ABC churches in Eugene, his father, some of the church's members, and what appears to be some random family members as well. Several of them met up at the church (in Eugene) tonight to draft together. My non-churchy husband thought that was going to give them an unfair advantage, you know, drafting from God's house and all. But then I reminded him that I work for God, so I think the playing field was even. I also told him that God would take Reggie Bush first as well....but he didn't buy it.

I love sports. I love sports fans. I love sports people. I just love sports. I thank my parents for that - my dad took me to a lot of sporting events, and my mom is a big fan as well, as long as she knows someone who is playing. She hit a man once who called my brother an idiot for dropping a ball in a football game. It is not a moment she is proud of, but I still tell the story all the time because I just love it. It cracks me up to think of my (basically) mild-mannered mother just clockin' this guy for hollerin' at my brother. :-) But my dad is the one who really instilled the love of athletics in me, especially amateur athletics. Back in the late 60's, when the UCLA Bruins were winning all those men's basketball games in a row, my daddy would call me into the living room every time they were on tv, and make sure I realized that I was watching "history in the making". I've never forgotten that. Then, of course, I spent the years I was ages six - nine in Omaha, Nebraska and, well, if you live in Nebraska and you are into sports at all, then you have to love Husker Football. And I did. And I still do too.

I've been around sports all my life and I love it - I absolutely love it. You can keep the pros (although the Fantasy leagues make the NFL more interesting these days...) and give me high school and college sports any day - my happiest memories of raising my first three kids (the other two are still being raised...) are of watching them compete in the various sports they participated in as they were growing. There was nothing like watching Steve go coast to coast on the court, or Dan tear up the football field, or Noi run the track. The kids playing at that level, and the collegiate level too, are still playing for all the right reasons (for the most part). And as long as they are suiting up and taking the field, this woman will still be in the stands...and in the chat rooms and in the drafts.

So yeh, gentlemen, there's a woman in here - in "your" sports world. There's not many of us, but there's more than there used to be. And, as best I can tell, we're here to stay. And, as best I can tell, that's really ok with you guys. So, yeh, thanks. :-)