Countdown to Brunch Season

As people's Facebook statuses, the increased frequency of time spent on ESPN by your loved one or reading the headlines on MSN may have indicated - football season is upon us.  I played a variety of sports as a kid and regardless of my lack of skill in most, I enjoy watching nearly all (golf included).  I have always considered myself a sports ethusiast -until 2007 when I started dating Ryan, who can only be classified as a sports fiend.  Too much of a moderately good thing is a very bad thing.  Ever since then my love of sports has taken a 180.  Football season is hands down the season I dread the most.  Allow me to take you down memory lane.

Football Season 2007 - "Ignorance is Bliss":  Ryan and I had just started dating and so he did a pretty good job of tempering his overwhelming love of football season with his overwhelming love of spending time with me (haaaaaa).  In order to help in concealing his true obsession, he tried to find ways to include me in said passion.  I'm sure some of you may remember the great Fanny Pack incident of 2007. (Sidenote:  There is no such thing as a bet you can't lose.  No matter how good UT's record is and how bad A&M's offense is.)

Christmas shopping in Rice Village on a Saturday in December is made infinitely better by having to wear a fanny pack because you lost a bet.  (Yes, I did in fact wear that shirt in hopes it would make the American flag fanny pack blend - mission: fail)

I, also trying to be a good significant other, would sit and watch game after game with him without complaint.  This season actually went remarkably well in comparision to others I have known since then.  Ahh, the good old days.

Football Season 2008 - "Hey, remember me?":  Ryan and I had been dating for a year and a half and so we were fully over the honeymoon phase.  It could be said we were over it 3 weeks in when he decided that flatulence was no longer a private matter, but for the sake of this story we'll say it wore off sometime between football seasons 1 and 2.  Ryan decided we were finally at a serious enough stage in our relationship that he could take me, a longhorn, to Aggieland for a game.  We went, they lost and that is the last time I have been to College Station my friends.

First (and thus far last) A&M game.

This is the season I became fully acquainted with the depth of Ryan' love affair with the sport.  I was no longer interested in watching 48 hours a weekend of football and he was oblivious to the fact that there was an existence beyond his living room (or Brendan's living room) on Saturdays from August - November.  I grew very accustomed to him disappearing on a Saturday not to be seen or heard from again until sometime Sunday evening.  I guess that's not entirely true... I would receive encouraging love texts such as: "I'm seriously done watching the Aggies.  4 letter word, 4 letter word, 4 letter word."  (Love you, boo).

Football Season 2009 - "I'll give you a call in December (after the Big 12 Championship, obviously)":  Full-fledged obsession.  I'm not sure I saw him at all last football season.  However, I'd learned my lesson from football season 2008.  Every weekend Ryan and Brendan had a standing date with either Taco Bell or Jack in the Box and Jen and I had a standing date with any one of the remarkable retail establishments in either Rice Village, the Galleria or Westheimer.

This past weekend Jen and I were commiserating with the Florida ladies, Caitlin and Jenn about how close football season was.  We came up with a fabulous way to ease the pain of being football widows.  This year, we will begin our own hobby: Brunch Season.  Each Sunday as our respective men sit around and grunt at the TV while remarking on Kirk Herbstreit's latest tanning exploits, we will be found sipping mimosas and recapping our weeks at a local restaurant.  If you find yourself feeling similarly, please feel free to let us know and we will be sure to include you.

Not sure if you're a football widow?  If any of the following apply to you, you may want to participate in Brunch Season:

• Your significant other has showed up to your birthday (unfortunately placed in October) more intoxicated than you for 3 years running
• You could have carried on an illicit love affair between the months of August and December without even a second question
• You have had to threaten your significant other to within an inch of his life because he will not stop texting JT his friend for score updates at a wedding
• You have a fantasy football line up memorized - and you don't play fantasy football
• You know the vegas odds on the outcome of any given game for the upcoming weekend

Bring on Brunch Season 2010 - after all, everyone is a winner when there are mimosas and eggs involved.