FUN-NEE

So last night I had a friend over and he was giving me crap about my liking Dr. Who. He called me obsessed. Obsessed? I have a few DVD's and two or three books...and that's it. I don't have friends over and force them to watch. I am not even part of any fan club or messaging board. I just like the show and bought the DVD's. Yes I have made two posts here about the show, but it's only been two. He then went onto criticize me as a nerd because I also had the complete DVD sets of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and the TV show Angel. The fact that I own a few DVD's was enough for this guy to criticize me as obsessed.

It was then I had one of those moments you remember for history. I said, "you're criticizing me, but what are you going to do this weekend? You're going to put on your favorite Vikings jersey (the road one since they're on the road), dress your kids up in their Vikings jerseys, force your family in front of the TV in a room covered in Vikings merchandise and memorabilia to intently watch a pre-season game for four hours, including the pre-game and post game show, where you will insist that no one answer the phone in case you miss anything. You're going to tape the game and watch it again the next day, read and watch highlights again the next morning, get together at a sports bar the next day and relive the game with your buddies. You're going to ignore the real news of the week just so you can intensely follow every decision of the team, who's injured, who's got a good match up, what tired old cliches are being used to describe a sporting event. You're going to get into your car with the Vikings flag and Vikings license plate, turn your radio to one of the many sports talk stations to get the 'latest' up to date info, drive to your fantasy football draft which you have spent weeks preparing for, and seriously debate the merits of back up kickers. Your life will not exist for five months. I won't hear about your family or your job, but instead I have to talk to you about the games, the teams, the coaches and their decisions. When it's all over, you'll spend the other seven months of the year watching highlights being pushed by paid shills who are trying to convince you to forgo your child's education fund as you need to put down the three hundred dollars for a fan fest where some retired player might sign a jersey, or you need to drive two hours to a motor parts store where a player is making an appearance. You'll call congressmen and senators insisting they need to pay a billion dollars to keep the Vikings in town by building them a state of the art facility, and you'll scream at the team when they don't throw down eight million dollars a year to get one player. You do all of this, but yet you're calling me obsessed because I have some DVD's that I occasionally watch?"

"Yeah, but that's different, that's SPORTS! At least I follow something that's important."