A fellow football nut...or just a nut

I'm beside myself with joy today. The NFL season kicks off tonight! I'm not a Patriots fan or a Raiders fan so I'm wearing a Brett Favre jersey today in mass celebration of all things NFL. It's Angela's jersey actually. Women's cut. We're about the same size so it works out nicely. She has to wear scrubs to work so I'm allowed to wear the Favre jersey anytime Monday through Friday.

In one of my fantasy football leagues I'm up against an old friend of mine in Nebraska in week 1. How she managed to get both Terrell Owens and Randy Moss on her team while I'm representin' with Reggie Wayne and Ashley Lelie is a mystery. Hopefully LaDanian Tomlinson will pick up some of my slack. Anyway, I've known Sherri for ten years or more and she's one of those friends that I feel an instant connection with no matter how frequently or infrequently we talk. She's hilarious and just thinking about her makes me giggle.

Sherri and I had a major bonding moment on a trip to Chicago several years ago. Two other people went on the trip with us and we all crammed into one hotel room. I had to sleep in the same bed with our friend Craig. He was one of my best guy friends at the time, but sleeping in the same bed with him just seemed wrong. Abnormal I tell ya. Anyway, the whole purpose of the trip was to go to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the Monet exhibit, but when the time came Sherri and I were the only ones coherent enough to follow through. We had all gone out the night before and Sherri and I headed back to the room around midnight so we would be rested for our busy touristy day, but the other two stayed out until 4 or 5.

Sherri and I couldn't sleep that night. I remember opening my eyes once as we were trying to fall asleep and I looked across that space between the hotel beds and Sherri was lying on her side in the other bed, wide awake and staring back at me. We immediately burst out laughing. Suddenly we were two little old anti-social ladies who had skipped out on the party scene so we could go to the museum and have tea and scones the next day. We were just missing the floral prints and the girdles. No wonder our friends had ditched us. We were tragically unhip. First we couldn't sleep because we were laughing, then I got a stomach ache and had to spend an hour going back and forth between the bed and the bathroom. Then our friends returned but got locked out of the room so we had to get up and let them in and listen to their party-mode commotion. But dang it, Sherri and I still got up a couple of hours later and hopped on The L and went to the Monet exhibit. Well, the actual exhibit was sold out, but we were able to walk around the museum and look at other exhibits and buy Monet trinkets in the gift shop. It was one of those trips where almost nothing went according to plan, but it was one of the greatest weeks ever. I guess it all depends on who you're with.

This is all to say I love Sherri dearly but I hope I kick her butt in fantasy football.