I grew up as a scrawny nerd and never paid any attention to sports or athletics. Partner, on the other hand, is a tough old screwball, and used to hang out with the Boston Bruins, and he claims he actually took a bath in the Stanley Cup, or something, I forget.
Well, you know how they say that spouses grow more and more like one another?
Apparently all those TV football games and baseball games over the past two decades have had some small effect on me.
I was in the bank last week, wearing my Gonzaga alumni jacket (yes, I earned it, I'm a Zag). The teller, a young man, mumbled something I couldn't make out while he was processing my deposit. “What?” I said.
He motioned with his head towards the Bulldogs insignia on my jacket. “Gonzaga.”
“Oh, yeah.” I said. See, I know now that when people hear “Gonzaga,” they don't think, “Oh, of course, one of the leading seminaries of the Pacific Northwest Jesuit Province”; they think, “Basketball!”
So I smile ingratiatingly at the teller and say, “Who do you like?”
He smiled shyly and said, “Carolina.”
I have no idea if that's good or bad. But I know what to say next. “What do you think their chances are this season?”
He dropped his eyes and shrugged and giggled.
I repeated the whole conversation to Partner that evening, and he told me I got it exactly right.
See? I'm not unteachable after all.
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