On Soccer, Football, and Partnership

Last Friday was our fifth wedding anniversary. I had planned on writing a really schompy post about that, but I ultimately decided that this anecdote might be a more appropriate celebration of who we are as a couple, what we've learned from each other, and how we find new ways to strengthen our partnership.

First, some back story. We ran away to Madison, Wisconsin Friday night and Saturday. In many ways, it was a glorified beer and snack run, but I hope to post more about that later.

On our way home, we attempted to follow our second World Cup game on the radio. Now my sincere apologies go to any soccer fans reading this for what follows. Ben was never really a soccer fan, but the Anglophile in me contested that there must be something wonderful about it, and with the games taking place in South Africa, I really wanted to get behind soccer this summer. But first, there were those %@*! vuvuzelas. My God, those things are annoying! And then there is the fact that these people run around a field for 90+ minutes with very few goals to show for it. And the rules seem totally improvised - "Um, we might add more time, but no, let's just blow the whistle and stop play all together." What on Earth?

I was telling Ben my theory that there are all those soccer riots because people pay good money and/or invest two hours in a game in which very little happens. (And half the time it ends in a tie! I'm going to sound like a total American here, but if I invest two hours in a world-class game, I WANT SOMEONE TO WIN!) So as people get drunk and watch nothing happen, they get restless, frustrated, and angry. And then there are those %@*! vuvuzelas. Frankly, I'm surprise more fights don't break out. My theory was confirmed as the we continued to listen to the game and very little continued to happen. Pretty soon we were both yelling at the radio for no reason. I looked at Ben and said, "See, I told you."

When we got home, we were catching up on episodes of Friday Night Lights. We got to the muddy football game scenes at the end of this week's episode, and I turned to Ben and said, "American football kicks soccer's a$$!!!" And then I asked, "Aren't you glad you married me?" Ben kind of laughed and said, "Yeah, I think I did alright."

Happy Anniversay, Benjamin!