Non-Obvious Expectations

This marks the first of many weekends without football. I guess we'll be OK, but it's a different type of relaxing while you're watching a game than, say typing a blog (did I just break the 4th wall?). Most weekends would have me taking it easy catching a college game on Saturday or a NFL game on Sunday (rarely both). Last weekend we watched the Super Bowl with some friends, and the expectations are a little different at The Big Game. Instead of reclining alone on the couch, we were surrounded by friends requiring extra seating. Instead of finding a meager assortment of snacking foods in the house, we were surrounded by more food than could be eaten in a single night. And instead of actually watching football, which is sometimes a novel task with Hugh and Melvin anyway, we watched the commercials! It is as if we were there for the wrong reasons.

The commercials this year were pretty good. The same typical products were advertised (though I don't think I've seen a focusonthefamily.org ad before, a la Tim Tebow tackling his mom), with a majority of the ads from America's favorite past-time - drinking beer. A lot of ads, even beyond GoDaddy.com, followed a sensual advertising strategy and most of the adds were pretty funny; top-notch stuff in 30 seconds. Oh yeah, and we watched a game too. The Saints played a good one, and it was pretty exciting to watch. That's the biggest problem with the Super Bowl, with a good game and good commercials, when do we have time to use the bathroom?!!

Even though it was a football party, I'd say at least half the people could care less about about the game.You may not have guessed at first glance, but it's true : ) Slightly less obvious was a kid at youth group this past week. Jess is the youth director at our church and every five weeks, after four weeks of some topical studies, we have a game night. Well, six weeks ago a young kid came who really liked game night and kept coming the next four, asking before each lesson, "Are we going to play games now?" Game night was last week and he had a really great time, asking Jess before he left, "Can I have my birthday party here?!!" Hilarious. There was no hiding it, that guy was here for a reason! At least one of us was focused, though I bet he missed half the commercials during the Super Bowl - it was time to watch football.