All-Sports Widow

The Sports Widow Reflects on Sports Palaces and KOs

August 23, 2008 8:12 PM | 0 Comments

Today marked our return to West Seattle, after a 2-week stint in Washington, D.C. and Virginia Beach. As I left Washington, D.C., which is where I met my sports fan husband Bryan, memories swarmed me like mosquitos in a swamp, like mosquitos in Washington, D.C., which at one time was a swamp and, frankly, still acts like one. Ask my children, these mosquitos have unusually large proboscises (I'm too lazy to look this one up, but it means stingers, emphasis on plural).

It was here in Washington, D.C. that I was introduced to Bryan's row house on Capitol Hill, which he shared with two other guys, Stu and Stav, short for Gustavo. It was here where I was introduced to the concept of "The Sports Palace." They had created, their own comfortable shrine to sports, which at the time prominently featured an oversized, comfortable sofa and the largest TV in existence (probably a 20-inch). It was here that I naively laughed at their preoccupation with sports, thinking it was a light pasttime, which would have no impact on me. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Ha.

I had no idea that sports were so important, so integral, so not-going-away, so competing with things I deemed important.

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On the way home, we flew on Alaska Airlines and there was a gentleman behind me who talked non-stop about every single sport known to man. He even mentioned the American Legion World Series, which he had just attended in South Carolina. I had no idea there was ANOTHER World Series.

I also watched the movie Dodgeball on my DigEPlayer en route, which reminded me of one of my non-Olympic moments, when I was knocked out playing Dodgeball by my childhood nemesis Hughy on the gradeschool playground. I told George Foreman about this in my Sports Widow Radio interview and he commiserated with me. If I recall, he said that comparisons between my playground experience and his in the ring were valid. To paraphrase: "A knock-out is just a knock-out. For a moment, you don't know where you are." My nose was broken at this time, too, a fact that went undiscovered until I was in my 20s with septum issues.

Well, time for bed. It's been a long, grueling travel day.

The Sports Widow
(aka Nan Hall)