A Turnaround

Tonight, I am thankful for sports.  

A lot of the time, my fan-ship leads to negative emotions - anger, frustration, even sadness at a stomach-punch loss.  

Tonight, though, I am thankful for sports. 

The past 36 ish hours have been quite frustrating for me.  My allergy medicine, driving back home in the middle of the night after the baseball game, and a few other various factors have put me in a mental cloud that has demolished what I needed to be a blur of productivity.  Like the Tasmanian devil-meets-Martha Stewart.  It didn't happen, though.  

I cleaned up a ton around the living room and downstairs today, but then I opened up the shipping box for a new light fixture and unleashed a cloud of styrofoam crumbs all over my newly vacuumed floor.  Arg.  Then I attempted to install said light fixture.  I thought I remembered which breaker to turn off from the last go around at this particular light socket, but to be sure, I plugged a lamp into the socket right next to the light switch.  

 

(Yes, typical reasoning would suggest I just turn on the existing fixture.  I never re-installed the original one after I attempted to replace it though.  The one that came with the house worked perfectly, so I know it is possible for light to exist there.  But attempt #1 to fix it, partnered with multiple phone calls to brother/father/uncles and visits from male friends, some of them even handy ones.... well, that led to the ultimate conclusion that the fixture was defective, and I returned it.  It was going to take a full month to get a new one in because it was back ordered, so I cancelled the order and found a different one from a different company.  Turns out that one was back ordered as well, so a month later, here I am.)

I swear to you, I turned off every breaker except the one that controls my air conditioning, and that lamp shined brightly through it all.  Why, oh why, is there one single socket attached to the same breaker as my a/c?  I finally figured it out and, dripping with sweat, got to work.  Since this isn't my first electrical adventure, I knew to hook up the wires, attach a bulb, and test it out before going through all the hassle of installing the entire fixture.  No. Go.  

Ughhhhkajshdfkajhsdfk;ahsdfj.  I was frustrated.  

I am also in this mad dash to try and finish a bunch of small things in order to prepare for the arrival of my new roommate next week.  By this point I was so discouraged that I just popped down on the couch to eat something and calm down without destroying anything more.  (I ate some of the tuna salad that called for the homemade mayo - it tasted good!  A consult with a friend informs me that I did reach the appropriate consistency with the mayo as well.  Thank.  Goodness.  I also tasted a few bites of the pork carnitas that I cooked up for the rest of the week.  Stop reading this now, and go buy the necessary ingredients to create this delight.  Seriously.  Here is the recipe.  Holy moly is it delicious.)

Then I sent my trainer a text message to prepare him for my state of mind at our fast-approaching workout:  "Level of frustration: high.  Bring your A game."  The translation is - "I need you to destroy me.  I'm pissed off and need an outlet for my aggression.  I won't push myself hard enough, but if you try then I will do my best not to whine about it."  It's my code, and he knows it well.  It worked.  I was in a better mood walking out of the gym until I saw the score of the Rangers game tonight.  Down 7-1.  

UGHHHHHHHH.  I growled out loud, got some weird looks, and drove away angry all over again.  

Where is the turnaround I mentioned?  Right here. 

 

 

Tonight I had some friends over to watch D2: The Mighty Ducks.  I found out earlier this summer that they had never seen any of the Mighty Ducks movies.  That presented a grave situation that necessitated immediate correction.  We watched the first installment a few weeks ago, and tonight got to enjoy the best of the trilogy.  (I compare the Mighty Ducks to the Godfather.  The first movie is solid, and it sets the foundation well.  The second movie is the best of each franchise, without question.  The third movie in each does not exist.  Or at least, it's best for all parties involved to believe that.)  I just assumed that the Rangers were going to choke the way they did the previous two nights, and sat back to calm down and relax while watching one of my top five all time movies.  A text message from my Rangers-fanatic pseudo-brother led me to believe the game was over.  

As the movie reached its climax, my dad sent me a text asking if I was watching the Rangers.  I checked the score on my phone and realized that they had come back, and were now down by only one run in extra innings.  And they were at bat!  And the bases were loaded!! With only one out!!! By now my friends (also Rangers fans) were getting play-by-play updates from me.... I'm sure they were not at all distracting from the movie. 

"ELVIS AT BAT!"

"FULL COUNT!!!!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" 

I also had to ignore six rapid fire texts from Padre and pseudo-brother, knowing that the gamecast on my phone was behind real time.  

"RANGERS WINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  

There was jumping.  On the couch.  And a lot of yelling.  

Then immediate quiet to let these patient friends watch the Ducks defeat Iceland and fly home to Minnesota to sing "We are the Champions" by a campfire.  (I don't feel spoiler alerts are required for movies that are 18 years old.)

Just like that, my extreme frustration turned to absolute triumph. 

I'm thankful for a Rangers win, and I'm thankful for the victory of my favorite fictional hockey team.

If you are a fan of the Ducks and remotely familiar with the current Team USA basketball team, do yourself a favor and read this.  Columnist Rembert Browne compares each of the American basketball players to Mighty Ducks team members.  He also captured my heart.  Feel free to contact him and let him know that his future wife is waiting for him in central Texas. 

Take that, Murphy.