The past week has just been a mess for me. We had a huge conference/festival at the School of Music in honor of the bicentennial of Robert Schumann's birth. This obligated me, the dutiful PhD student, to go to everything. What this means in terms of the column is that by the time Saturday rolled around, I had a ton of catch-up to do. Which means I forgot about the match until it was five minutes into the second half.
Now, we all know Kirsten wins the award for "Most bizarrely dedicated despite the mind-boggling load upon her." And it's weeks like this that just remind me how impressive her output is. But what I really want to talk about, and what I really want to know from you: how is a fan supposed to juggle priorities? Where exactly do sports fit in your life?
When I was in my undergraduate years, few things had as much importance in my life as sports. I was in pep band, so there was ~35 nights a year that I went to see basketball games. And my roommate and I always had ESPN on our TV. It was what was on when we would inevitably fall asleep while studying at night, and it was the first thing on in the morning. In the meantime, we'd watch football, baseball, basketball, and whatever else happened to be on. We didn't really discriminate. If it was sports, it was good.
But since I've left that atmosphere, and more recently moved in with my girlfriend, sports have started to slip a bit. And it's certainly not her fault. She loves football, and doesn't mind watching baseball. But I just have had to decide what I want to prioritize. I'm at school a lot, I work a second job. I don't have much time at home: so do I want to do something that only I enjoy, or that we both enjoy? As much as she can handle sports, she wants nothing to do with soccer, though my watching is never a problem. This weekend, the choice went towards doing something for both of us, just out of forgetfulness.
It upsets me a bit that when I get busy, sports are one of the first things to go. I still read about them, but I don't make an effort to watch as much. I kind of miss putting so much time into teams I love. I obviously still obsess about Villa, but for the next week or so, as I get caught up, it's going to be a bit less. Instead of checking every site I have, I'll just obsessively refresh this site.
So what do you do? Where do sports fit into your life? When things get tough, do you use Villa as a release valve, or do you force yourself to put the team on the back-burner?