Outside the Super Bowl

Super Bowl is a strange afternoon for a non-sports guy. It reminds me of when I was 20 something and walked by a church where a high school friend was being married. I had not been invited to the wedding and when I heard the fantastic organ rip I could only imagine what the whole wedding looked like. I feel like that day on Super Bowl.
The feeling is also like being a non drinker. Because I don’t drink, sometimes people don’t invite me to things if there is going to be alcohol around. I have explained often that it wasn’t THEIR drinking that got me in trouble and I don’t care if they drink, but still they often pass. I think they think I count their drinks. I don’t.
Perhaps at the core of it all is the whole pastor thing. I mean, who wants a pastor in the corner of the room when they are helping coach the team at the top of their lungs and perhaps at the extreme end of their vocabulary?
I remember one Super Bowl that I didn’t need an invitation to enjoy. There was this knock out with whom I was hitting successive bars in Pacific Beach. It was rainy and cold. We would duck into a pub, have a drink, go walk on the beach, go into another bar…all to the background of the Super Bowl playing on tv. The best part was necking under the PB pier. She’s in the kitchen starting on dinner as I write.
Turns out she liked a non-sports guy who quit drinking and chases after God. I think I’ll go see if she wants to take a ride down to the pier.