I like to get to the game early. While it’s not always possible I prefer to be there at least thirty minutes before kickoff.
I like to watch the team warm up, watch the coaches (okay, specifically MY coach, I’ll be honest) engage in their pre-game rituals, and make sure my hubby doesn’t need anything before the game starts.
Sometimes there’s something for me to do. Sometimes he needs a Gatorade or needs me to run to his car to bring him a clipboard.
At one recent game he “forgot to eat today” (quotes not because I didn’t believe him but because I felt I needed to include his actual words which took me almost a full moment to comprehend … how does one forget to eat?) and asked me to grab him a couple hot dogs from concessions.
Sometimes there’s nothing for me to do but sit quietly in the bleachers or stand by the sideline and observe the goings on around me.
We all have our game-day rituals, right? I like to get there early.
Another (rather strange) ritual I have on game day is that I always bring a book with me. I like to carry my rather large cross-body bag which usually contains very little (wallet, keys, cell phone, lip balm, chewing gum) so there is always space for a book. It’s not a special book or anything of significance, just whatever it is I happen to be reading at the time. But it’s always there.
Why am I telling you this? Well, because I have never once opened it. Before, during, or after a game.
I always carry it thinking “I’ll read until kickoff” or “It will be a great way to spend halftime” but it has never, not once, been something I have actually used.
Regardless, every game day, I leave the house in the morning prepared for the entire day with my lunch, a change of clothes for the game, (with extra socks, jackets, etc. for those late season games) and a book.
What’s even stranger than always bringing an item with me that I have never utilized is that it always surprises me that it isn’t utilized.
I always bring a book with the actual intention that I will read it.
I always get home from the game, take the book out of my purse and think again, “Why do I take a book? I never read it”.
We all have our little rituals though, right?
