Christmas Come Early

Please, take a moment and do this for me. It's quick, I promise. Take your right or left hand, it doesn't matter which, and, with your pointer and middle finger extended, slowly bring that hand towards your neck. Now, place those two fingers gently on your neck, just below your jaw about half way between your chin and ear. You should feel a quick bump, bump, bump at one hundred and twenty beats a minute or more. If you don't feel anything, you're probably dead - sorry. If you feel a slow, steady beating you may not be human and you're definitely not American. I think you already know why my heart is beating like a jack hammer twenty four seven and you're right. The greatest spectacle in all of sports begins its season this Thursday. Football, my friends, is rightly and truly back!

I doubt I've anticipated a season more than this one. For sure I've never been as involved with all things fantasy football like I am this season. Two pick'em league, one survivor league, three fantasy teams and this blog all shift into a six month high gear burn out with the flick of a light switch. The waiting has been killing me. I've been up nights, pacing endlessly back and forth, worrying about Cedric Benson's chances to break 1,000 yards this season. I haven't gotten a thing done at work - not that I would have anyway - because I'm not convinced Matt Hasselbeck is going to return to top tier status. Soon, it'll all be revealed and I'll have my answers.

The first weekend of the football season reminds me of Christmas. You wait angst riddled months for it. You plan incessantly about what or in this case who you're going to get. Thursday night might as well be a chilly morning on December 25th. I'll finally get to see what I really got inside those nice, carefully wrapped packages. It's our first chance to take true measure of the guys on our team. You know someone's going to be disappointed. Someone's going to get something they didn't expect, in a bad way. Just like someone's going to find the golden ticket laying in their lap. Some are going to get exactly what they wanted or expected and they'll feel all warm and happy inside. Some are going to want to immediately exchange what they got.

The only sure thing is that these pretty packages are going to begin to show their colors. All anyone can do at thing point is hope that, for being a good girl or boy all year, they picked the right presents.