Sunday, February 04, 2018

We are the Champions

Began a cloudy, damp morning with banana pancakes and my Queen's Greatest Hits CD. My brother Keefe was a huge fan of Queen in the late 90's-early 2000's. He used to call his copy of the Greatest Hits CD his "pump up music" for after school sports. Figured it was certainly appropriate for the day of the Super Bowl!

Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon writing. King Han explains what little he remembers of what happened to him. He'd tried to fight off Vader's beetle armies, but they got their spider grunts to bind his wings and limbs with their silk. He was dragged before Vader and forced to his knees. Vader started chanting a strange incantation...and he knows nothing else before he awoke in Leia's arms.

They ultimately come to the conclusion that Han's not in good enough shape to fly. He and Leia take off on Chewbacca's back, with Luke following.

Broke at quarter at quarter after 1 to eat lunch, listen to my Earth, Wind, and Fire greatest hits LP, and get organized. As soon as I could, I grabbed my cake and rode over to Dad and Jodie's house. It had started to rain while I was writing. Though the rain wasn't heavy at that point, Dad still insisted that he would drive me to work, and the bike would stay in his garage. The rain was supposed to get worse later.

To my surprise, work wasn't insanely busy when I arrived. It was steady, but not nearly as overwhelming as I figured it would be. The carts were really bad, though. Not only was it much busier in the morning, before the rain started, but several people called out. The flu's been horrible this year. I spent the first two hours of my shift and the last half-hour doing carts and got soaked. Also did the indoor trash and bathrooms, gathered baskets, and bagged.

Dana, Jodie's son Jesse's fiancee, picked me up at 6:30. The game had just started when we got in. Dad and Jodie had a full house. Along with them, Dana, Mark and Vanessa, Rose and her family, and Jessa (Joe was too nervous to watch the game with other people and opted to stay home), there were several neighbors and their kids and at least one set of grandparents.

Jodie had a pretty good-sized spread out. The main courses were turkey and ham sandwiches. She'd picked up cole slaw, potato salad, and macaroni salad from the Acme. Rose brought cupcakes from Shop Rite (that she'd had to wait quite a bit of time for) to go with my marble cake. Appetizers included two types of hummus, pita chips, olive spread, artichoke and spinach dip, black bean dip, Buffalo chicken dip, crackers, shrimp cocktail, some strange spicy cheese balls, a spicy seafood dip, sliced French bread to spread dip on, and Rose's yummy Philly cheesesteak wedges (crescent rolls filled with sliced beef, sauteed peppers and onions, and cheese).

For once, the game was as good as the food. Despite the Eagles still being called underdogs, neither team dominated the game. One would get a touchdown, then the other would run back and get one. The Eagles started strong off the bat with a touchdown after both teams had field goals and were winning by half-time.

The little girls, especially Emily, were really excited about the Justin Timberlake halftime show. I like some of his music, but I'm not a huge fan. I thought it was actually kind of fun. At least the guy is a pretty darn good dancer. I also loved the genuinely touching tribute to Prince towards the end. (Prince was a native of Minnesota, where the Super Bowl was played this year.)

The Patriots tried the same come-from-behind stuff after halftime that won them the Super Bowl last year. I ended up in the living room, chatting with Jessa while the adults yelled over touchdowns and Rose and Craig calmed their tired children in the den. The Patriots were up by one point when I finally got tired of listening to Dad complain that they were going to lose and went home in a misty rain.

I rolled in just in time to hear the Eagles make another touchdown. Though the Patriots' coach Bill Belcheck challenged it, it was ultimately ruled good. That and Tom Brady's only fumble of the night helped keep the Patriots out of the end zone...and ultimately won the game for the Eagles, 41-33.

Wow. This is...wow. I can't believe this. The Eagles won their first Super Bowl. The Eagles won their first major football championship period since 1960. My mind is blown. Or maybe I'm just tired. I'm so excited. I'm just...this is so thrilling. It's the culmination of a truly wonderful season. I celebrated at home chatting with Lauren and listening to the soundtrack album for Purple Rain.

In other news, one of the early commercials was for Solo: A Star Wars Story. I absolutely can't wait for this! First of all, as I mentioned with Last Jedi, I'm not a purist. I'm open to different ideas and actors and different ways of telling the same story. Second, I couldn't give a fig about backstage drama. If the movie is good, that's what matters.

Solo: A Star Wars Story Super Bowl Trailer

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