Mary and I went junking yesterday and I once again resisted all finds. I have stopped buying junk, which isn’t to say that I still don’t like to go and look. Mary made out with old wooden frames for her sheet music, a new red wicker chair for her back deck, some dishes of note, a 1960’s drink shaker for her bar, and other sundries.

Later in the day Erica brought me a little bag of Christmas cookies that her mom had baked for her friends and we caught up a bit. I can see from the outside that at twenty-six her life is moving a great deal faster than mine. I suppose at twenty-six I had three jobs, was going to school, I made an effort to see lots of movies and concerts. Now concerts seem crowded, noisy, and expensive. For most movies I can wait until video and has anyone seen my walker around here?

So to contradict what I just said, some of the usual suspects (six of us) went to see Sideways last night. http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/sideways/

I found it to be a charming little film that was less edgy than About Schmidt or Election. Maybe that’s because I know these characters too well and have participated in nearly every scene depicted. We went back to Angela’s afterwards for wine and cheese with a roaring fire. We went through a few bottles of red ourselves replicating the spirit of the film, and listened to a lounge Christmas compilation that Vanessa had burned for each of us.

So today I was either going to have a productive day writing, go work bingo, or both. But Brad has just called with free Rams tickets so I am off to the dome for bread and circus. I am first and foremost a Packer fan (I had Mean Jo Green pajamas with the feet in them when I was little), so last week’s stunning Monday night defeat actually was quite enjoyable for me, but today I am going as a Rams fan and I hope I am not embarrassed (by the football). Mmmmm nacho, nacho hat, I’m going to wear a nachoooooo hat.

It is, after all, only through the pressure valve of professional sports that America has kept itself from a rapid slide into a loose federation of warring city-states. To paraphrase Chomsky, if it weren’t for the irrational attitudes of submission to coercive authority and the conditioning impact of jingoism implicit in the professional sporting misadventure I just don’t see how we would have survived the last hundred years as a group of united states. The beer helps too.