Fair weather fan fun

I’m not a big sports fan during most of the year. Wild hockey is about the only thing I pay attention to all season long. However, if you’re from Minnesota, you couldn’t miss a short string of recent days in which the Wild opened their NHL season, the Vikings (with Brett Favre) beat the rival Packers, and the Twins fought hard for 12 innings (plus a few games before that) to clinch the division title and head to the MLB playoffs. It’s one of those rare good times to be a Minnesota sports fan—when the stakes are high and the teams are strong (at least for the moment).

For me, this is the time when I hop on the bandwagon and pretend like I’ve been following this stuff all year long. Yes, I am a fair weather fan and proud of it. I like to think it’s fans like me who help to add a sense of heightened excitement to these times. So, suddenly I’m following the Twins and the Vikings and sharing water cooler conversations about the previous night’s scores. I feel so… athletic. I mean, what’s more athletic than sitting on your couch watching other people be active, right?

What great sporting event is next, you ask? Well, for those of you who agree with me that dance is a sport, then I’ll be enjoying another great night tonight as I head to the So You Think You Can Dance tour! It’s more exhibition than competition at this point, but after following these athletes on TV all summer long, I’m excited to see them do their thing. Here’s video of my favorite dance of last season, which I'm looking forward to seeing live tonight (explanation: the male dancer represents an addiction and the female is the addict…such a powerfully illustrated story). It’s art; it’s sport; it’s two minutes of enjoyment for moi!