March Madness

Here's the thing... I don't like sports, but I love winning.

I try to keep my competitive drive under wraps most of the time, but the truth is that I'm freakishly competitive (try playing Scrabble with me one day).



The other day, I played Candyland with baby Serena's 3-year old sister, and I got a touch annoyed when she tried to cheat. Then I laughed out loud when she got sent back to the Gumdrop Mountains and didn't even realize it until she told me I was being mean. (And actually I won the game and was feeling pretty smug until she cheated again and made us "tie.")

In any case, when March Madness (or the World Cup) rolls around, I get pretty excited. Not because I care who really wins the whole thing but because I want to win whatever betting pool I'm in. Frankly, if sports doesn't involve gambling, I can't be bothered. However, if I have something at stake (namely... winning), I will check Yahoo! Sports every ten minutes to see how I'm doing.

These past couple years at grad school haven't been as fun because I don't have an office betting pool, but when I worked at State Department, I was one of the first ones to throw my money in the pot. In 2004, I actually won the whole thing and ended up walking home with an extra $150 (which I promptly spent on two pairs of capri pants instead of taking my losing co-workers out for drinks).

There is a method to my madness. It involves my gambling penny...

Rather than waste my time reading over pages of statistics and coaches' records and players' abilities, I just bring out my trusty penny and flip it to see who will win. It's an amazingly successful way to gamble, especially in an unpredictable event like March Madness.

People scoff at my underdog risks, but I scoff at them when I'm walking out the door with a wad of cash in my pocket. FYI -- my underdog picks this year are Louisville and UNLV (making it to the Sweet Sixteen) and Pitt making it to the Final Four, but I'm not totally nuts... I do have Florida vs. North Carolina playing for the National Championship. I'm not going to tell you who I think is going to win because a certain Gator fan checks this site now and then, and I don't want to inflate his already swollen head.

And by the way, on a totally unrelated note, I had to strap a Baby Bjorn onto my front today while babysitting, and I had no idea those things were so freaking complicated...

I'm rather irked by this woman's smugness.

I was at the public library's "story hour" with the 3-year old (who I have this week because her school is on Spring Break), and I was trying to get the baby in the Baby Bjorn because I was supposed to be "participating" with the older child (ie: dancing around in circles like a goon), and I was contorting myself in about 20 different ways trying to figure out where my head went and where the arm straps were and which button and clasp connected to which cog, and the baby almost fell out of the pouch, and it all got twisted up, and not one other "mom" offered to help me (probably thinking to themselves that I was a thoroughly pathetic parent who should know better...) until I looked pleadingly at one and embarrassingly had to ask for assistance. By then baby Serena was almost in tears after having the material jammed in her face for a full five minutes, I was sweating profusely and on the verge of cursing like a sailor... and then the music ended, and I didn't need the damn Baby Bjorn anyway.