Saturday with a family vs. Saturday without a family

As most college football fans, especially SEC fans know, this weekend kicked major bootie in terms of top-notch football games. At 11:00 we had Auburn v. Arkansas, at 11:30 Georgia v. Tennessee, at 2:30 Alabama v. Ole Miss and at 7:00 Florida v. LSU. Not to mention, Kentucky v. South Carolina and Miss. State v. Houston, which I did not locate on the thousands of channels I receive courtesy of DirecTV. As I prepared for such a plethora of college football greatness, I realized how much my life had changed since my marriage and birth of my daughter.

This blog centers on what this Saturday would have entailed five years ago versus what actually happened on Saturday:

Waking Up (Past): Five years ago, I would have set my alarm for about 8:50. I would have got up in just enough time to put in my contacts, get a Mountain Dew and locate my green blankey for couch time and ESPN Gameday!
Waking Up (Present): I was awoken at 5:30 by the cries of my daughter Brynn. It was not a cry of let's go back to sleep, but a cry of let's get up and play. Being nice, I let Sarah continue to sleep and I make my way to the den for floor time with Brynn. At about 7 AM, Brynn and I start to get hungry. We wake up mom for breakfast. Instead of my Mountain Dew diet, we decide to have waffles, eggs, bacon and cheese grits. Brynn goes for some kind of fruit and cereal. Following breakfast, we clean the kitchen, put Brynn down for a nap and get showers. This Saturday morning equals Vet Day. We get to carry our cats to the vet at 9 AM. Yes, the same 9 AM that Gameday starts. Susan comes over to watch Brynn and Sarah and I load up Swen and Fergie and head to the vet. With an appointment, I think we will be in and out in 15-20 minutes. Nope, we are behind the couple who train dogs for a living and brought 5 of their prized possessions for vaccinations. Needless to say, I get home about 10:30, just in time to watch the final 30 minutes of Gameday.

Early Game (Past): For the early games, I used to take in a pre-game meal at Swen in Northport for some General Tso's Chicken, fried rice and hot-sour soup. I would get it to-go and return home before kickoff. Typically, I watch the first game by myself on the couch with my Chinese food and computer on for updates on other games.
Early Game (Present): Instead of my pregame Swen meal, I attempt to save a few bucks and knock down a leftover taco from Lupe's the night before. Instead of watching the game alone, I have the luxury of watching with my football guru best-friend Jeff Coleman. Instead of getting updates on other games from my computer, Jeff continually gives me updates from his IPhone's Tweet Deck! If you need to know where someone is moving, getting married or eating for lunch, just ask Jeff! Instead of not getting off the couch for the entire Razorback massacre of Auburn and Tennessee whipping of Georgia, I get convinced to ride up to Jeff's house to pick up a bunch of BBQ. Evidently to Jeff, a bunch of BBQ equals enough for 1 sandwich.

Alabama Game (Past): If you know me, you know I do not do well watching Alabama games on TV with large groups. I can watch it with my parents, my wife or a couple of friends, but never a large group of people. I get too nervous and too worked up. I hate listening to idiots who do not know the correct (Orlando McLain anyone?) name of 3 players, but can direct an offense better than Alabama's coaching staff. I tend to watch Alabama games in the solace of my home, where I can yell, stomp around or take a deep breath outside. I like to be in control of the volume of the game, control of the commercials, etc... If I was not at the game, I would be locked in my den for about 4 hours of Bama football!
Alabama Game (Present): This Alabama game seems like it is going to be a replicate of past Alabama games for me. I have my wife on the couch and she does a good job of keeping me in check. I have Jeff and Jonathan coming over to watch, the first not claiming to know anything about football and the latter possessing a good amount of Alabama and football knowledge. The wildcard in this scenario will be Brynn, who is getting to watch her first daytime game with daddy. Sarah fails miserably in her ability to keep me in check. She is actually asleep on the couch before the game starts. Jeff is still annoying me to death with his Twitter updates. Jonathan is obsessing over the volume of the TV and the decision of whether to go to the beach that night or next morning. Brynn is asleep in her crib at kickoff and forces us to be quiet until halftime. Once Brynn wakes up, Sarah decides she wants a nap and I get to play with Brynn while she heads to the bedroom. Playing with Brynn and watching Alabama do not go hand-in-hand when Alabama is kicking field goals from inside the 5-yard line, but I do a good job of keeping my temper. Alabama pulls out the victory, which does not make the afternoon a complete wash, but truly enjoying the victory over a solid team was lost to many distractions.

Supper (Past): In the past, I would have headed to Wings, Buffalo Wild Wings or Phils with my friends to eat hot wings and watch football.
Supper (Present): In the present, I head to Mr. G's with my friends and family for a near fist fight with a tatooed woman and her eight kids. For those familiar with Mr. G's, we make our way to the back room for football on the big screen. No one is in the back room, so we settle in front of the TV for pregame Florida v. LSU. While waiting for our food, a lady confronts me and asks if we are watching TV. I say that we came back here to watch the Florida game. She says that she has 4 kids who want to watch cartoons. I inform her that we have been sitting here and plan on watching football. She still insists that her kids are bad and need to be in this background for cartoons. I still insist that we are not moving because I am going to watch this game. She then comes up with a quick lie that the employees told her this area was a kid zone and cartoons were allowed on the TV. I am not budging, but thanks to Jeff and Sarah lacking confrontational bones, our seats and TV is quickly given up. Jonathan may have helped in my argument, but he was too busy on the phone contemplating his decision of when to go beachside with Rochelle. Despite my arguments that she should have taken her children to McDonalds or Chick-Fila, since they have a playground, we end up in the front of the restaurant.

Night Game and After (Past): Watching the night games of the past would have involved all of the guys leaving the restaurant at the same time and heading to someone's house (normally Jeff) for football. We would have settled around the TV all with the beverage of our choice (Matt:Sunkist, Jeff:Coffee, Robert:Caffeine Free Diet Dr. Pepper and Jonathan:Some weird Latte). We would have snacked on food all night. During halftime, we would have snuck in a couple of Halo games. After the game, we would have played Halo til 1 or 2 AM then made a Krispy Kreme or Waffle House run. Finally, we would have fought over who is sleeping on couch, on floor or with Jeff.
Night Game (Present): Oh how things have changed! Jonathan and Jeff headed up to Jeff's for the game immediately after dinner. I had to go home and help Sarah get Brynn ready for bed and missed most of the first quarter. Robert showed up after halftime following a thrilling one-year old birthday party. Jeff spent most of the night packing for his business trip, while Jonathan contemplated whether he made the correct decision of leaving for the beach Sunday morning. Our snacks were Halloween candy and hot chocolate. Halo was never once brought out and the thought of Waffle House or Krispy Kreme visits were passed over for bed before 11 PM.

Things have changed greatly over the last few years. We have all tied the knot to some wonderful women and added to the world's population with great kids. Jonathan is moving a little slower, but might catch up on both this week at the beach.