Sunday, December 9, 2007

defining giddy

Warning: The following post contains references to professional football. Read at your own discretion and risk of mind-numbing boredom.

gid-dy – adjective
1. affected with vertigo; dizzy
2. attended with or causing dizziness
3. frivolous and lighthearted

First, there was snow at noon. Big fluffy flakes that could have been captured in a photograph if I'd had my camera at church. Wondrous white chunks landing with impudence on the bare heads and jacketed shoulders and ecstatic tongues of the fifty children who were outside in 15 seconds. Some pieces were indeed sticking to the grass. Giddiness.

Then, there was me at 1:14. Desperately trying to follow the actions of my beloved Cowboys via intermittent reports in the corner of my TV screen because the stupid networks scheduled other dumb, less important games to broadcast. Since I'd come home at 12:30, the score had been Dallas 21, Detroit 27. For those sadly outside the domain of football, that score meant my boys could get a touchdown plus extra point and win the game. This is a feat within reach of the new & improved Cowboys (I was a downtrodden fan during the past few years, let me tell you). So I kept watching that four inch rectangle in the corner of the screen, hoping (and praying, yes, don't judge; Jesus loves football, too) they would pull ahead and I could go back to regular breathing. Then the same score flashed again with only 28 seconds left in the game - panic! Twenty eight seconds can be a good long time in the NFL, but it can also go by as quickly as it does in the real world. And the fact that I, wearing my team shirt and underwear (along with other appropriate clothing, don't worry), could not actually see the game unfold was unbearable. I was bouncing on the couch, my muscles tight, jaw tense, eyes trained on the little numbers flashing in the corner. THEN - Dallas 27! They had scored and were about to kick for the extra point and possible victory! Jumping, cheering, woo-hooing, frightening of children worried about their mother's mental health. I ran up to my trusty laptop and watched the final glorious 16 seconds of the game on NFL.com's computer-generated screen. Giddiness.