Professional Sports

 Fio doesn't have a problem with amateur sports, when people play for fun and exercise, but she destests professional sports, the ones on TV, the ones that attract stadiums full of people and pay players frighteninglyenormous salaries. They are over-loud, time-consuming, and interfere with Fio's productivity. She needs silence so she can think, so she can organize and create. She needs all the minutes and hours she can get because a clock never runs backwards.  And she needs to to be busy at all the times because accomplishment is what make her life worthwhile. And while she's ringing her cowbell, she doesn't like senseless competition either because someone always senselessly loses. The only person we should compete with is ourselves. That way, we're all winners.

Personal Rants

As far as Fio's concerned, there's never a red light available when she's on the road and needs to jot down notes for whatever she is writing.
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Your's truly is so bitten up by mosquitoes that it'll be a miracle if she has any blood left for her INR nurse to draw next time around.
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Fio hijacked Husband's little red cushion for her car seat, and the world has really opened up now that she can see over the top of her steering wheel.
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Fiorella was a top-notch student, but she thinks it's a lot more important to be a good person. She also supports public schools, which have long been the melting pot of the nation.
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Husband is watching a football game on TV, but Fio couldn't care less. The only time she ever got excited about football was years ago when she was in a stadium and got carried away by the enthuiasm of the crowd. 

Penn State Postscript

The draconian fines and sanctions imposed on Penn State gave the football-at-all-costs mentality the kick in the pants it well deserves.  Fiorella remembers when the scandal first came to light and sports enthusiasts took the "Say it ain't so, Joe," attitude.  It was so easy to stonewall.  Not St. Joe, the winningest football coach in history--he wouldn't allow such a thing to happen during his watch.  Not his blessed acolyte, St. Jerry, the big-hearted tough guy who ate footballs for breakfast.  Those bad boys, those ungrateful boys--they were the villains.

And now the dust has cleared and the false idols have fallen, and Fiorella wonders what all those victories meant. Football is just another silly game.  What matters are the children.

Rah, Team, Go!

I'd enjoy sports a lot more if my team always won.

Fio usually avoids sports programs on TV because she doesn't want to get involved. The glory of victory is just great, but the agony of loss is--well--agonizing.

On Thursday, Fio's alma mater, The University of Texas, played Texas A&M. Now, UT has been going great guns this year and is sitting toward the top of the polls, while A&M's record has been so-so. But it was a grudge match--UT and A&M are traditional rivals, and the Aggies were all geared up to take Texas down.

And they nearly did.

UT, who had romped over Kansas State 51-20 the previous week, faced its biggest challenge of the season, and it was nip and tuck all the way. Fio decided she couldn't take it anymore and went to bed when the score was 42-39, with Texas barely ahead. Besides, she was afraid she was jinxing the Longhorns long distance, just as, years ago, she had jinxed Columbia in the only lift-off she ever watched on TV.

She went to bed, but couldn't sleep, then couldn't stay asleep. The next morning she woke up terribly depressed--until she saw the newspaper report. UT won 49-39.

Fio is happy again. She is so shallow.