Superb Owl Sunday

Have you ever seen the show "What We Do In The Shadows"? It's one of our favorite shows. It's about a group of thousand-plus-year-old vampires who live in a dilapidated mansion on Staten Island in New York. It is of course, completely ridiculous, and of course we love it. There are some particularly good episodes (when they go to a rave in Manhattan, when they visit Atlantic City, for instance), but one of those is when their next door neighbors (regular, everyday people, of course) invite them to a Super Bowl Party. Which of course they misunderstand (thinking it is a Superb Owl Party), but are nonetheless thrilled about:

Ever since we saw this episode, Super Bowl Sunday has become Superb Owl Sunday in our house. And of course this year, the Philadelphia Eagles are one of the teams playing. 

Now let's get some things out of the way first. Yes, sports is not the end-all/be-all that so many people think it is; sports - particularly those like football and soccer - can be extremely dangerous and have devastating lifelong injuries; players are paid too much money; there is too much emphasis on sports in schools; blah, blah, blah, insert your own fact/complaint/whatever here. Now we've gotten it out of our systems at least for the purposes of this post.

But I have to tell you that as someone who has lived in Philadelphia now for 32 years, whenever one of our teams is in a major sporting final, it changes the way most people walk around and do things. There is a genuine, universal excitement and even people not at all familiar or usually interested in sports catch the feeling. People embrace the fun aspect of it. For instance, yesterday The Tim had jury duty, and when they called the roll to make sure who did or did not show up, people were given the option of responding "Here," "Present," or "Go Birds!" Apparently every single person opted for "Go Birds!" 

In the past few weeks, nearly every time I've had a transaction with someone at a grocery store, coffee shop, or doctor's office, it's ended with "Go Birds!" Even my colleagues at the yarn store, who for the most part are neither from here originally, or are not sports fans, have gotten on board. It's infectious, and it's just really nice to have people happy and united about something for a change. 

My Sunday co-worker Kate and I are figuring that this week it will be especially busy at the yarn store for three reasons: 1) people coming in to buy yarn for projects they want to work on during the game; 2) people coming in to buy yarn because they want a project to work on INSTEAD of watching the game, and 3) people with one or the other reason coming in, but mostly because it's the last day of the Semi-Annual Sale, where a lot of the winter yarns are marked down 50 percent. So we're ready, no matter what. 

Fortunately on Sunday, the store closes at 4 p.m., so I can come home, enjoy the pizza that The Tim is planning to make for dinner, and then enjoy our own Superb Owl Party with the kitties and lots of snacks. Do I want the Eagles to win? Of course!!!! (Having said that, I'm not a person to have it ruin the rest of my year if the opposite should happen - I mean, that would have already happened you know?)

Even the Philadelphia Orchestra has joined the fun.

Have a good weekend, and 

GO BIRDS!!!