Football and further musings

I've been caught up in the current darkness of things - the clocks go back and all I want to do is sleep and eat. So all it feels like I've been doing is sleeping and eating when I'm not teaching and working and walking the dog and writing and watching football and raking leaves, shopping for things to eat and washing sheets so that when I sleep I'm more comfortable. It seems that I'm not just sleeping and eating afterall, I'm busy - very busy. Hence my neglect of this blog, a thing I'm becoming less attached to - the whole idea I think - what is a blog afterall but a public diary and really who cares what everyone's doing and thinking, what colour someone's underpants are or that they just brushed their teeth and it hurt or maybe we care too much. I care that the Indianapolis Colts are doing extremely well this year, that Chelsea are more than likely to be top of the league - especially when they kick Man U's ass tomorrow, Sunday. I care that Liverpool didn't clinch a sturdy spot in the Champion's League - like they usually do - and I care that the Buffalo Bills are probably never going to come to Toronto because that would just add to the local sport's fans malaise. But winter is upon us and I feel the closing in of things, especially my thoughts, so I think I'll preserve them, keep them close for the lastest book I'm writing and when I need an occasional purging. Because truly blogs have become, well, blogs. The less we hear of everyone and I mean everyone's bloody thoughts - it will be a more peaceful universe. Happy winter to you all and a seasonal goodnight.

The Casualties

The first games of the NFL season are both exhilarating and frightening. Last year, Tom Brady went down in the first play of the first game, gone for one year - devasting. With 52 players on a team why is it the big playmakers are the ones most likey to be injured immediately, completely changing the fate of a team's season. Thursday night, Pittsburgh burst through the gate impressively, but noone was as impressive as their own personal predator, the panther that leaps out of nowhere at anytime, well always the right time, and trounces his prey in one foul swoop - Troy Palamalu. He was flying aroung that field, taking down big men in a swoop. Then he goes down, knee injury - out for 6 weeks. First game of the regular season, Chicago lost their toughest bear - Brian Urlacher - just like that -out fos a year. Heartbreaking. It is, it is but I'm not a Bears or Steelers fan. AS long as the Colts stay healthy,I'll sleep at night, eat and pray. Yes, yes, I take up praying come the start of the NFL season - pray that everyone stays healthy one game at a time.

Brett?

The poet in me has four words and one exclamation mark for you:

What

Are

You

Thinking?

The other day I'm at work and there's a phone call for me. It's not unusual that the phone's for me but when the voice on the other end is a friend - that's unusual.

"Did you hear the news?" my friend Jan says, in a whisper. I look around, look around to see if anyone else has noticed that I'm acting strange because a friend has called me at work. No one's around. But I'm nervous for more reasons than one. Jan sounds serious. Serious with an echo of hysteria brewing in that whispering voice. I sit down and say, "No," and pause because Jan would only call me at work if it was big news - something serious. My palms sweat. I gulp. Look around again.

Jan's voice deepens and she says, "Favre signed a three year deal with Minnesota."

She guffaws.

"NO!" I shriek.

"Yes!"

I slap my thighs - crack up. Crack up and it is the most satisfying crack up I've experienced in months. "No. No." I squeal. Laugh, I laugh hysterically and she laughs with me and it's not that we are laughing at Brett Favre - we are not. But we have been through this on again off again thing with him for so long now - this is an event. The resurrection, the retirement resurrection - again!

At first it was heartbreaking - the initial retirement - the newest unretirement is gut-wrenching, a belly ache - another unpredictable play in Favre's career. Shocking? Shocking enough to call your friend, at work, when you haven't had the time to speak to each other in weeks!!

Never a dull moment in the NFL - ah, and here it is, back again - everything worthwhile makes a comeback!

I dreamt I was...

Last night, I dreamt that I was Cristiano Ronaldo. I regularly have strange dreams. This one took the prize. Many a famous person, athletes, writers, philosophers, politicians, you name it, have appeared in my dreams but I've yet to dream of being one of them. How did I know I was Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese national who the Gods have been showering in good fortune for the past year and a bit; the highest paid right-winger ever to grace a football pitch; the new Real Madrid winger who was bought from the mighty Manchester United for 80 million pounds. The most any team has ever, ever paid for a player. How did I know I was him and not merely dreaming of him. I'll tell you how I knew - the feeling. I have never felt like I did the night I dreamt I was Cristiano Ronaldo - never. It was a fleeting dream. I, as Cristiano Ronaldo, walked into a diamond studded room. I as Cristiano Ronaldo, felt a little anxious at first, that feeling one has when you're still young enough to feel momentarily unsure of your surroundings. Then everyone in the room who was sitting down stood up. The crowd of people standing parted. Then, I, as Cristiano Ronaldo, remembered that I am no ordinary boy anymore. No. I am the highest paid footballer ever. I am an empire. Then later in the dream, though fleeting it had a few scenes, one of which I as Cristiano Ronaldo fell asleep and had a dream - the dream within a dream scene in which I couldn't kick the football. I had two left feet. I could not live up to the hype, the paycheque and that's when I as Cristiano Ronaldo woke up, sweating and ill. Then I, as myself, woke up, relieved that it was all a dream.

Launching my new book - Animal - Friday, June 19th

Hey Ya'll:

This coming Friday I'd love it if you attended the launch of my new book!

This is the invite my superb publisher supplied:

Anvil Press & McNally Robinson Booksellers are
pleased to invite you to join us in celebrating the
release of Alexandra Leggat’s new collection of
short fiction ...

ANIMAL

Friday, June 19th • 8:00 pm

McNally Robinson Booksellers
at the Shops of Don Mills
1090 Don Mills Road
(corner of Lawrence Ave. East & Don Mills Rd.
Events Space, 2nd Floor)
Free Event • Reading • Signing
www.anvilpress.com info:

I really hope you can come, not only because I'd love you to attend the book launch but to check out the greatest new bookstore in town, McNally Robinson Booksellers - where it's all about the book, in all its brilliance, and reading, reading, reading; the good it does.

Come to the restaurant, Prairie Ink, have dinner or a drink before the launch, bring your kids,(superb children's book section!) Have a drink in the restaurant after the launch, listen to some music, sit on the patio, talk about books or whatever the hell you want to talk about on a breezy summer evening. It's not just about my new book, come out and experience all the cool happenings here.

Hope to see you!!!

Cheers!

Animal

Well, it's been a while since I've had a moment to write. and so many great football games have come and gone - in the original sense of the word. Man U is about to wrap up another spectacular year - goddamn them - Chelsea have been robbed once again and yet I'm thinking you reap what you sow - and John Madden sadly retired from the other football, a big loss in every sense of the word and Tony Kornheiser rightly retired from Monday Night Football - he is what he is in his own realm and we love him for that and John Grudin steps into a role I think he'll excel at. The World Cup is breaths away and the air is warming up - all is good.

As bad as I am at self-promotion, she says with a blog in her name - my new book Animal will be launched in Vancouver May 30th, the name of the bar escapes me at this moment but I'll post it later. This Sunday May 24th, I'm reading at the Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto from 3-4 as part of the brewery's Open Door event, where they allow the public to venture into where the magic is made to check out the architecture, eat fries, drink beer and listen to literature in all its forms - who can ask for more - beer, food, literature and architecture - nice. And on June 30th, I'm launching Animal at the new McNally Robinson bookstore at the Shops at Don Mills.

I hope you can all attend.

How about those Jays!

My Oscars

The Pro Bowl is to this football fan what the Oscars is to the sycophant. It's my chance to see many of my favorite players in one place at one time. It doesn't matter so much what they are wearing, what they look like at all. In fact unlike the Oscars, there's just a lot of talent in one place at one time and that's what thrills me. I know that there are many diehard NFL fans that cannot stand the Pro Bowl, will not watch it and think it's an insult to the game. Sure there's never much of a game. However, it's one last game, one last time to see the likes of say Peyton Manning until August. Weekends are harsh already. I don't know what to do on Sundays, I make plans with friends every Monday night I can. So as much as the Pro Bowl is not about who wins or loses or how they play the game - it's a few hours of football before the long withdrawal.