*Takes a long drag of a cigarette*
Well? Was it as good for you as it was for me? The first weekend of March Madness is simply the best 96 hours of basketball in a year. Forty-eight college basketball games back to back to back to back. Score board watching to see how all my picks and (hypothetical) bets are holding up while scrambling to consume as much basketball with eyes as possible is exhausting. Non-stop action that leaves even the strongest and most endurance savvy people drained. The tank is empty over here.
What a weekend. If you are anything like me, your bracket was torched pretty quickly. Between Auburn and Kentucky, my goose was cooked. Papa Auric was done after the first game, he had Michigan State losing. At least I know where I get it from. But all that aside, it sure was fun wasn’t it?
It still amazes me that a bunch of 18-22 year olds can make thousands upon thousands of people shed a tear of defeat or bawl their eyes out in victory. We as a society are way too emotionally invested in our sports teams and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And it’s beautiful.
But now here we are. The Monday after the first weekend of March Madness. The second worst Monday of the year, only behind Super Bowl Monday. Where do we go from here? We don’t have all day basketball to keep an eye on at work. We don’t have the regroup and reload as we look forward to the next game to keep us alive and awake at work. We don’t have the “I looked away for two minutes, how did they bring it back to within 5” moments that were sprinkled throughout our day. We don’t have the tournament propelling us through our work day. So what do we have?
Well, I’m here to offer a couple solutions to get us through the week and back to the glorious tournament!
The NBA:
Sure it’s an inferior product and it’s the regular season but it’s SOMETHING. Today, sadly there isn’t an absolute banger or a game, the best two I’m seeing being 76ers at Kings and Pacers at Clippers. Which start at 9:00 and 9:30 Pm Central soooo I won’t get to even watch most of it. At least tomorrow we have some better match ups. Warriors at Heat, Lakers at Bucks, Thunder at Pelicans, and Mavericks at Kings. Those are some banger game (as far as regular season NBA goes). Wednesday the only real fun game I see is Suns at Nuggets. But hey, it’s basketball.
Touch Some Grass:
This can vary from making sure you get your 30 minutes of sun/taking a walk to getting all the chores outside done in the early half of the week to free yourself up for the tournament. Cut the grass. Walk the dogs. Get stuff DONE on this side of the week so you won’t have anything getting in your way during the games. And your partner will appreciate it too, I’m sure. Can’t be asked to do something during tip off that’s already been taken care of.
Watch/Rewatch/Catch Up:
Hit play on that show or movie you’ve been pushing off seeing. It’s time. It’s time to kill time. Or if you want something a tad more mindless, catch up/rewatch a show you’ve already experienced. Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon Season 2 come out on June 16th (Happy Birthday, babe) this year and I’m in desperate need of a rewatch. I don’t remember much of season 1 outside of feeling like the ENTIRE season was set up for what’s to come. Though, I might push that off to start Shogun which a lot of people have told me is amazing. Plenty of movies out there begging to be watched too.
MoonStamp:
We have plenty of content for you here. Jorden pumpsout a blog almost daily and I have my couple a week, but we certainly have a back log for you to catch up on. I’ve been toying with two ideas for blogs, one being video games I wish we’d get remastered or remade and one being my favorite video game Original Sound Tracks, so be on the look out of that later this week. Also, I will be streaming over at twitch.tv/AuricPolaris on Tuesday (or Wednesday) and Thursday this week at 6:00 PM Central! I’ll be starting Tunic, a game recommend to me by Moon, which is apparently like old top down Zelda games (with a cute little fox protagonist!). #ShamelessPlug
Luckily, it’s only 3 days until we’re back to the grind that is March Madness. Don’t forget to look back at the first two rounds to make help your picks and bets on the next round. Or to just rememeber how wonderful those first four days are.
Whatever you decide to do this week, let’s get through it together shall we? One day down, two to go. Glory awaits us on the other side.
(Also for the record, I don’t smoke)
