Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Cheese Heads

I wear my Packer fandom proudly. And while I prefer college over professional football, when the Packers take the field, I turn on the television. Well, I turn on the television when the networks and our cable provider decide to actually show the Packers taking the field…

A couple weeks ago Tom flew to Green Bay for a meeting and came home with Packer accessories for all of us: plastic cheese necklaces for the kids and for me, large foam cheese wedge earrings.

I laughed when I opened the bag and pulled out the earrings; I knew Tom meant them as a joke, rather than an actual addition to my jewelry collection, and I had no intention of wearing them. But when the Packers got off to a rough start in their Wild Card game (watching the game from the hot tub and then donning our Packers shirts when we climbed out weren't having the impact we'd hoped they would) I decided to give the earrings a try. I put them in, cringing a little as I slid the questionably colored metal through my ears, and at that very moment the Packers starting to turn things around.

I continued cheering with cheese in my ears until the end of the game, and as the final whistle blew the four of us agreed that my earrings had obviously been the difference-maker.

The game ended early enough in the evening that the the boys went off to play Wii, Hallie cuddled up in bed with the iPad to watch My Little Ponies, and I sat down at my desk to get a little work done.

An hour or later the doorbell rang, and I answered the door looking a little rough around the edges: air-dried hair, completely mismatched pajamas (I'd covered up my Packers shirt with a 35+ year-old reindeer sweatshirt that once belonged to my grandpa), and - though I'd forgotten all about them - my cheese earrings. Here's the conversation the delivery boy and I had at the front door:

As I opened the door, a box that had been delivered earlier that afternoon fell into the house. I instinctually jumped back - as a normal person would do - and the box just barely missed my feet.

Erin: Whoops! That was a close one!
Delivery Boy: Um, OK.

I attempted to pick up the box and accidentally dropped it.

Erin: Whoops! Sorry about that!
Delivery Boy: Um, I have your food.
Erin: Yes, thank you.
Delivery Boy: Are you a Packers fan?
Erin: Yes, I am! Are you?
Delivery Boy: No.

Confused about how Delivery Boy could know about my Packer fandom and why he'd ask me about the Packers if he didn't like them himself, I looked down to see if my Packer shirt was showing…nope, still wearing my reindeer sweatshirt. I stepped backwards and looked back inside the house to see if perhaps a game recap could be seen on the living room television…nope, America's Funniest Home Videos blared loudly. I turned around and recognized that my front door could be interpreted as "Packer gold" and decided that that must be it.

Erin: Hmm. (I honestly don't know if I said this in my head or out loud.)
Delivery Boy: Ma'am…are you...alright?
Erin: Yes, I'm fine. Thanks for asking!
Delivery Boy: Yeah…I should go.

Delivery Boy hurried down the front sidewalk and jumped into his car far more quickly than I thought seemed necessary. I couldn't quite figure out what had just happened, so I found Tom and replayed the encounter for him.

Tom: You know you have HUGE cheese wedges hanging off your ears, right?
Erin: I do now…

Unfortunately my earrings could only carry the Packers so far…the Pack lost (in overtime after an unbelievable Hail Mary touchdown tied the game with exactly zero seconds left on the clock) a heart-breaker late last Sunday night. It's alright though - my earrings will make an appearance much earlier in the season next fall. I just won't wear them when I answer the door.

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