My possum family legacy, and other stuff
I feel like such a man lately. I’ve watched more sports this week than in the entire last year probably. Every day it’s go to work, come home, get something to eat and watch whatever World Cup match it was I recorded for the day. ESPN and ESPN2 have quickly become the only channels I watch anymore. I should’ve waited to upgrade my cable package after the tournament is over. Who needs Encore Love when the World Cup’s on? Girls, that’s who.
It’s been quite an exciting/depressing/hopeful/maddening/desperate week for Americans watching the world’s biggest sporting event this week. It wasn’t looking too good for us, but then when Ghana beat the Czech Republic yesterday we finally had something to hope for! I think we played really well yesterday against Italy, and I was happy with the draw, considering we were down to nine men. I blame Floridians for that–specifically the old, rich senile ones living in Palm Beach County. Because those old bone bags don’t know how to fill out a voting ballot, George W. became president and subsequently proceeded to destroy public relations with every other country in the world, which is why all foreigners hate Americans (for sake of argument…no comments on the issues of obesity or stupidity), causing referees to be biased against the American World Cup team, albeit even if it’s only subconsciously, and leading them to give red cards undeservedly in one of the most important games we might play. Obviously, the only solution is to deport all people in south Florida over 65 to New Jersey, from whence they first came. Then maybe our national soccer team will get a fair shake in future.
Yesterday I managed to make it out of my apartment to watch the game against Italy in a cute little pub down the road called the Frog & Toad. It turned out to be a lot of fun because there was a good crowd there. I wasn’t sure how many people would be out watching the game, but there was a pretty good-sized crowd by kick-off. It was mostly Americans, with a few British people in the mix and a couple of what I guessed to be Czechs by the sour looks on their faces and none-too-happy-sounding rapid fire speak. The pub’s just down the road from where I work, so I might have to take an early lunch and try to catch the second half of the game against Ghana on Thursday! I met up with my first official new friend in Fort Lauderdale, Leo (who also started working at Citrix the same day I did). The atmosphere at the pub was really good and it was a lot more fun watching it there than on my TV at home. While I was watching the game this woman was taking pictures right behind me and then came over and said she was a photographer for the paper and asked me to write my name down on a piece of paper to use for the caption. So, who knows! There may be a picture of me in the paper somewhere. I didn’t ask her what paper she was from, but I didn’t see anything in the Sun-Sentinel this morning, so she could’ve been from one of the smaller papers. I’d be curious to see if she used the “elated Alisha” picture when I was jumping up and down when Beasley scored the US’s second goal, or the “despondent Alisha” picture when the shutter snapped as I watched the ref call offsides and the score rolled back to one-all.
After the game I was going to run some errands before heading home, and as I turned onto Oakland Park Blvd. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a car taking the left turn and then sliding into a spin in the middle of the wet intersection; it took me a second to realize it was Leo’s convertible. My eyes were glued to the mirror, watching the car spin around once and then again before finally coming to a stop perpendicular to the road and crossing two of the three lanes. I pulled into the closest turning lane, freaking out, thinking maybe he’d been hit or had hit someone else. Just as I was about to do a U-turn and head back his car straightened out and started heading towards me again. When he got alongside me I pulled back onto the road and rolled down my window to ask if he was okay. He said he was, and that he’d just taken the turn a little too fast. Right. Give me a heart attack! I can’t handle lizards in my bedroom and automotive daredevilry all in the same week.
Speaking of the lizard…I found him! I went on my patio to look through the bag and see if it was lizard-free so I could bring it back inside, but I didn’t find it anywhere. I wasn’t sure if this was good or bad. It either meant the lizard really was gone, or it was just hiding really well in some crease or fold and would slink out after I was asleep and crawl into my lingerie drawer and make its new home among my panties. I would’ve preferred to find it and get it out once and for all. So, I set it to the side while I put some laundry on to wash. The washer was dusty, so I went to grab a cloth that was sitting on the ledge, and lo and behold, the lizard was inside! And I didn’t even scream when he fell out! I managed to grab my phone and take a quick picture before he ran away through a crack in the corner, but it didn’t turn out that well. I’ve decided he’s not really that bad after all, and that if he were to find his way into my room again, I don’t think I would be as afraid anymore. And after seeing him up close, I think he’s definitely too cute to squish with a flip-flop.
Moving from reptiles to marsupials, there’s some exciting news in the family concerning possums! I don’t know how these smiley, hissing animals rank among other American families, but in my family they are pretty darn important. Some might say that the survival of my family actually was dependent on them…well okay, maybe that’s not true. My grandfather’s always said that during the Great Depression, when food was slim, the possum found its way to many dinner tables in the Wausau area and allowed people to make it through the hard times. So, to honor the noble marsupial familiar to all highway motorists, my grandfather founded a festival devoted solely to the possum, aptly named Possum Day. Held on the first Saturday in August every year in Wausau, Florida–the possum capital of the US–Possum Day (also known as Fun Day, because besides being good eatin’, possums are also very fun) draws people from all over the region to listen to live country music, buy and sell country crafts and enjoy plates of good ol’ country cookin’, which includes homemade corn pone, collard greens and, of course, possum. What’s so exciting about this year, is that the home of Possum Day, and arguably the most recognized structure in Wausau, the Possum Palace (a large open-sided blue-roofed pavilion), is to be renamed in honor of my grandfather, Dalton, and his contribution to the appreciation of possum-kind. So this August I’m planning on making the long drive up to the panhandle to join my family and the rest of Wausau as they bestow the greatest honor there is to give in the possum world on my grandfather.
And so I leave you with a possum fact: Granddaddy says that any possum that gets hit on the highway turns its head towards Wausau before it expires. And if by chance it’s not, he’s been hit twice.
Tags: Florida, football, Fort Lauderdale, soccer, Travel, USA, Wausau, World Cup
Administrator
I just read your latest blog entry. I haven’t bothered to get today’s Sun Sentential to see if our photo from the bar made it in the paper (did you check?), but I definitely had to find out whether I made it into Alisha’s blog.
“Automobile daredevilry?” You make me sound like some cool, macho guy showing off… Did I actually manage to come across that way when you asked if I was okay?
I still can’t believe I did something so stupid–that’s definitely the closest I’ve come to an accident in my life. The light turned yellow as you were going under it, and for some reason my mind was thinking solely about making that light, completely forgetting how wet and slick the roads were. I went through the intersection faster than I should have, and as I made that left turn, I felt the back of the car start to slide, and the next thing I knew, the car went into a fast, violent spin. I don’t know whether the car spun around once, or twice as you said–I was completely disoriented, and all I could do keep one foot on the clutch, one on the brake, and hang on.
I was completely shaking from the panic and adrenaline rush–I did for the rest of the drive home. When the car finally came to a stop, it took me a while to get my bearings again. But once I saw the line of cars angry and impatiently waiting for me to get out of their way, I realized that I had just spun around in the road, relieved that I somehow managed not to hit a curb, or worse yet another car. The force of the spin was enough to trip the fuel cut-off, and stall the car, but once it cranked back up, the car was fine, and I continued driving on.
So I’m sorry for scaring you yesterday. I was definitely just as freaked out after that close call. But I am glad that I now have one friend down here that cares that much about me. Thanks.
Are we still on for lunch tomorrow? I’m completely not offended if you want to drive.
Hmm, I guess I forgot to mention that anyone and everyone I meet is fair game for having their business aired in public!
Thanks for the comment. It lets me know my readership has at least increased by one!
I will be covering the Possum Fun Day this Aug. 5, 2006, for a Nothwest Florida newspaper. I would like very much to talk with you as soon as possile. You can reach me at PossumEsq@aol.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks very much.
Mike
Hey Alisha