Some people will be keeping their eyes glued to the screens Monday night as Villanova and the University of Michigan battle for the NCAA championship title. It will be very exciting news in my ‘hood indeed if the Wolverines win this championship since U of M is…well, nearby! I honestly don’t care who wins, but know a good deal of friends/family members who are die-hard Wolverines. So…Go Blue? Woot? What? My attempt at sportsball enthusiasm was not exactly Oscar worthy? I can live with that!

 

In other “non sports” related news, one of the trivia leagues in which I’ve been playing (Sporcle Live) will host its “venue tournaments” this week, which means one winning team each from 351 different bars across the United States in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and a handful of teams in California and Oregon – will advance to a “money” tournament which is scheduled for Sunday, April 15.

This week will be the 13th  time my team has attempted to go to a trivia finals in this league since 2012. I’m not very confident we’ll do it this time, either! Furthermore, even if we manage to squeak into a spot, I’m not confident about finding players for the “big game!” Two of my best players (Brad and Dave) will be unavailable for this final game, one because he will have just bought a new puppy, and the other because of his mother’s birthday party in Cleveland. Another of my players is never available for weekend tournaments, and because of recent…events (mainly involving miscommunication), is not likely going to be available for “regular” games, either. I’m leaving the door open for him to come back to the team on two conditions – one, he apologizes to me for calling me a “f—ing asshole,” and two, he listens to the very logical – and fair – reasons I am not using him in our venue tournament this coming Wednesday. It basically came down a choice between him and Dave, and since Dave committed to playing in this game early on, I penciled him in for the spot. Also, Dave is more knowledgeable about sports and “pop culture” stuff than he is, so I feel he will be a stronger player for this “deciding” game.

It’s really not a big loss if this other player doesn’t come back, though – he and I have never really gotten along that well, and he’s not much more chummy with the other guys on my team, either. He just kind of started “showing up” for games back in 2013, and never really stopped. I would call him a weaker link on my team when it comes to the Sporcle Live league, but is stronger in the other league (MTL). Since we haven’t really needed him in our MTL games this season and I can easily sub him out for tournaments, well…

As I said, all he has to do is apologize and…listen! I put up with quite a bit of drama and other nonsense from my friends, but don’t think I have to suffer being sworn at/yelled at lightly! This is the first time anyone has ever called me an “asshole.” As my husband said, this guy is SO politically correct he couldn’t even bring himself to call me what I deserved to be called (in his mind) – which is a “f—ing bitch.” My opinions on the overly politically correct BS that’s pervading social media these days is…another blog topic entirely! All of that said, I would have preferred to have just been called a bitch (though cunt also would have been acceptable, lol)! Believe me, I KNOW I can be a bitch! I can totally understand why I would rub this player the wrong way. I can be very blunt and brusque – pretty much a “take no prisoners” kind of person. Though I AM fair and reasonable – I will hear out – and respond to – his grievances, provided they are laid out to me in a non-yelling/non-swearing way. But he will have to hear my grievances about him, too! He’s constantly late for games, shitty at communication,  overly picky about bar food, and he provides a nearly constant stream of humble bragging (yeah we get it…you work out) and he’s also kind of a lecturer. No, I’m not perfect, and I don’t expect YOU to be, either! He recently tsk-tsked my husband and I for having drinks at another bar before coming out to our trivia game (he said that we were “pre-gaming”). We were doing something a little special for f—ing Valentine’s Day, for f—s sake! He’s lucky I didn’t kill him about a year ago when he made the “Haven’t had enough carbs yet?” comment at me in a bar when I said I was tired of whiskey drinks and wanted to switch to beer.  He didn’t like me joking about him answering my trivia “booty call” at a game about a month ago when I thanked him for answering said “booty call” at the last minute. It was a JOKE. I can be off the cuff sometimes, but he was LIVID about that. Clearly, tensions have been building up for quite some time between the two of us. Maybe it IS best if he parts company from our team, after all…

As for profanity?  I have no problem with gender-specific profanity! I’ve never had the pleasure of being able to call a guy a “cocksucker” or “douchebag” to his face (really, I’m a peaceful person at heart). But sometimes peaceful dialogue isn’t the answer, so here to demonstrate proper use of gender-specific profanity are a couple of characters from the 1988 film Heathers.

Because of all of these things above, I gave serious thought to not even giving finals a try this season, but have decided that was just too silly! Well, more accurately, my husband said bluntly, “We finish what we start.” I like it when he gets bossy, lol!

We have two (possibly 3-4) chances to qualify this time around, and here’s what I think our chances are for qualifying are at each spot:

1. Arbor Brewing Company Microbrewery (Wednesday) – Honestly, I think we have a one in five chance of qualifying here. Though we’re in seventh place out of 13 qualified teams, we’re one of the top two “smaller” teams that have been playing here. The top four teams all tended to have seven players (or more) on average every single week. Teams will be limited to five players in this game, which will give us an advantage since we won’t be outnumbered, but a disadvantage since we’ll have fewer “startup” league points going into that second game. Another advantage we’ll have is a “loaner” player from another team who will likely help significantly with “millennial” questions, sports questions, recent movie/music questions, video game questions, etc. He’s very excited about being able to play with us on Wednesday, too!
2. Oscar’s Sports and Grill (Saturday) – If we don’t qualify Wednesday, we can try qualifying here. I’m not likely to be able to field more than three players for this game, which might put us at a disadvantage. Good news we will be one of only six qualified teams here and have four “league” points, so that might improve our chances a bit.
3. “Play-in Game” – If we remain in the top 10 in the barhop standings next week and don’t win either of the venue tournaments we’ve qualified to play in, we can  play in this “last chance” game two days before finals. Obviously I don’t want to qualify THIS way (though I did use this option way back in 2012 to get us to our first finals)! I’m not likely to be able to field more than 2-3 players for this game. If nothing else it’s a chance to win $100 bucks if we’re the top team trying to qualify in this desperate fashion!
4. Forming an alliance with another league team – If we don’t qualify Wednesday, a couple of us have agreed to join a team that plays Thursday if they need players for their venue tournament. If they win, we “could” potentially play with them for finals (if they need players). Doing this would solve my problem of having to scrounge for finals players, and would mean we don’t have to try qualifying at Oscar’s, either. This might actually be our best bet, since I know this other team typically has a problem fielding players for both regular season games and tournaments. Joining forces might be the way to go! This might even become a key part of our “winning” strategy from this point on!  Well, if not “winning,” surviving at the very least!