SA (Soccerholics Anonymous)

My husband is obsessed with World Cup soccer. Normal professional soccer, not so much. Just World Cup soccer. Of course he also watches Formula One racing, but not any other kind of racing. He's sort of a sports snob. At any rate, I first discovered his obsession 4 years ago just after he moved into my house. He woke up one morning at an ungodly hour...

(Must interrupt myself here to contemplate that what I thought was an ungodly hour 4 years ago, pre-kids, is actually an hour that I have been awake for on a regular basis for the last 2+ years. My how things change.)

... which was around 3 or 4AM. He jumped out of bed all excited and told me he was going to watch the first World Cup game and he'd see me in a month. I thought he was exaggerating, but there really are a TON of games and he watched them all. He told me that for the next World Cup he wanted to go to Germany for two weeks to see a bunch of the games. I think my response was that in 4 years we would have a couple of kids and under no circumstances was he ditching me with 2 babies for 2 weeks to watch soccer in Germany.

Fast forward to 2006... (for those of you not living with a Soccerholic, the World Cup series happens every 4 years).

We actually do have 2 kids. And he is not in Germany. However, he is making an extremely valiant attempt to watch as many games as he possibly can. We come home, have dinner, put the kids to bed, and he disappears into the basement where TiVo is fathfully recording each and every World Cup game. Today the US played at 10AM and he actually left work with a group of friends to watch the game. And the children had to wear red, white and blue today. Unfortunately the US lost and will not be advancing. But the plus side is that not having the US in the mix cuts down a teensy bit on the obsessiveness.

I think I get my real husband back in a few weeks.