It started on her birthday.
We were out to dinner celebrating her big 4-0. Since we had started dating half her life ago when she was 20, it seemed a good time to reflect back on the many milestones she reached both personally and professionally, and also look ahead at goals for the future. As that conversation drew to a close, she turned the questions around and asked me, “So what are you looking forward to?”
Instead of giving her a serious answer, I responded with, “Right now, I’m excited that I’m going to half of the Cowboys’ away games this fall.”
“Half?!? When did this happen?”
“You know I’ve already got tickets for the games against the Saints and the Patriots. And since they play both the Jets and Giants in New Jersey, I figured it would be easy to go to those two as well.”
She thought about this for a moment as I wondered whether she would consider this to be too much football for one season. Then she responded, “If you’re gonna go to that many, you might as well go to all of their away games.” I raised my eyebrows in surprise to that suggestions. “Well, where are their other games? I have tons of miles we can use. They must play in Philly and Washington, you don’t even need to fly for either of those.”
“That’s true…”
“So what’s left?”
“Well, I know they play the NFC North… One game is in Chicago, I know we get Green Bay at home, so it’s either Minnesota or Detroit.”
“You mean you don’t know? What kind of fan are you? Shouldn’t you have their schedule memorized?”
“Sure, but… it’s only June.”
“No excuses.”
And with that, the issue was settled. Over the course of 15 weeks in the fall, I would be following my favorite team around the country, 8 games in 7 stadiums, all of which will be at least somewhat hostile (if not outright belligerent) to Cowboys fans like me.
As we finished our dinner, I asked what I had done to deserve such a wonderful wife. She just smiled and shrugged.
The fun begins on Sunday.