There are other fish in the sea

By William Humbird

It’s Sunday, and I just woke up, but already it seems like something is missing. The bed seems colder, the room seems darker, the world itself seems to be lacking in one way or another.
In my heart I feel sadness, longing for something that I remember waking up to every Sunday.
I settle into the chair and begin to flip through the channels. I have passed the same set of talk shows, infomercials and syndicated shows four times now, but still nothing has caught my eye. I remember there used to be something or someone that used to stop me from this constant flipping, but, alas, I can’t stop hitting the up button on the remote.
It is Valentine’s Day weekend, and I know that should be a time for someone to be with whom they love, but I am starting to realize that my love is gone again.
Valentine’s Day…February 14…The weekend after the football season officially ended.
I turn off the TV and consider my various options. I could try looking for love online, and by that I mean playing Madden over the Internet.  The Internet just lacks the intimacy that the real thing brings. Sure, you can get the right image in your head and find yourself enjoying the moment, but in the end all you are really seeing is just electronic words and images dreamed up by some computer far away.
I am sure I could turn the TV back on and find some other sport on, like basketball or soccer, but they are just not the same. Soccer is a guilty pleasure where football is a true love, and basketball is just too quick.
How can you truly savor the moment if you are scoring every 28 seconds?
 I know that technically a team can score with 3 seconds left in football, which the Steelers proved during the Super Bowl, but it happens so rarely that it is something special when a team scores that quick in football.
Hockey is a third option, but since Houston doesn’t have an NHL team, hockey means a long-distance relationship. At this point in time, I just don’t think I am ready to get into another long-distance relationship. It was hard enough when my team picked up and moved to Tennessee.
The football season still isn’t completely over, since the NFL draft is coming up at the end of April. The NFL likes to pump the drama and the suspense of the draft, as you watch teams pick players off a board like they are picking things out at a Chinese buffet.
To me, the draft is like meeting your ex-girlfriend and her current beau at a bar. Sure, you are happy she moved on and that she is happy, but you still remember when she played for your team.
Hope is not lost though. Despite the loss of my first love, there is always the opportunity to move on to another.
Spring training has already begun for baseball, and the Astros start playing their first preseason games in the beginning of April. Six weeks left to prepare, six weeks of courtship, six weeks until the still of the night is interrupted by that loving pledge, “Play ball!”