Notre Dame plays tonight which means I'll be a mess for a few months

I don't handle college football season very well. Win, lose or draw, I get very very anxious prior to games, and during games I'm basically a trainwreck. My mom used to leave the house during games; my dad usually disappeared to the garage to varnish something using his old underwear as a varnishing rag.

I'm not really able to watch games with other people who don't have the same focus and also because I'm superstitious. If things are going right I'll keep doing whatever I've been doing. Such as:

1. Once during a comeback I continuously walked to the kitchen and back to the living room in a circular pattern. Each time I passed a particular plant, I would rip off a small leaf. By the end of the game (an Irish victory), the plant was dead.

2. I once replayed the same song on iTunes over and over again for 2 1/2 hours.

3. If things aren't going right, I will shift positions, move to different places in the room, add/remove clothing, eat/drink something or stop eating/drinking something, etc.

Here's a conversation I once had with my friend Mark (granted this was during an IU basketball game, but you get the idea):

Mark enters the room midway through the game.

Mark: Hey man.
er/uk: Hey Mark.
Mark: How's the game going?
er/uk: Pretty good. Up by 10.

A few moments pass and the other team pulls within 7 points.

er/uk: If this gets any closer you're going to have to leave.
Mark: haha. Yeah ok.

A few more minutes pass and the game is tied.

er/uk: You should go.
Mark: Yeah.
er/uk: I'm serious.
Mark: What?
er/uk: Go NOW!

Mark leaves, but the damage has already been done. We lost. Way to go Mark.

This season is sure to be even more tedious as the Irish are sure to be underdogs in many games. Add to that the fact that I'm forced to watch games at an awful venue (The Sports Cafe) -- imagine taking the worst parts of an ESPN Zone and combining them with the worst parts of a Hooters.

Here goes nothing.