I'm a slightly less bad loser now

In my formative years, if I were to say, lose, at anything, ever, you probably didn't want to be around me. For a couple hours at a minimum, and probably for a couple of days to be on the safe side. Or maybe even longer if it was a big game or if I already didn't really like you that much.

I was especially competitive at cheering: the Pacers, the Colts, Notre Dame football, IU basketball. Some friendships were lost through the years. Others with an even more contentious competitive relationship somehow survived (hi Matthew! hi Brad!).

Two minutes after the Pacers lost to the Bulls in the NBA Finals I was in the backyard burning my Michael Jordan Wheaties box collection. I'm not sure whether it was before or after that game when my mom decided to never be in the house again while I was watching sports.

When I actually play sports it can go either way. I tend to get over losses easier when I actually contribute to the outcome (as opposed to only contributing via superstitious behavior). That said sometimes it can all go wrong in the middle of the game. And when that happens sometimes, hypothetically, your team gets renamed Donnybrook FC for the next season.

But I'm so much more mellow now than I was back then. That Donnybrook thing happened all the way back in 2006! People I meet these days can't believe I have a temper. Until we get turned away from a club at the door.

Last night Arsenal lost in dramatic fashion to Liverpool. It basically ended the season for the Young Guns and I was devastated.

In the city there is no wide open space where I can escape. I can't jump in my car and drive around while shouting like a maniac and listening to loud music. The only respite is to go back to my flat, pop open a Ribena Pomegranate Light, and distract myself by reading articles about China's emerging middle class, the uselessness of the penny, and the slow death of the newspaper as we know it.

And in the morning I can pretend it never happened.

That was not a penalty kick though. That is never a penalty kick. Unbelievable.