So I went to lunch today with Rico Alexander and Kapil Srvastava, fellow programmers here at my company. We went to a little Indian food joint called Shalamar (not the band). Rico was going to drive, but Kapil didn't want to get in the back seat of his Mitsubishi sports car. I got elected. I have a nice comfortable new-ish 2009 Hyundai Sonata Limited Edition. I think they wanted my air conditioner (its hot outside).
Rico happens to be from (East) St. Louis. This puts him on the other side of the Missouri river, in Illinois. However, he is very St. Louis focused on sports. He mentioned something about the Rams, and asked me if I had heard the news. I hadn't, actually. I told him I was kicking the Ram-habit this year.
Rico scoffed. He thought that was preposterous. "What is that jersey you are wearing right now?" It turned out that it was Chris Long's #72. I hadn't noticed this morning when I put it on. There is a perfectly logical explanation. I have a rotation. All 53 jersey in my collection get worn before any get a second turn. All teams, except Jacksonville, are represented, at least once. It is hard to find a good Jaguar jersey. I have a two closet system: Worn, unworn. It was Chris's turn in the rotation. I just grabbed the next jersey in line in the unworn collection. 53 days from today, Chris will come up again. I am able to go almost 2 months without wearing the same jersey twice.
I explained my system as the three of us walked to my car. Like most guys, I have a lot of junk riding around in my car. Rico was going to grab the backseat because he is tall, and likes to stretch out. He needed to push some junk over to stretch out. What did he find? Torry Holt's #81 in blue and an unopened Sam Bradford #8 in white, still in the shrink-wrap.
Naturally, Rico busted up laughing. He didn't stop for quite some time.
There was actually a logical explanation for that. I visited with my dad a couple weeks ago in Fresno. At that time, he returned a jersey I had accidentally left in the guest bedroom the previous time I had visited with him. That was the Torry Holt jersey. I never bothered to take it upstairs with me.
I ordered a Sam Bradford jersey a couple of months ago. My usual source accidentally sent me two identical copies. I contacted them about this mistake, they told me to keep it. You need to remember, I bought 53 jerseys from these guys. I was going to sell the spare to my apartment manager (a 40 year Ram fan). The manager's parking space is next to mine in the security garage, and that's why it was in the car. I was going to pass it on to him the next time we bumped into each other down in the garage. That was when he backed out of the deal. He doesn't think Sam is going to last long. In sooth, neither do I. Hence I still have the package riding around in the back seat. I actually forgot it was back there.
Naturally, Rico wasn't buying a word of it. He was laughing his ass off during the ride to Shalamar. "You got Chris Long on your back, with Torry Holt and Sam Bradford on the bench ready to come in case you get the slightest little stain on your jersey, don't you? You brought back up, didn't you?"
I have to say, I looked pretty bad on this afternoon. I got caught sloppy. It cost me some street-cred. Everything will be buttoned up tight after this evening. Just because I have certain tell tale signs of decades worth of affiliation, don't think I haven't quit. 365 days from today, you won't find these little tell-tale signs laying around. It takes time to expunge the archeological record.
Incidentally, Rico mentioned that he went to Stanford University with none other than Fran Charles, who also happens to be from St. Louis and live in Los Angeles these days. They knew each other pretty well, evidently. Fran was a couple of years ahead of Rico at Stanford, and was actually the class president! How about that tid-bit of information. I am not sure where François lives these days, but Rico is not far from NFL Network HQ. Those guys are on Washington Blvd in West Los Angeles, and Rico lives in Westwood.
Interesting, only 1 or 2 degrees of indirection between me and the NFL Network. If you guys want to get together for lunch at "Father's Office" I would be down for that. For those who don't know Father's Office, this is a leading gastropub near the NFL Network, featuring bacon jelly dressing for AAA triple prime steak ground into burgers. NICE!