Now I Know How She Felt: How Karma Kicked My Ass
Courtney is… a Yankees fan. I remember the moment I found out like people remember where they were during a national tragedy (only slightly comparing the two).
We had a just met and she told me she’s from New Jersey and went to school in New York City. Because of the way I was raised, my first question after being given said information was, “You’re not a Yankees fan, are you?” as my face slowly formed its way into something that was probably very unpleasing to look at.
“Yeah,” she responded, presumably wondering why my face looked like Quasimodo on a bad day.
Long story short, her Yankee fandom has led to our only spats. People who aren’t sports fans would probably pity us, but people who are sports fans (i.e. normal people) would totally understand and count us lucky that it’s the only thing we argue about.
Given that the Indians were Browns-tastic this year, only her team was available for cheering purposes throughout the playoffs. We made a point of going out to a bar or meeting at her place (no cable for me!) to catch the Yankees games, and she was less than pleased with my lack of enthusiasm.
“Humor me!” she’d plead. Unfortunately for her… I’m a terrible actor.
On one night in particular, we went to Justins (a bar, not a friend) to catch the game. She went in with pride, wearing her Yankees hat. She left trying to hold back tears, because bar patrons were openly rooting against the Yankees in the World Series. It was especially rare, because normally fans don’t like seeing repeats, but it seemed baseball world favored a repeat over another Yankees championship.
For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why she was so upset. Didn’t she know that everyone outside of New York City hates the Yankees? I thought she’d expect it! Then karma hit.
Last night I made a point of going to Justins to watch the Cavs game against the Chicago Bulls. Of course the Cavs lost a heart-breaker (I swear LeBron was fouled!), and I had to sit around a bar filled with Chicago fans cheering. It was the second time in less than a week a Chicago team beat a Cleveland team (Browns limped out of Chicago Sunday). As I sat there, wishing more than ever that I were back in Cleveland, I thought back to how Courtney must have felt to hear people cheer against her team. At least Cleveland was playing Chicago in my instance! New York wasn’t playing against Chicago! The bar patrons had no invested interest in it, yet they still booed the Yankees and I sat there with an awkward grin, thinking she should have expected it.
Well… at least I now know how she felt. I also have stronger belief in karma now, seeing as it just kicked me in the ass.