Coming out of the closet

Ya know, all my life, I've never really paid much nevermind to NASCAR. As far as I can remember, my parents have always been rather ambivilant about racing, but somewhere along the way, I decided that NASCAR was a sport for the rednecks to enjoy. Once, when I was in college, my friend Jessica begged me to go to this townie bar with her for one of her journalism projects. We were going there so that she could write a story about the band that was playing, but it turned out to be a NASCAR bar. It just so happened to be the same weekend that Dale Earnhardt died. I barely recognized the name. Anyway, at one point, a member of the band asked for a moment of silence in his honor. Thing was, I was chatting with Jessica and just plain didn't hear him request the moment of silence. It was one of those things where one minute the bar was loud and booming and the next minute you could hear a pin drop...oh, and me talking. I had no idea what was going on, but it's never good to be the only one talking, so I shut up. After a few more seconds of silence, the band member said, "Thank you. It means a lot to me. He was a personal hero of mine, but I know not everyone here's a racing fan," and then looked pointedly at me. And then everyone else looked at me too. You know the pace picante sauce commercials? That was the moment that the lead singer of the band announced that my salsa was made in New York City.

Anyway, last weekend, Chris had ESPN on, and a NASCAR race happened to come on. We decided to leave it on so that Eric could see the race cars. But. It became...sort of...addicting! I put Eric down for his nap and came back to watch some more. The race part I can take or leave, but have you ever watched a pit crew in action? Damn--it's pretty cool! It's like someone pushed the fast forward button on these people. I imagine that if the TV audience could hear them talking, they would sound like chimpmunks. Also, I happened to notice that some of those race car drivers are pretty damn good looking! That alone is worth the price of admission!

So, it's like this. I'm not rushing out to by NASCAR gear, but I am admitting it here for all the internets and my 5 readers to see: NASCAR ain't so bad.