If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say, Don't Say Anything At All

We interrupt the regular Palace blogging experience to bring you a post about subject matter that may make you uncomfortable and that you care nothing about.

I have a very important announcement to make: there are 10 days left until my fun begins.

The NASCAR season is almost here.

Woo Hoo!

Stop judging me.

I mean it.

Stop.

I am going to give you some background. I grew up in a sports lovin' family. My dad was a high school football coach for the first 14 years of my life. When most kids' parents were saying,

"Sally, what are some words that start with the letter C?"

My dad was saying,

"What is the mascot for Washington's football team?"

Or we'd play a game that went like this...

Dad: "Houston?"

B: "Oilers."

Dad: "Cincinnati?"

B: "Bengals."

So obviously watching football on Sunday afternoon after church was our routine.

After The King and I were grown-ups and had our own home, I began to see the value in Sunday napping. So, I would turn on the TV to the most boring thing I could think of and try to sleep.

I picked golf.

That turned out to be an issue for The King, because he was distracted from the sleeping by the golfing. So we reevaluated.

And chose NASCAR.

And it worked. The roar of the engines lulled us to sleep.

Around that time my insomnia issues kicked in. So, why The King would nap, I would watch the race. And I kinda dug it. I began to recognize names. Then I associated them with cars. Then I sort of remembered who won the week before. Then I caught on to the fact that points were awarded to each finishing position and whoever had the most points at the end of the season was the winner. And I'm all about a prize. And a little competition. And apparently really fast cars. And quite possibly the threat of imminent disaster. So I started to look forward to Sunday afternoons.

For a long time The King didn't really know of my obsession. He was napping. Then one day I busted out with a reference to tire pressure and camber and he about fell out of his recliner. He didn't know whether to be frightened or impressed.

He still doesn't.

I think that the best way to describe it is this:

If you are a baseball or football fan, you watch your team play whatever team they are playing that week if their game is on TV. With NASCAR, it is the same racers every week and each race is on TV. So you really get the personalities of the drivers. You learn the rivalries. You see their families each week. Even though a particular driver may not be your favorite, he is still part of the group and you know just as much about him.

And contrary to popular belief, there is a lot of strategy involved.

Now I'm just embarrassed.

I know you can't take anymore. I just needed to share.

Please come back tomorrow. I promise I'll talk about girl stuff.

But I could've gone on.

Stop the judging.