You know when I really miss Wisconsin?

Football season.

The last couple of years the Packers have been sucking, but in the seasons they were doing well or when they went on a run, I missed the 24/7 coverage and the fact that you could talk to a random person on the street about the Packers.

I missed that when the Packers played the Raiders after Brett Favre's dad died. It was such an amazing game and the most amazing game I had ever seen.

That game may have been eclipsed by the game on Saturday--Packers and Seahawks playing in two inches of snow. The Packers handing the Seahawks fourteen points in the first four minutes and then taking complete control and obliterating them.

I watched the game in a bar in Philly with a dude wearing a Packers tshirt. I found him sitting in the corner of the bar. A colleague joined us later, and his wife (after her meeting at ALA) joined us at halftime. Awesome. There was lots of talk of Wisconsin--beer, football, food. The dude even had a typical lakeshore accent. Nice.

(Interestingly enough, my colleague later told our supervisor that she had planned on watching part of the game and then figured we could go grab dinner. But she found out in my world there is no such thing as watching part of a Packers game. Duh.)

Anyway, I miss being able to obsess about the upcoming championship game with complete strangers. I miss talking to friends about the game. I miss the "Go Pack" you hear at random points during the day. I miss the fact that the Friday before a big game is always Packer day--everyone wears Packer-related gear. The company I used to work would have Packer-related lunch events before play-off games.

A friend up north has been sending me stories about the freakishly obsessed fans (people who have painted their house green and gold, the fandom that borderlines on disturbed...)

I felt better when a friend in town sent me pictures from his trip to Lambeau Field for the game on Saturday. The snow. The obsession. Him decked out in Packer gear. The fact that he signed every email with "GO PACK!" He is already pricing tickets and flights to Phoenix for the Super Bowl.

Dear Lord, for the love of all things Packer, if the Pack wins on Sunday I will be completely unbearable until February 3. If I were in Wisconsin I would blend in with everyone else and would be considered a little tame. Here? I think I'm kind of a freak.

Go Pack Go!