For years on end, I’ve watched the NFL Draft from the comfy and private confines of either my apartment, dorm room or parents’ living room. I would applaud picks, criticize picks, and throw things at the screen when the Bills or 49ers made moves I did not like in the privacy of my own – or my parent’s own – home. This 2008 draft was the first in which I found someone to watch with, and went to a bar with potentially other fans around me. This was big – I had never watched the draft with anyone, other than my dad floating in and out of the living room, or a roommate who wasn’t really paying attention because they didn’t like sports. Actually going out to watch the draft, after 14 years of watching it on my own, felt like I was one of those deeply artistic people finally seeing the outside world after spending years so stricken with their emotional genius that they spent years inside their beach houses, lying in bed – like Brian Wilson did (whoa-ohhh.)

Or not.

The only Miami Dolphins fan I could ever be friends with (The Dolph-fan, if you will) and I made a trek to a bar in Allston to watch Round 1 of the draft on Saturday afternoon. We could of potentially had a party that represented every team in the AFC East, but my boyfriend and The Dolph-fan’s roommate both had papers to write and finals to study for, leaving us without our Patriots and Jets representatives. The bar was not at all crowded, and there was only one other person watching the draft – a Cleveland Browns fan. Misery loves company, so we quickly absorbed the Browns fan into our viewing party and settled in to watch the draft unfold.

Miami had decided their first overall pick a few days before (say what you will about Bill Parcells, but the man is not a time-waster), and Cleveland did not have a pick until the fourth round, so my viewing party was waiting with bated breath for the eleventh overall pick by the Bills. Whomever decided that the new 10 minute time limit on first round picks would speed up the draft did not take into account the number of trades that ended up occurring, and it ended up feeling like forever before the Bills made their pick. In the hour or so leading to the pick, I swore up and down that the Russ Brandon (Bills VP who I actually met back in the day because he was an alumni panelist or something of that sort at a St. John Fisher College Admitted Students Day)-led draft team would pick a solely-needed wide receiver, and it would be either Malcolm Kelly or Devin Thomas. Supposedly, Kelly might have had some attitude issues arise during his pro day, but from everything I was reading, the Bills liked him more than Thomas, or did not expect Thomas to still be around at eleven.

The Bills pick seemed somewhat anti-cliamatic to the NFL Network announcing panel, and they decided to spend time discussing the previous picks during the Bills deliberation time. Then, all of a sudden, their reporter on the floor of Radio City Music Hall interrupts to say that he had heard that the Bills’ planned to take cornerback Leodis McKelvin with their pick.

And then I realized what one of the most important positives of watching the draft holed up in the comfort of one’s living room was – the ability to scream when your team makes a questionable move, especially when you loudly claim to everyone in a bar that you are one hundred percent sure they will be taking someone completely different.

I resisted the urge to crumple my napkin and throw it at the HD television directly above our seats. Instead, I muttered to my draft-mates. “Who do they expect Edwards to throw to? The air?” (The Browns fan got a kick out of that one. I let that slide. He once had no team to root for at all – which is far worse than being a Bills fan.)

The biggest highlight of the draft came shortly after, and made me temporarily forget my bad call. NFL Network decided to cut to Foxboro and speak to Bill Belichick about the Patriots early draft trade down. Dressed in a light beige suit and shirt and tie that could only be described as “baby announcement pink”, he stiffly presented a soliloquy on the Pats’ pick and their trade, sounding every bit as boring as Ben Stein (if we young adults weren’t so conditioned to laugh at him.) As you could imagine, our draft party was extremely amused at this, and heckled the screen like we were Boston University fans at a Boston College hockey game. It was the worse possible mix – two fans of bitter AFC East foes, and a fan of the team where Belichick failed as a head coach over a decade ago. The only way this draft party could get any more anti-Belichick is if a Giants fan had joined us and we had found Matt Walsh alone at the bar and invited him to join us.

Having realized that the “Unintentional Comedy Scale” had been broken for the day with that one Belichick appearance, our Browns fan soon left us to watch the long, drawn out, and quite dull outside of the trades rest of round one on our own. No projected top 6 pick was left to mope in the waiting room alone with cameras capturing his every breath. No Vikings forgetting that they had a pick and were on the clock. Despite the lack of drama, The Dolph-fan and I walked away from the bar at the end of round one filled with hope that this season will be the season that one of our teams unseats the Patriots.

Hmm…

Or, in my case, the hope that my team doesn’t lose to them by 46 points.

Urgh…

Or, the hope that my team doesn’t lose to them by 46 points in a nationally televised game. Yep, that’s more realistic.

********

Our Non-Sports Note of the Week, Month, or whatever amount of time between posts: I wish my Nana was alive for many touching reasons. I wish she could have seen me graduate from high school and college, I wish she could see my cousin’s daughters, and I wish my little brother could have gotten to know her. But, in all reality, one of the reasons I think about the most as of late is so she could see the massive star Kelly Ripa has become. Growing up, my Nana was a fan of All My Children, and when I was over there during school vacations, I would eat my turkey and Miracle Whip sandwich lunch while she watched the soap opera. She adored a then teenaged Kelly Ripa. However, I don’t think she could have ever imagined her as a talk show host with Regis Philbin and in tons of commercials for things like appliances, 7Up and who knows what else. She was on All My Children – who would of thought she’d ever do anything else?! Every time I see her on TV, I always think of my Nana and wish I could get her take on Ripa’s meteoric rise. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t particularly like Ripa, but I think my Nana would just get a kick out of it all.

After supervising the Family Recreation program all morning and checking in on the Programming Council ticket sales for a hour or so (Gavin DeGraw, Oct. 14th!!!!), I walked down to Barnes and Noble. My aim was to get my mom’s birthday gift (nun-related for the 4th year in a row.) I walked out with that and Patriot Reign, the new book about Bill Belichick and the Patriots that’s mentioned everywhere you turn around there.

Now mind you, I’m wearing a cute bebe rhinestone top, low cut jeans, my sequined slippers, with my hair curly and half-up and I have my makeup all done, because that’s just the way I am. And here I am, buying this book. They must of thought I was buying it for my non-existent boyfriend or something.

So I’m sitting on the T (the subway for those of you non-Bostonians), reading this book. I can’t even count how many weird looks I got over my 15 minute T ride. It was like I had put my pants on backward or was wearing hot pink and red together. See, in Boston, you have a lot of girls who know sports. They can talk the talk. They know that Crennel is not a spice and they could pick Weis out of a crowd on a B Line train headed inbound at 7pm on a Friday night. They can even name offensive linemen. They’ll appear with the Globe sports section, but there are doubts if they’re actually reading it. But never, ever, ever do you ever find a girl devouring a book about sports. Especially a girly girl.

In the style of the little old crabby man on The Simpsons, “This is how I live my every daaaaayyyyyyy.”

*****

I HAVE NFL NETWORK!

I just discovered this 20 minutes ago. Yes, our cable was installed almost two weeks ago, but I haven’t been able to sit here and wander the channels until right now. And I have it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, all my goals for the year have been fulfilled:

1) Graduate from Binghamton.

2) Move to Boston.

3) Date another guy before my 23rd birthday.

4) Get NFL Network.

I am never moving from this couch.

Ever.

And I must let you know, that within 10 minutes of me discovering that I have this channel, they showed a random Super Bowl highlight of Super Bowl XXIX, including the famous line of Steve Young’s playoff speech: “…and no one can ever, ever, EVER take this away from us! EVER!” And then he practically makes out with the Lombardi trophy.

Does NFL Network have ESP? Did it want to properly welcome me?

******

Picks for the week:

Pittsburgh over Cincinnati – I’m all for rooting for people who are my age. I’m also all about people who have long, unpronounceable last names. Therefore, I’m all about Ben Rothlisberger. Also, my favourite fantasy running backs are on this team.

Indianapolis over Jacksonville – I hate the Colts.

Oakland over Houston –Oakland has an old but steady defense. It’s a toss up for me, but I have to go with the old over the new in this one.

New England over Buffalo – Tear, tear, sniffle, sniffle. My Bills are going to get decimated by a much better team. To over-reference Pedro Martinez, the Patriots are the Bills daddy. Tom Brady’s awesomely amazingly gorgeous, so it makes it a little better.

Philadelphia over Chicago – Chicago hasn’t been memorable since Steve Walsh. I rest my case.

Cleveland over Washington – I watched Monday Night Football while writing my Perspectives on Higher Education paper. And maybe I missed something, but Gibbs seems to think that a NFL sideline is a frantic and messy NASCAR pit, and Gregg Williams needs to be banned from coaching. But I was under the influence of the defense of the American community college system, so I could be wrong.

Green Bay over the Giants – I am currently watching “In Their Own Words” on NFL Network, and the profile is on Brett Favre. The man has a wicked sense of humor. I’m learning to like him. My hatred of the Packers kind of delayed my realization that he’s actually an amazingly good quarterback. But now the hatred clouds have lifted somewhat, and I appreciate him for what he is, which is not just the owner of a sexy Southern accent.

Carolina over Atlanta – Vick is stealing Young’s thunder. But I’m happy for Jim Mora Jr. Liked his father as a coach, liked him as the 49ers defensive coordinator, and so far, he’s not doing too bad of a job with the Falcons. But it’s the Panthers at home, coming off a bye. I side with the Delhomme led Panthers in this one, even though Delhomme doesn’t strike me as an interesting QB yet.

New Orleans over Arizona –Poor poor Denny Green.

Jets over Miami — Who is the Dolphins third string QB? What would the harm be in starting him? It’s not like they could do worse than Feely and Fielder.

Tennessee over San Diego — Sing it with me: San Di-e-go, Super Chargers, San Di-e-go! Now realize that that was now a decade ago, and they will never be super again…unless they start Flutie. Note to anyone looking to gift shop for me: I would like a Chargers Flutie jersey before he gets forced into retirement. One I could wear (meaning it would have to be a boys size). I’ll really never get it, but I’m just saying, if you can think of nothing else to get me for a holiday, get me that.

Hold on, wait, they’re doing a montage of Favre’s father and they’re talking about last December’s

Packers-Raiders game. Excuse me while I tear up.

Okay, back now.

Denver over Tampa Bay –aka, the two teams I know nothing about. But I’ve never really liked Jon Gruden, except for this quote from ESPN’s Page 2 last year–warning: explicit quote ahead:

“Bucs head coach Jon Gruden, reveals that he lost his virginity at age 17, in South Bend, Indiana. ‘I lost my virginity to the Notre Dame fight song,’ Gruden says. ‘There was a band?’ asks Playboy. ‘No, not even music,’ Gruden replies. ‘But it was in my mind.”

I like that quote because it finally gave me the answer to what men are REALLY thinking about all the time. Not sex, but the Notre Dame fight song.

San Francisco over St. Louis – Upset special! Rattay is back, we always know the best 49ers QBs are always somewhat concussed, and everyone is down on Martz. First win of the season right here.

Baltimore over Kansas City – A win which will hopefully be leading me to another successful week in the MCFFLOAT (most competitive fantasy football league of all time, previously referred to as the MCFFLYCPEBI, but I’ve finally found a much better acronym.)

Last week: 10-4. This week…hmm…the fact that so many teams I’ve picked to lose are at home…I’ll play it safe and say 8-6.

******

Mini-Oreos (aka, small little things that I just arbitrarily decided that I would call mini-oreos):

I was watching MTV Hits earlier, and again, I emphasize: Alicia Keys, he doesn’t know your name because you are STALKING HIM. Thank you.

About my workaholicism: I am fully aware of it. I wish I didn’t have to work all this much. But I do, and it’s going to be a part of my life for just a few more months. So bare with me.

Legal Issues in Higher Education is a hard class, but it’s so worth it. I love that class–the three hours just fly by as the 20 of us just debate and discuss the cases. And the cases are interesting to read, even if you don’t know all of the terminology.

No Bingo Homecoming because I have to work Boston University’s showings of the Red Sox playoff games. I get to arrange them all and everything. It’s a major task, and I hope to do a great job, because if I can really pull this off, it’ll look awesome in my portfolio. I’ll miss you guys though, and I’m sure Homecoming will be fantastic. But this is one of my dream jobs, and I really want to give it my best shot.

Speaking of Dream Jobs: The right two people were booted off Dream Job this week. It got moved to Tuesday nights at midnight, so I can watch it. However, we are now down to one female representative, and it’s only the third week, and I don’t think she’ll hang on much longer. But in happier news, there are some total hotties this season (both Jasons in particular), although I doubt anyone can top the loveableness of the original Dream Job Mike.

Speaking of total hotties, if anyone wants to set me up with any nice, sports-loving, my age or older, happy, and all-in-all lovable Bostonian men, please let me know. I’m all for it.

And I finish with my quote of the week: “Collinsworth asked Marino, Carter and Carter’s eyebrows the following question: ‘If you could take one QB in a game for all the marbles, who would you take: Manning, Brady, McNabb or Favre?’ Marino thinks about it, then takes Manning, and rightly so — famous QBs who can’t win anything when it matters always stick together.” -Bill Simmons