And the Winner Is . . . I Hate Spoilers

So I am not really sure what compels people to divulge the endings of movies, books, or worse yet sporting events. I can appreciate the excitement stemming from good movies or great games, and wanting to share such things with other people, however, nowadays, in the world of busy schedules and TIVO, why one might not think twice before divulging spoilers to certain important events. Such a thing happened to me yesterday for the Super Bowl. Those who know me understand how much importance I place in the Super Bowl. Each year, the highlight of the football season for me was my annual Super Bowl party involving friends, booze, fattening foods (nachos, wings, and sandwiches, oh my), and football. It was something to look forward to and the last couple years have provided some great edge of the seat nail biting games. Last year I also had an international Super Bowl experience when I watch the game in some cheesy American themed sports bar in Quito, Ecuador. There were few patrons in the place except for myself and a few Americans cheering for the game and a handful of apathetic Ecuadorians who perhaps wandered into the bar by accident. I even was able to learn a great deal of Spanish vocabulary for American football. (Penalty = Castigo for example) It also involved all of the aforementioned fun ingredients for a good Super Bowl get together and a great game to boot. This year I was hoping for more of the same in Manila but given my distance from the U.S. there were certain logistical complications. Manila happens to be 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, placing the beginning of the Super Bowl right at the onset of my work day. As such a Super Bowl party was organized to watch a replay of the game at the conclusion of the work day. Now I had made pain staking efforts to avoid any information about the outcome of the game as to enjoy the game to its fullest at the party. I placed notes on my door, sent warning emails to people who I felt would be most likely to divulge the outcome of the game, and even at times during the day was forced to place my fingers in my ears, scream “la la la la la,” and scurry away as colleagues were talking about the score to the game. The day went on in this way where I was almost about to leave the office and a colleague from a different office, who is neither a football fan or from New Orleans, decided to sneak the victors of the game at the bottom of a work email. Had he been there I might have hit him. Good thing he was not I suppose. The party ended up being okay at the end of the day, but had very little to do with football. Perhaps next year I at work I just won’t check any email at all. It might make work hard, but it just might be worth it.