I told you so!

    Well, maybe I didn't tell you.  But I did tell somebody.

    So.  I am not the biggest football fan out there, but I do love the Mississippi State Bulldogs . . .

     (I initially typed that as Bullgods, but I promise I don't worship them that much.)

    . . . and I like the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles,  the Tennessee Titans and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  I hate Ole Miss, as any good Dawg fan should.  And (I'm sorry, Caradorn) I don't particularly like the University of Tennessee Volunteers.  I do try to be supportive, since they are Caradorn's team.  Though I haven't ever really liked them, I have not particularly disliked them.  I didn't really care much one way or the other about Phil Fulmer.  I didn't care about Lane Kiffin, either, until the day he introduced the new batch of recruits last year.

    It was terrible.  He was such a jerk - he went on and on about how the team deserved better than those players, he said they weren't the caliber of player that UT was used to and that next year the recruits would be better.  I felt so bad for those boys.  They were so excited to be announced as Vols and there they sat while he bashed them in front of the world.  It must have been so embarrassing for them.  Caradorn says that often coaches will belittle their players in an effort to get them to prove how good they are.  I get that, I really do.  I've done that sort of thing before too.  But not like that - not in such a public venue, on a day that was supposed to be such a proud occasion for those players.  I had no respect for Kiffin after that.

    This year, for the first time since I married into a family of UT fanatics, I didn't even pretend to support the team.  I openly rooted against them for every game.  I wanted them to have a horrible year because I wanted Kiffin fired.  My inlaws did not like that one bit.  They defended him; they talked about what a good coach he was, and how great he was going to be for UT.  They laughed when I said I wanted him to be a one year coach - they said he would be a fixture at UT for years to come and that they were sooooo lucky to have him.  When the season ended with the team having done fairly well, they gloated.  Kiffin was there to stay, they said.  Every new season would be better than the one before, and it was all thanks to Kiffin.

    Heh.

    I was at my inlaws house the night the announcement came out.  Kiffin was leaving the University of Tennessee for USC.  And I was so pleased.  I didn't gloat, I didn't say I told you so.  I didn't say much of anything.  I just sat there watching television with them as they switched from one channel to another, trying to be sure it was really true.  They seemed so shocked.   Once they realised he was really leaving,  it was hilarious to hear them talk about him.  "Well, he was never one of us."  "UT Orange. . .

(which, might I add, is a really sickly creamsicle color and not a "real" orange, but for heaven's sake don't ever mention that to Caradorn's family, it offends them for some reason)

. . . never looked right on him."  "UT will be better off without him." "I never liked him, anyway."

    Seriously, Inlaws?  Are you sure about that?  Are you absolutely positive you are remembering this season correctly?

    Really, truly?  Because I think that's what I was saying the whole season!  I said he was awful, I said he should leave, I said that he didn't belong.  I TOLD YOU  SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I said it eleventy million times over the course of the season and you people told me I was wrong!  And now you want to claim you thought that the whole time, too?!  NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    You were wrong, and I was right, and whether you want to admit it or not you and I both know it's true!  SO THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thththtppppppppt!   (Yes, that's me sticking my tongue out at them.  Yes, I am very mature.)

    Ahem.

    I'm sorry about that.  I really am.

    It's just that they will be visiting this weekend, the whole lot of them.  And I want to keep the peace.  I don't want to goad them into an argument.  I don't want to jump up and down and say "I told you so" over and over again.  Well, okay, I do want to.  But I think it would be a bad idea so I am attempting to get it out of my system now before they get here.

    I'm not sure it's working, though.  I think I might just be getting myself even more worked up about it.  I'll try not to bring the subject up, but if they do I don't think I will be able to keep my mouth shut about it.  This could turn out to be an interesting weekend.