Reasons Why I Love October

Things have been going well for me lately. I received a wonderful thank you email from a good college friend about a 2 hour long video I made for everyone that recapped my college friends collective 4 years at Miami . Then a few days later I received two thank you emails from two of my favorite Marketing professors at Miami for donating some money to the Marketing department. Finally, I received a thank you note from my Dad for entertaining him last weekend during his visit to the Twin Cities. On top of that M took me out to Barbett’s for a amazing steak dinner before going to see Brave New Workshop’s “You Cube” show. I am definitely feeling the love from everyone and those good feelings have led me to want to create a list of the top 10 reasons why I love October:

1. College Football: Enough with those easy (or supposed to be easy) games between USC and Idaho that happen in September. The only interest I have in USC vs. Idaho is for someone to explain to me why the University of Idaho is named the Vandals and who thought it would be a good idea for the University of Idaho to be located in Moscow . Sure there can be the occasional shocking upset like Appalachian St. vs. Michigan , but those are definitely the exception. October football is when teams really start getting into their conference schedule. October is when you see matchups like Florida-LSU , Texas - Oklahoma , and Miami University-Bowling Green. October football makes you plan your personal life around games.
2. Professional Football: Just like college football, pro football uses September as a jumping off point for October. In October you should be able to know what teams are good or at least worthwhile and you can highlight watching their games instead of wasting your time watching the Jets-Bills. This one is a tough one for me since I am a Dolphins fan and it is tough knowing that the season is over before a single October game has been played. Lets just say I have already started following nfldraftcountdown.com and wondering how the likes of Jake Long, Glenn Dorsey, and Brian Brohm would look in a Dolphins jersey.
3. Playoff Baseball: I finally got to experience the playoffs in person for the first time last year and it was unbelievable. The fact that the Twins got swept by the As only made me want them to make it back to the playoffs so that they could redeem themselves. While that didn’t happen last year there are still plenty of great storylines to follow. I am personally hoping that either the Dbacks or Rockies win the World Series. As long as the Indians don’t win it I will be happy. I am hoping I didn’t just sound like the no-talent comedian Dane Cook when he describes October baseball..
4. TV: This is the first full month of new TV shows. Right now for this year it is great because there are new episodes of Friday Night Lights, the Office, How I Met Your Mother, and a bunch of new series to check out. Currently I have tried Gossip Girl (15 minutes was enough for me), Dirty Sexy Money (low potential), and Big Shots (mediocre pilot, but could turn it around based on the strength of the actors in it) and I plan on watching a few others just to see if there is anything out there. Currently, I am too busy trying to finish Season 1 of Friday Night Lights, so that I can get to watching Season 2. I have written and said this before, but if you haven’t already you need to be watching Friday Night Lights. If Gregg Easterbrook (Tuesday Morning Quarterback on Espn.com) and the Sportsguy (on Espn.com) can agree on this show then you need to pay attention and start watching this show.
5. Weather: Who doesn’t like the weather in October? For Minnesotans it is the last chance to enjoy doing stuff outside (softball, volleyball, etc) before getting ready for winter. Today it was 73 degrees and sunny. The average high in the middle of October for Minnesota is 60 degrees. In the middle of November the average high in Minnesota drops all the way down to 40 degrees. In fact the drop in temperature from October to November is the greatest drop from one month to another during the course of a year.
6. Fantasy Football: October represents weeks 5 through 9 in fantasy football. In a normal 13 game regular season that means October represents 30% of the regular season. What is great about this time of the year is that you are usually able to make trades with bad (i.e. desperate) teams and poach their good players. One popular strategy that I try to use is when I offer a bunch of decent players for one team’s star player. I am trying my best to replicate the Barkley to the Suns trade of 1993.
7. Leaves Changing: This really isn’t my cup of tea, but I know a lot of people who like seeing the different colors of the leaves. Maybe if I didn’t have to work I would have time to truly appreciate nature’s beauty, but I am not going to give up watching football for nature's beauty.
8. Flag Football: While I don’t play anymore (probably the thing I miss most about Target) it is hard not to like flag football. There is nothing like watching some washed up athletes competing with a bunch of non-athletes and seeing what happens. Also, there are inevitably going to be a few people that take it too seriously (yelling at an intramural ref over a call is never acceptable) and a few people that don’t take it seriously at all. The best is when someone loses it on the football field and you know that person is going to be embarrassed the next day when they have a meeting with one of the guy’s from the competing team.
9. Anticipation of the holidays coming ahead: First off there is one of every kid’s favorite holidays in Halloween at the end of October, but even better than that is the anticipation of Thanksgiving and December right around the corner. This October I am even thinking about starting my Christmas list.
10. Egg Nog: I haven't checked, but I think my favorite holiday drink will probably be in most grocery stores soon enough.

Next week I will have another reason to love October as I make my first trip to Green Bay for the Redskins-Packers game.