Stevie Szabad, Author

March On 2021

I’ve been busy (a relative term these days) watching Canadian curling championships on TV this month. The Scotties (Women’s), the Brier (Men’s), and as of this writing, the Mixed Doubles. It’s been great to wrangle my daily schedule(such as it is) around at least 2, usually even 3 draws (games) a day being televised. In true reality TV format, even soap-opera-ish, one forms favourites not based merely on sporting talent, but on personalities. Coverage is up close and personal, head-shots and everyone all miked up as the players are. They’ve caught swearing live. Eye rolls at teammates. Team rivalries (these guys always beat those guys, will they?), life stories (who’s pregnant and who’s dating whom? The athletes are young and fit, attractive every one.) All are sub-plots to the main story of draws, hits, wins, and losses. And not a dragged-out season – just a week or 10-day bonspiel, winners to be crowned within the mini-series tournament.

Yes, watching curling on TV has certainly chewed up my month of March. But the moments in between remind me: this is not really my life. My life would include playing my own games at my own curling club, with its own local life dramas and personalities. I would gossip and drink après-match with teammates and opponents about the championships on TV right now and compare our judgements about their, and our own, games. I miss my own life.

So March is not normal, not yet.

Positive update: My upcoming book, “Lost Year. A Pandemic Diary 2020” is finished and undergoing final touches (cover art, layout). The book will be a short (unlike the year) memoir filled with as-it-happened blog posts from the year, peppered with relevant army brat anecdotes from my life to liven it up. 2020 was not a fun year, but writing the book has made it at least somewhat bearable – I wanted a record for future reference. Despite the desire to forget much of 2020, as unlikely as this alternate universe was to happen, it did. And now so did this book. Due in May 2021 – watch for it!

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