I might be a very awkward person, but I mask it by also being a great observer of humankind. While I don’t really “fit in,” I can hold a conversation on any number of things I actually know nothing about. I can take hints from various social cues that a talking person might display to me so that I can adapt to the changes in tone. But this post isn’t about me, it is about how I am able to communicate to AlexT, a sports fan.

Sports are a really confounding interest that hold a large portion of the population in thrall. Why is it? I haven’t figured it out myself yet, but one of the earlier things I picked up in my life is how sports fans speak of sport teams as if they belong to those teams. Some go so far as to dress in the team outfits in an act of solidarity, and I guess that’s cute of them to do. Do they think they give the team strength through that act? I really don’t know, but again, this post really isn’t about me or my open confusion about something that so many people think is entertaining. It is about how, despite this difference in interests, I am able to talk to AlexT, who has no problem with this aspect of life.

AlexT, whose birthday is celebrated on September 5th of every year, and I have many things in common. We have had many, many great adventures. We have clocked in many millions of words in chats, both written and spoken. Years upon years of camaraderie and bonding. It is a good time, usually! So as any good friends do, we try to pretend to support the others unshared interests. I have not exactly always volunteered to watch soccer games, but I have done so. And, as you can see in the following comic, I have even used what I have learned about sports fans to speak to him in what I assume is the only language he can understand when under the hypnotic power of a sports event.

If you need to click the comic in order to see the moment where he stops trying to maintain what I would think is dignified sanity and lets go. He lets right go into the world I KNOW he has in his mind, no matter how much he usually denies it.

Happy birthday!