Trash Talk Time

My winning bracket...this time I'm sure of it!

It's that time of year again.  When you enter your office, school, friends, random people you barely know, local bar and any other group bracket that you can.  Then, after spending hours Sunday night agonizing over your picks (till around 2 am and if you are like me, not really changing anything except for one 8-9 "upset" after your first seat-of-your-pants picks but feeling like you still need to do research to justify your gut) the trash talk begins. 

The trash talk has to start early.  Hence the 3am Monday morning email to my close friends saying that this year was the year I was going to pick every game correctly.  I was going to ride my Harvard sweet 16 pick to the promise land of finally winning a bracket.  Why does the trash talk have to start early?  Because by Thursday at 6pm, after the first few games, my bracket is already busted.   And my annual cellar dweller position is cemented.  And I become that annoying person who votes for every upset so that your bracket will start to look like my bracket...namely a bunch of lines through all the later round games as well...all your final four teams have already died.

There is something uniting about the fact that everyone and their mom is creating a bracket.  Office conversation is finally interesting!  The printer is broken, my boss is annoying, another all-nighter...for once those aren't water cooler conversations.  Nope.  Butler, VCU and other bracket busters are on the conversation agenda for once.  And the trash talk from the one person who somehow managed to pick the 12 seed making a serious run is loud and long. 

I love every minute of the tourney.  From the opening Thursday madness (where I'll have the games on in the background of my excel sheet while I "work"), to the One Shining Moment montage once the final champions have been crowned.  It's the best event in all of sports and I can't wait for this one to begin.

And this year?  I'm going to win my bracket.  I just know it!