A Vent, by Rick Lavoie

I am not going to lie. I’ve been in a funk recently. Not an, “I am cutting myself” kind of funk, but a funk nonetheless. When I am feeling a little depressed, I usually cope with three different mechanisms. First, I eat wildly out of control. Second, I buy tech devices that I don’t need and don’t know how to use. Thirdly, I reminisce. I have been looking back a lot, recently. And I am shocked by what we’ve become!!!

We had a tumultuous close to our season this year. It was rough, especially because my team sucked and I wasn’t on the inside track for winning any cash or a free meal at the draft. I have said, several times recently, that I am not really feeling the Fantasy Football vibe anymore. I think it’s because we’ve become complacent as a league. This retrospective vent will aim at righting part of that sinking ship!

Reminiscing helps me build clarity and thinking about the past makes me hopeful for the future. This coping mechanism helps me avoid pitfalls and making the same mistake twice. My first step towards reminiscing was downloading all of the episodes of the MIPPACast to my favorite podcast app. I am currently working my way through Episode 4 where in the first five minutes, Will used the word “cocksure.”

I chortled at the ease in which the word flowed from his mouth! Ever the wordsmith, Will, Seth, and John made some amazing points regarding the upcoming Patriots/Chargers AFC Championship game in 2019. It is fun listening to the guys chat about games that I know the outcome to! While this walk down memory lane provided moments which excited my mirth, I have also noted a subtle trend in each of the first four episodes. I have been the butt of repeated jokes…mainly by Seth, but Jon has also hopped on the bandwagon too. Most of these are at the expense of myself and my brand new puppy, at the time, Monty. Although, at the end of episode #3, the crew (with Champ Champ Adams) relished the fact that my Christmas spirit had been obliterated by local teens cutting the wires to my Xmas lights.

None of the lighthearted jabs actually hurt my feelings as I listened to these podcasts a second time. In fact, the vent isn’t about being bullied by my supposed friends. The vent is that we did stuff…as a group…from time to time.

The Bourbon Bowl no longer exists. Memorial Day Softball dwindled down to hardly enough guys to play a full game. Poker mucked its hand and folded a long time ago. Sadly, the MIPPAcast hardly makes new content and even the MIPPABlog has less traffic than ever before.

Our memory of the past is highlighted with ups and downs. I think, as Shakespeare once said, “The evil that men do lives after them, while the good is oft interred with their bones.” As I think about those days, I smile. Covid sucked. All of our lives present new complications that stand in the way of “the old days,” but I’d love to try and find a way to rekindle some of the magic that you all have brought to my life.

I suggested earlier in this post that I was hoping to ‘right the ship’ tonight. I should have said, I hope to start the process of righting the ship because boats can’t turn on a dime. I hope that new MIPPACast Episodes start coming out soon. I hope that we can bring back MIPPA Poker Nights in America. I hope that we can begin to find some time to make new memories.

In that vein…

I propose a bi-monthly MIPPA meet and greet. I think I will call it the MIPPA Brew and Review. Every other month, available MIPPA members will meet at a centrally located, but ever rotating local brewery. We will order tasty bevvies, maybe bring the kids/dogs, and cherish the good times. The Review can happen on future episodes of the MIPPAcast so everyone can be part of the fun, even if it is digitally. I just bought a new Go Pro…if I can figure out how to use it, then we can even livestream our thoughts on the best beers!

I also propose trying to kickstart a new tradition for the fall…assuming that we can find a way to make Memorial Day Softball (or a reasonable facsimile) start up again.

My initial thought is MIPPAFrolf. Frolf, by the way, is a vernacular portmanteau of Frisbee and Golf. It should be easy to pick a weekend in the fall in which a good number of us can congregate with some Disc Golf. This “sport” is another family friendly event which all types can enjoy. The ‘clubs’ are cheap enough, the green’s fees are affordable. The commune with nature is totally an Autumn tradition waiting to happen. We can even coincide MIPPAFrolf with a MIPPA Brew and Review. I promise that I will even try to learn how to use my new drone to fly overhead and take some amazing shots of us taking less spectacular shots!

So…here you go Friends! A new MIPPABlog post. One where I reminisce, and vent, and propose new ideas. I hope some of you are on board…if not, no worries. It is all good. Either way, you’ll probably be hearing from me a little more often on this platform!