Of white wine and fantasy football

Dear all,

Just got up early today and felt like blogging. Earlier this week, we had a farewell party for one of our colleagues who is moving to our Houston office. We went to this awesome steakhouse called Wolfgang's (http://wolfgangssteakhouse.com/) on Park Avenue. I would call it awesome coz the ambience was great and serving was exemplary. Now, its a total different thingy altogether that I do not eat Steak :) and I did leave the steakhouse really hungry. That said, the high point of the evening for me was Pinot Grigio (white wine). I never tried it before and I must admit that it is awesome. I'd probably rank it second in my preferred list of wines (Riesling is no.1 for me and I hate Chardonnay). The outing was a welcome break for my mind that has been pre-occupied with lots of stuff (personal and professional). Its about time that I sit down and sort them out . And guess what, here I am blogging instead of sorting the issues out. Well, few of the issues are beyond my control and I cant help but worry about..

Anyway, lets leave all that bull crap aside. Its festive season now and the mood in the air is just awesome. Tourists from all around the world flock to NYC during this season and the resulting chaos-cum-gala is too good.

So, I was chit chatting with this colleague of mine about NFL football. Apparently, he is in a fantasy football league where he has to choose 1 team every week. If the team he picks wins its game that particular week, he moves onto the next round. Now that NFl season is more than half-way through, the competition is getting tougher and my friend is still in!!!(isn't it awesome that each of his picks for the past 14 weeks or so has been bang on target???). There are only about 12 teams left in the play. The entry fee for the fantasy football league was about 200$. Approx. 700 teams participated in the league, making the total cash pool approx. $140,000!!! The organizer takes a 1% cut, so the net prize money is approx. 125,000. 2 weeks ago, my friend was offered $10,000 from one of the other teams to leave the field. Thats how intense this competition is!!! My friend politely declined the offer. My initial reaction was - wtf is wrong with my friend?? Y would heleave 10,000 in the hope of making $125,000. However, now that I think about the offer, I totally understand my friend’s decision (well, I think I do) and if i were in his shoes, I would've declined the offer too. It is not just about the money, it is about the fun and excitement; it is about aiming for the best, about killing the competition (in a healthy way obviously!!!), and most importantly, its about doing what you like to do…I can go on and on about the import of his decision but I will keep it short. Its about life!!!

I do not know why I blogged on this. My line of defense : Blogging is all about, as one of my friends puts it, self-expression!!!