Wishing away the weekend.

Those mini helmets don’t belong to me. They belong to the boy. But I had helmets something like those when I was a kid. Those helmets remind me of good times. When you are a kid, all you know is now. Sure, you think about things and you want things. But for the most part, you are happy just having your mini-football helmets, your bike, and your baseball cards.

As you get older, you notice how much time is spent waiting for things to happen instead of just living in the moment. We wish it was Friday, we wish it was summer, and we wish Buddy the Pug would stop freaking barking at every sound he thinks he hears.

This week we can’t stop wishing that the Vikings game would hurry up and start already. Sure, Percy Harvin probably won’t play and sure…the Vikings might break our hearts again for the 4th time since 1987. But at this point we don’t care. We want to have that pain in our hearts if they lose and we want – we need – to feel the joy that only a trip to the Super Bowl would bring. We want to carry those mini-helmets around the house and be reminded that our team is actually playing for a title.

I was 3-years-old the last time the Vikings played in a Super Bowl and thankfully, I don’t remember anything about that loss. But I do remember Darrin Nelson getting stopped at the 1-yard-line in Washington. I was there when Morten Andersen hit that kick and Denny took a knee. I hate to admit that I watched every painful minute of 41-Donut against the Giants because I wasn’t sure when I would see my team in the NFC Championship again. Well…again is now. When it’s over I hope it was worth the wait.