Damn Steelers

The worst part of being in Havana, aside from the lack of personal freedoms, the decrepit state of the city, the moral decay and abject poverty was that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to watch the AFC Championship game. Unlike Colombia there is no concept of a sports bar in Cuba. I asked Bill three times if there was any way we could catch the game and each time he gave me the same answer, not bloody likely. Actually Bill didn’t say those words, and I couldn’t imagine them coming out of his mouth, but that’s beside the point.

But one of the times I was asking Bill was while a group of us was sitting around Queque’s living room. “I get all the channels, you can watch the game at my place” Yanet (pronounced Janet) said. Well I certainly wasn’t going to turn down such an offer from a young attractive blonde Cuban woman. Did I mention she speaks fluent English and has traveled all over the world performing as a singer / dancer in a well known Cuban salsa band?

That night I insisted Yanet join our little group of two Australian female doctors, the Dutch improv comedian, and Bill’s Cuban girlfriend for our nightly adventure out to the salsa clubs. We drank and laughed as usual and Yanet risked personal ridicule teaching me a couple steps on the dance floor. And at the end of the night she gave me her number and reminded me to call her tomorrow for the game. So far so good.

The next day Yanet went to what can only be described as inordinate lengths to satiate my desire for Futbol Americano. The setup was unreal, and another testament to the ingenuity of the human race. A satellite dish led to a rat’s nest of cables, which led into a pirated cable box, which led to a laptop with an impressive array of applications running in parallel, which led to the TV. She searched through 300 channels and had to reposition the dish (the sky is a pretty big place you know) to satisfy my craving. And more amazingly she sat and watched the entire game with me. I did my best to try to explain what was going on, but it wasn’t easy. You never appreciate what a crazy game football is until you try to explain it to someone who’s only ever heard of it before.

And in the end the Steelers beat the crap out of the Broncos. But for me, the game stopped being interesting around the middle of the 2nd quarter. She told me if there were anymore games I wanted to see to feel free to come over. I told her to be careful because I’d make up an excuse to come see her. Yes it’s true, I fall in love far too easily. I’ve always had that problem.