U S A! U S A!

There isn't much gloom and doom that a little summer can't fix. Or if not fix, then at least make palatable.
After a week of worrying about the outward rippling of the oil spill and the headed-in-the-wrong-direction stock market, I looked up from pitting cherries and saw the World Cup ahead. And it beckoned like a platter overflowing with pork bacon.
Ahh, football. Nothing soothes the pain like football.
And this has been a particularly good weekend for it.
Let's start with the Wizards. They hadn't been exactly a source of joy the past few outings, after a two-month string of losses and ties. But things were looking up Thursday when we went out to see them against the Philadelphia Union.
They stomped the Union 2-0. And it's a good thing, too, because if they hadn't, we'd have been really screwed.
Philadelphia is an expansion team that's only been playing since March. Needless to say, they haven't had much time to get it together. Add to that the fact that they have--hands down--the ugliest kits ever. Vomit- (or maybe Boy Scout-) colored khaki with a dark stripe up the front shows every least bit of sweat. Amazingly, I could not find a picture of a player in uniform on the net. But here's one from a merchandise web site:
They'd have to be dispirited. But we'll take the win, anyway.

Then the World Cup. Three games per day for a couple of weeks, until the group stages are over. And I could watch every one of them. I really could.
We watched the US tie England today with a raucous crowd at the Power & Light District. (And are happy and relieved to come away with 1-1, after a very, very lucky mistake by England's keeper.)
I'd never been to the P&L before, and I was, frankly, a little worried about going. All I'd ever heard to this point was about how strict the dress code is, and how the area has a whole list of deportment dos and don'ts. It sounded a little like going to Sunday school. What would happen if I accidentally swore? (A definite possibility.) I pictured a security guard propelling me by the elbow, telling me never to come back. (It turns out I needn't have worried. On our way out, McFadden's was pumping a song out onto the sidewalk with the refrain, "F**k, yeah!.")
It all got me thinking how we've come a long way since the last World Cup. Four years ago, when we attended a watch party, it was at the Chief's Arrowhead indoor practice facility. At the time, Mike and I bought jerseys, convinced it would be our last chance because the Wizards were for sale and we'd soon lose them.
This year, we're watching at the Power & Light and celebrating progress on a new soccer-specific stadium in KCK.
Four years ago, few of our daughter's teammates parents paid much attention to professional soccer or the World Cup. Today, most of them went to parties all over town to watch the match.
A lot's been wrong the past couple of years. Layoffs, oil spills, hazardous products, greedy corporations.
But today I'm thankful that appreciation of football is on the rise.
For a change, something is going in the right direction.