While watching the World Cup that just finished up in South Africa, I realized that soccer is an intense anticipation game, and with anything that intense, the successes--the goals--become a visceral celebratory moment. Part of my recent workout routine is to chase after a bouncy ball that I can only touch with my feet. We tried some crossing maneuvers and "shots" at a baseball backstop at a park nearby and I gained a whole new appreciation for what an excellent pass coupled with a beautiful strike is like in real life--the practice, the focus, and beautiful timing. It's hard enough in soccer to get more than a dozen chances to get that cross and strike opportunity, let alone to make it work. My point is that even on the damn field, soccer's a game of anticipation.
In an earlier post I wrote of a team and a player that I was intently following, Uruguay and Diego Forlan. He eventually wont the Golden Ball award, awarded to the tourny MVP. At some point I decided that I would like to sport his Uruguay jersey. The jerseys were powder blue, so I felt that they would go well with my eyes if anything else. I shopped around and found pretty much the same price, between sixty and eighty bucks. This makes sense, since all jerseys for all sports are remarkably overpriced. Maybe it really costs that much to produce them. I figured I'd wait until it was all over, and snatch one up on the cheap. Who'd want a jersey from a blond surfer looking guy from a small South American country?
Well, after he won the Golden Ball, pretty much everyone in Uruguay. Forlan has played on Manchester United and currently plays on Atletico Madrid (the other Madrid team (not Real Madrid, a more world renown brand)), and is considered an elite player. He carried a team from a country smaller than Washington State all the way to the semi-finals. His Puma Uruguay jersey was sold out everywhere except the UK, and they wanted 140 pounds for the damn thing.
This is where my Buddhist suffering comes in. I felt like I missed an opportunity to purchase something I didn't need--but wanted--and this made me melancholic. Why? I may be an outlier, but I'm still American to some degree, and the majority of my wardrobe comes from purchases from my wife and my mother, and on the rare occasions I want something clothing related, I usually just make it happen.
Then Corrie found a Chinese clothing wholesaler that was offering the "Puma" Uruguay Diego Forlan #10 jersey for something like ten bucks, with twenty-five for shipping, and I ordered it immediately. Not quite sure what I would get, I felt slightly confident since Puma uses Chinese sweatshop labor, and hey, maybe some stuff fell off a truck, or an angry worker wants some extra income, or something.
I got an email from the company running the website that included a tracking number. It was for tracking the package with the shipping company EMS.
EMS? Neither Corrie nor I were familiar with such a company. DHL, UPS, mein bruder's FedEx, sure, heard of them. The email said that after three business days I'd be able to track the package. Here's a picture of what it said when I was finally able to track it:
Passing through customs on a Saturday at 10 in the AM at the University of Southern Alabama? What? By then I was just curious to see what I would get. A towel? A plastic pair of novelty binoculars? I was almost giddy with anticipation to see just what I would get. What if it was actually the Forlan jersey? By now I was past wanting to support my fellow blond surfer-looking guys from the western hemisphere. I couldn't wait. From Buddhist suffering to anticipation, just like that.
It arrived the very next day, this past Monday. I'm almost positive it's some kind of fraud, but the Uruguay national team patch is sewn on and legit. Maybe Puma just makes shitty merchandise. What surprised me was that they sent the matching black shorts. Now I have a whole kit! What the hell...the world works in mysterious ways...
Here I am modeling the gear:
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