There’s a saying, “When life throws you lemons, make lemonade”, and right now there is nothing sweeter than the relationship I share with my awesome girlfriend Lee.  She is intelligent, beautiful and passionate.  She is also my biggest fan and tells me everyday how much she believes in me and in us.

People see us and take the time to point out how happy we are together.  A huge part of that happiness is the many passions we both share.  Be it music (we’re both HUGE Sister Hazel fans) or traveling or college football (yes, I said college football and yes, I’m one lucky dude), we share these passions together and that only makes our relationship stronger.

As luck and fate would have it, we both now get to share the uncertainty that is the football coaching situation for our favorite college teams.  Lee is a Crimson Tide fan having been born and raised in Southern Alabama.  As you already know, I am a fan of ‘The U’, which for Larry Coker now means Unemployed.

I think it’s kind of cool that I can grow closer to my girl with conversations about the coaching carousel, rumored short lists and Steve Spurrier.  I think it’s awesome that we both get to fill our Winter with who interviewed where and the recruiting hit our favorite program is taking.  It’s so much fun for us to take jabs at each other as I remind her the Canes won a title as recently as 2001 and she reminds me of George Teague and the 1993 Sugar Bowl. Yes, sharing a passion is definitely part of the recipe for a happy relationship. 

That is, however, until the realization this shared passion can become a competitive situation.  What if both programs target the same coach?  What if Greg Shiano is the top choice for UM and Bama?  What if the Tide and the Canes both show interest in Rich Rodriguez?  What if one university has to ‘settle’ for a coach because the other team got the better candidate?  What if Lamar Thomas had outrun Teague on that now infamous play?!?!?

Now I realize that what I thought would bring us closer together may end up tearing us apart!

No worries.  The great thing about Lee is that when she is blinded by a passion, which is an infrequent occurrence, I can easily distract her with a picture of Dwyane Wade (a personal passion of hers) and, of course, some sweet lemonade!