What Should We Call July? - Sunday Cardinal Couple

I thoroughly enjoy my lazy Sunday mornings.  I don't set any alarm (unless for a special event), I wake up when my body decides that it has rested enough.  My normal routine is: checking up on all of the world's knowledge via my phone, shower, dress, and head out of the house.  Usually Sunday mornings of late find me at the newish Heine Brother's coffee shop at Hikes point to write this article.

Despite what I may appear to be at UofL sporting events, I am massively an introvert.  I've referenced this on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour a number of times.  I put a very high value on my alone time, my time to be just with myself and my thoughts.  The physical location a situation doesn't matter quite so much - there are a handful of people around me in this coffee shop as I write this, for example - it's the having time to recharge my "social energy" and impose a sort of mental calmness on, what feels like, but isn't really, the chaos and insanity of day-to-day interactions with other people.  Such is the perspective of an introvert, please don't take offense as it's not an indictment of those around me, it's just the way my mind processes my environment.

Separately, as someone who is probably vaguely autistic (no formal medical evaluation of this, just my own knowledge about the autistic spectrum, and knowing my own tendencies along it), loud noise is also something that I tend to eschew (quit turning my headphone volume up, please, Paulie)

Such a depressing sight for a UofL sports fan

Despite all of the above, I find myself thinking wistfully of the energy, noise, and joy of visiting with other UofL fans at various sporting events.  I miss seeing high level athletics, and my beer league sand volleyball on Sunday afternoons/evenings certainly doesn't qualify as that.  We have fun, but no one will accuse of having ever been professional volleyball players.  I miss visiting with other regular fans, and while I have "friended" some on Facebook, that interaction just isn't the same, of course.  I miss having the reason to look at the gocards.com website every couple of days to check the sports schedule to remind myself when the next event is.  I miss, for at least some of the sports, the opportunity to hang out with some of the behind the scenes UofL Athletic Department people.

To be sure, as a massive introvert, when I return home after these events, I am consistently exhausted and fall into bed for a good night's sleep, and in a day with multiple sports events, will wake up the next morning with what I call a social hangover.  Despite all of that, I miss it.  For a college sports fan, July is just...dull.

My life is great, even in July, don't get me wrong, I took a wonderful road trip Friday with my mother and nephew and had an absolute blast of a time.  My work keeps me plenty busy, as does keeping up with various other random events that seem to collect in the month of July.  But being a UofL fan, while not all consuming to the point of being unhealthy, is certainly a real part of who I am, and July leaves a hole, there.

So what should we call this period of time when there are no official UofL sports events, this month that is totally devoid of activity for that realm of my life?  I've heard other sports folk call it the Summer Slump, or the Summer Slowdown, but while those have the advantage of being alliterative, I don't think they capture the impact that it has on the psyche of...well, of me at least, I don't know how much I can speak to the thoughts of others on this topic.

As UofL sports fans, what do you call July?  I'm curious, and looking for a descriptive term that captures these nuances.  Help me out, and maybe make plans to join me, August 12th, for the first UofL sports event of the fall in Louisville?  Women's Soccer takes on DePaul at 5:30, and if you're a soccer fan, you can stick around for the Men's exhibition game against Lipscomb at 7:30.

CATCHING UP WITH

If you missed the Saturday broadcast of THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR....you missed a good one! Fortunately, you can go back and listen to the rebroadcast at the link below:

LINK: THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 7-15-17

"I pledge...to be in Section 110, in my designated seat
by 6:47 p.m....for the 7:30 p.m. tip against Clemson." 

What you'll find is a great interview with Cardinal WBB hero Becky Burke in the second half of the
show, the weekly quiz where Worldwide held his dominance over the guys with his third straight win (play along and see if you can beat him) and a frank and revealing discussion to start off the show about the possible use of apps to verify whether certain WBB ticket holders will be attending home games.

(Big brother is watching!)


It's all great fun...we'll see if Paulie's index cards survive seven days and reappear next week and the same four knuckleheads have conspired to invade this community radio station's air time space next week. Let this serve as a warning.

-JMcA