Bachelor Irony

I've watched The Bachelor, a show on ABC, for four or five seasons now, and I was excited when Juan Pablo was chosen as the latest bachelor. Why? Cause he was hot. He had an animal magnetism that became apparent even when he was shown speaking on camera less than any other guy on the Bachelorette. His accent -- he was raised in Venzuela -- limited his on-camera time.
So, like millions of women around the country, I was sold on Juan Pablo simply because of his looks, his smile, the light in his eyes.

At the beginning of the season, with 27 girls and one bachelor, the activities and the interactions were interesting, wondering who would stand out, who would get cut. None of the women were especially onerous this season -- no one to hate. Sometimes the women got a little snarky, but overall they were well behaved.
And Juan Pablo seemed pretty straightforward. When one of the girls got drunk and made a fool of herself, he sent her home the next morning, explaining that as a father, he couldn't bring someone unstable into his household.
I thought Juan Pablo was fairly honest with the women. In the beginning, I may not have noticed that he didn't have a lot of intelligent conversation because he was busy listening to the women's stories. He definitely had chemistry with some of them.
For the first time since I've been watching, it became obvious fairly early in that he slept with one of the women during a romp in the ocean. He later regretted that and told the woman he regretted it. That was pretty selfish on his part. Nothing either of them could do about it afterward.
During the season finale Monday evening, I read a book while Juan Pablo had his final dates with two beautiful blonde women. The words, the women, the families...it just didn't catch my attention.
Juan Pablo, a Latin man with expected sexist tendencies, had shown himself to be fairly shallow. The conversation shown between him and the women consisted of him telling the women how pretty or sexy they were. Things didn't seem to go much deeper.
And now, there's an outcry that Juan Pablo was in it for the fame, for the sex. Stories abound on the web. Here's one from CNN. Juan Pable didn't tell the woman he picked that he loved her, only "liked her a lot." Truthfully, how many people, dating only one other person, can know in 10 weeks whether they love someone.

Here's a picture from Conde Nast showing Juan Pablo with his top choice Nikki.

The irony to me is that people are angry that Juan Pablo was superficial, when they picked Juan Pablo for superficial reasons -- simply because he was handsome.
We rooted for him to become the bachelor because he was beautiful then we're disappointed that he picked women who were beautiful.
We kinda got what we asked for.

The End of College Football Season

As I sit here blogging, a college football bowl game is on television. All of the men who live in my house are out for the evening, so it's just me and my daughter with the football game. She doesn't watch, but she agrees that it is comforting to have the game on as background.
I love football.
True, I cringe when the loud crack of a helmet hitting someone resounds from the television speakers, but I love to watch the games.
I think when I was young, similar to Grace, I didn't so much watch football. But I grew up with two brothers and a father who watched. When I moved out on my own, I found myself turning to football to feel at home.
Now I'm kind of addicted. I'll rarely go to a social event at the same time our local university is playing football. I don't want to miss the game.
It's been a long run of good play for Ohio State. The past two seasons, they've lost only one game. It's tough to root for a team that is losing, but a little boring to root for a team that wins all the time.

But the Ohio State Buckeyes lost a game and they have one more game to play this season on Friday night.

I think I'm ready, for the first time in many years, for college football to finish. I think I know more about the players and the teams than I usually do, but I'm not as emotionally connected. 

Maybe I'll change my mind as the game draws to a close on Friday and Ohio State completes its season. There will be one more big game on Monday night -- the national championship. But I'll be tempted to turn to The Bachelor instead. After all, Juanuary only comes around once in a lifetime, and this year's bachelor, Juan Pablo, might trump a field full of college boys.