The Road to 40 Day 276/365: Superbowl LX and Cholesterol

It’s Superbowl Sunday, but on a Monday on this side of the world.

I’m not too big of a football fan, but I do enjoy watching sports. I don’t usually follow the sport as religiously as I did basketball, but whenever big games are happening, I try to make it a point to watch it.

When I was in the Philippines, Uncle Owe would invite me to watch it. I would take a leave of absence from work and we would go to bars or houses and watch it together. Here in Singapore, that tradition continued as I watched the games with Moshe.

Watching the Superbowl in a bar gives off an incredible energy similar to watching college basketball in the Philippines. There are cheers in every play, and you just get happy and frustrated with strangers, depending on what’s happening with the team you’re cheering for.

Unlike basketball, the NFL is a little more difficult to win consistently. A lot of things have to come into play, and even the most stacked teams don’t necessarily have a definite ticket to the big game. For pespective, last year’s champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, didn’t even get past the wildcard round.

So if you liken it to watching a movie or a TV series, watching the Superbowl is like watching a standalone movie – it doesn’t matter who appeared last year, because the story this year is completely independent from it.

This year, the matchup seemed very lopsided on paper. On one hand, there’s the New England Patriots, a team that even non-football fans recognize as the team that all-time great Tom Brady played for. They were a dynasty from the 2000s and again in the 2010s, but have struggled over the past few seasons. Last year, they finished with just four wins.

They are led this time around by a second-year quarterback in Drake Maye, who was a frontrunner in the MVP voting because of how he turned the team around in just one year.

On the other stands the Seattle Seahawks, the league’s best defensive team. Led in the offense by a “journeyman” in Sam Darnold, they finished the season with a 14-3 record, tied with the Patriots and the Denver Broncos.

The Seahawks were a tremendous favorite, and they proved why by the half. The halftime show by Bad Bunny wasn’t as surreal as others I’ve seen, but apparently, there’s some messaging there.

The Patriots tried to make a comeback from late in the third, but they ultimately made key mistakes and eventually lost.

The day went by as it normally would, and for dinner, I thought about cooking some basil pork.

Che got a basil plant and said I could maybe cook with it. I still had to ask her to pick the leaves for me, because I was scared that they might not grow back if I picked them.

After we ate, I again felt light-headed. Last night, I had a 145/90 reading on my blood pressure, so I checked myself again. 143/93.

It’s high, but apparently not alarming. Still, I was worried. Che and I agreed I had to go see a doctor tomorrow about it.

I understand my cholesterol is pretty high, but it never bothered me like this before, so I do have to wonder what’s going on.

I plan to have myself checked at the clinic near our house because I remembered seeing that they do lab tests also. The clinic near dover, I’m not sure if they still have the same doctor, but I’m not sure I’ll get what I need there.

Hopefully, it’s nothing serious and can be remedied, but I’m thinking changing my diet will be a key point of our discussion tomorrow.