Michael & Liz are Bloggable

After Liz and I started dating 7 years ago (holy cow that's a really long time ago), there was one rule we established very quickly. It was created to help keep me from annoying her and driving her insane. The rule is:

No betting/gambling/competing on results that we have control over.

Betting in general is looked down upon no matter what it is, but betting dependent on our own actions is strictly prohibited. Here are some examples of unacceptable bets:

• I bet you don't think I can eat this entire Grands biscuit roll in a minute. 
• I bet you I can get to church in under 20 minutes. 
• I bet I can run 5 miles faster than you can bike 9 miles. 
• How many push-ups do you think you can do?

These are all examples of stupid and meaningless bets, obviously, but they are all dependent on what we have control over. I'm a competitive person so some of these things would make me turn into a monster causing me to scarf down biscuits like it's my job. That competitiveness would also inevitably create unnecessary tension. In general, even without control over the results, we completely steer clear of bets or gambles of any kind.

But we have found a happy balance. That balance is the NCAA tournament. Last year, Liz filled out a bracket for the first time. It was more my goading her into doing it, but she relented and created one. To put it mildly, it was a huge success. In fact, remember that little small school from Indiana that came within 6 inches of winning the title on a last second shot against Duke? Yeah, she actually had Butler winning it all in her bracket. That experience alone has gotten her obsessed with the tournament. Although somehow she forgot about her Butler love, and had them getting knocked out in the first round this year, which has been a source of amusement for us. How could she forget Butler after her magical first year?! Somehow though along the way last year, we upped the ante and the winner got an extra $50 in their personal budget.

It's not $50 taken away from the other person, just an extra $50 budgeted for them. The winner gets a prize, and the loser is unaffected. It makes for a healthy competition. 

You'd think this would bring out the monster in me, but I have absolutely no control over the results so how can I get competitive in any way?? Last year, when I completely lost hope, I started rooting for her teams. I already lost, who cares. So last night, our brackets started coming down to the wire. This year's winner basically hinged on who would win Kentucky (who I had winning) or Ohio State (who Liz has winning it all). Right now I'm winning by just a small margin, if Ohio State had won, she pretty much would have passed me for good. But alas, it looks like I might squeak it out and we'll be all tied up 1-1 in the yearly bracket bet.

What will I do with my $50? Much to Liz's dismay, who thinks I should splurge and get new underwear or something, I'm putting it toward the mortgage. As fun as this bracket bet is though, we never forget to adhere to Rule #1.