Laurie

You know your favorite eccentric aunt? The one who lives in jeans and sports jerseys, and never misses a home game, and swears like a trucker when the other team scores?

The one who knows more bawdy jokes than you do, and tells them better too? The one you never want to mention the word “soccer” to at a party, because then you’ll never manage to escape?

Well… That’s not Laurie. But your aunt is everything she aspires to in life.

She lives in the Seattle area with a delightful family who enable her addiction, to the point of buying her a Zidane jersey for a recent birthday.

(Although if she’s being truthful, she might admit that she was the one who found it on Ebay. And it may have been purchased with her credit card. But she’s absolutely certain that the rest of the family were all sitting there at the table, smiling benevolently as she opened it.)

She also writes the France page at World Cup Blog and does weekends on The Offside Main Page. You can reach her at laurie[at]theoffside[dot]com.