Whole Lotta Checkin’ Goin’ On
Before I begin to regale you with our hockey adventures Friday night I have to tell you what happened this morning.
I’ve mentioned before the Student Arts Leader from church – Ben – is living with us until his wedding in May. His fiance’s roommate has been out of town for a while and Katie hates to be alone at night so she oftentimes stays here. When Katie is here she sleeps in Ben’s room and Ben sleeps on the futon in the finished side of the basement.
There is a door on the left at the bottom of the basement stairs that leads to the unfinished side of the basement. But if you turn right it brings you into the finished side where we have my keyboard, a desk with a computer, Todd and Taylor’s guitars, book case, cabinet – just a bunch of stuff. Then the room dog legs to the right and that’s where we have a TV/stereo, two recliners and the futon.
Ben’s door was closed when I came down this morning to download the pictures off my camera, pulled up iTunes and started rocking out to a little Barlow Girl. I’m pretty sure I was trying to sing with them, too. Then I hear Ben’s voice. I WOKE HIM UP! For some reason I can’t figure out I thought Katie hadn’t come back from Thanksgiving yet or something, thinking Ben was in the room and no one was down here. I didn’t even look at the futon when I came down!
The thought of singing in front of Ben is bad enough because, like I said, he IS the student arts leader. However, I’ve never professed to be a good singer so whatever. What has me worried, though, is the fact I carry on entire conversations with myself because no one appreciates my wit and intelligence near as much as I do. I wracked my brain trying to remember what I may have said, but I came up blank. Hopefully because I didn’t say anything, but more likely because I’ve already erased the humiliation from all conscious thought.
Okay. On to the hockey game…
Friday night was a beautiful, though cold, night.
Todd accuses me of being late a lot of the time, but the truth is usually show up right on the dot. The problem is that he’s usually much too early. The hockey game didn’t start until 7:00 and we were at the arena around 5:30. We spent 15 or 20 minutes in the gift shop so he could buy a Flyers hat (even though we were there to see the much less expensive Phantoms). But then the shop temporarily closed and we were forced to stand outside in the bitter cold for another 10 or 15 minutes until they opened the doors. It was kind of cool that we were the first ones through the turnstile, though!
The Wachovia Center is a niiiice arena and had photo opportunities at every turn. Here are a few:
A “hat trick” in hockey is when a player makes three goals in one game. When that happens the crowd goes wild and throws their hat onto the ice. I, for one, am appalled at that custom. Hats are expensive!! Anyway, this case is filled with all the hats they’ve collected at Flyers games over the years.
Then we have the pretty Christmas tree in the lobby. Had to snap that.
And last in this line is one of the food service places. It’s wrong to go to a sporting event and not partake in the delicious arena fare they serve. Seriously. That’s part of the fun. It’s why I don’t care for sports on TV.
That would be Todd living his fantasy of being an NHL hockey player for a few minutes. This was perfect for him as he can’t ice skate. And the guitar is Bonnie Raitt’s.
This picture kind of cracked me up. Players from both teams were stretching before the game, just chatting with each other. I imagined they were saying things like, “So, how’s your sister? I haven’t seen her in forever.” While Todd figured they were saying things like, “Yeah. I know how your sister is. I just saw her last night.”
This was the closest they came to a fight. It’s more like a pile up in the goal. Even the broken stick wasn’t from something exciting like using it as a club or anything. While there were no actual fights there were a lot of penalties and a ton of checking. One of the players got “two minutes for hooking”. Somehow I always thought hooking carried a longer sentence than that.
The final score, as you can see, was 2-1 Hershey. Bummer. And do you know what this guy has in his ice chest? Not a case of beer. Not spare organs. Hockey pucks. They keep them cold when they’re not in play. Why?
My last thought about the hockey game is regarding some of the names. Can anyone guess what these names brought to mind?
Boucher
Picard
Gauthier
Peltier
Besides that they’re all French they reminded me of either movies or books. Know which ones??
Sounds like quite a not. I’m one who is chronically early also ~ I would have probably gotten there around 6:15, just because I have such an aversion to crowds. Hate, hate, hate them.
No clue on the books and movies except for maybe the Picard one, that reminds me of Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek.The game sounds like it was fun, and you had me cracking up at the image of you singing when you didn’t realize Ben was sleeping. Ha. 🙂
Dev – I don’t mind being early. But it was so cold and we weren’t allowed into the arena until 6:00. :o)Monnik – Apparently I was dancing in my seat, too. I’ve a feeling this is one of those things I’ll never live down.
Oh! And I forgot to mention that I thought of Star Trek with Picard, also.
LOL on the whole conversation with oneself. I’ve been caught by houseguests ‘dancing’ when I thought nobody was around, lol. Not as embarrassing as, say, walking into the bathroom on someone, but cringeworthy just the same.Pucks on ice? Does this somehow help with the pucks aerodynamics across the ice? Like Olympic swimmers shaving their body hair off to increase their times? Or is it more like wearing lucky underwear to the game? The rabbit’s foot of Hockey?
Getting caught being yourself really stinks, doesn’t it? LOL! Not that *I* would know anything about that. I’m always doing just the right thing at just the right time, with no audience. Uh-huh. Sure.:)
Hmmmm…I guess I need to pick the hayseed outta my teeth because those names are a bit to esoteric for me.We are CO Avalanche fans from our years living near Denver. They won the Cup when I was pregnant for HB. I’ll never forget how faithfully I watched that series–and fell asleep during the last 5 minutes of the winning game. I woke up to Big leaping and shouting. Gosh, I was mad! Had to settle for seeing it in 5,00 replays.I’m surprised Seattle doesn’t have a major league team. However, we do occasionally go to the minor league (is it called that?) games. Can you say…swearing?! There, I thought you could.
I was singing very loudly one day to the Avenue Q soundtrack, and I was singing the part where the guy says “I’m not wearing underwear today, no I’m not wearing underwear today-not that you probably care, much about my underwear, still I had to sayyyyyy, I’m not wearing underwear todayyyyyy.” (out of context I am sure this sounds like a terribly song to be singing and listening to, but it is funny!)I looked over and realized that my window was down and I was singing quite loudly while stopped at a light . . .While it is embarrassing to you now, I am glad that you have times where you are free to be YOU!! Even if it is off key!
I love that picture of the moon … so pretty!
ROTFL!
Just followed the lead to come check you out from Gretchen’s blog, Good Enough for Now. Totally glad I did. Very, very fun blog!!!
Great. I am going to be up ALL NIGHT trying to remember where I have heard those names!!!! AUGH!!!!
I forget how old your daughter is, but I thought you were going to say how she fell in love with Ben and the wedding is going to be canceled now and… um… maybe that was While You Were Sleeping? No, I’m not a screenwriter. I’m not….
Love being at hockey games! Even here in LA, where nobody really appreciated hockey til The Great One appeared on our doorstep. Still, it’s way better to be there than watch it on TV, I couldn’t agree more.And ROFL at the Ben story. Oops!
BWAHAHA! Sorry… Couldn’t help it!Hm. Now I’m wondering why they keep the pucks cold. LOVE hockey!My favorite picture is the one of the players stretching. ;o)
OHHH, OHHH, I know this one!!!!! (The books!!) I read them b/c you had mentioned them on the Outlander message board!! I love them! So thanks a bunch for the great reads!!Loved the rest of the blog too, but being from Arkansas, I haven’t gotten into the hockey spirit!!!
Becky – Yeah. I was actually dancing in the chair. I’m waiting for Todd to tell me what the deal with the pucks is.Lynilu – Why do I have the feeling you’re leaving something out??? :o)Gretchen – We did the minor league hockey in Little Rock. LOVED IT!! It was actually more fun as there’s a lot more audience participation. Not the swearing part, though. lolBeans – That is HYSTERICAL!! I’ve never heard that song, but now I want to. Hm… I may have to go check out YouTube. But you can rest assured I WON’T be singing in the band at church any time soon. lolSwishy – And the picture doesn’t even do it justice. It was huge and you could see all the seas on it. Very nice.Shauna – *shrug*His Girl – Hey!! Thanks for dropping by and playing! I’ll be checking out your blog soon. Any friend of Gretchen’s has got to be awesome!Katybug – I’ll be giving the answers in my next post. You won’t have to stay up all night. Promise!MamaP – Bwahahaha!!! My daughter is 13. And while most of the teen girls at church are in love with Ben, he only has eyes for his Katie. lolLori – Todd was a HUGE hockey fan of the Kings when he lived in LA. Back when it was the Forum – before the Great Western Forum or the Staples Center. Back when the refs’ definition of unnecessary roughness included profuse bleeding as opposed to a slow trickle of blood. Yeah. Those were the good old days.My first hockey game was actually a Duck’s game. I went for the peanuts and beer and absolutely fell in love with the game.Lisa – I like that picture, too. It just strikes a funny bone. Especially when you saw how rough they got during the game.Ann – Yes! You do know what books I’m talking about, don’t you?? lolWe used to go to Riverblades games and they were so much fun. It’s just wrong that they don’t have a team anymore. But have you been to see the Twisters play? Arena football is about as fun as hockey. Seriously good stuff!!!
Ugh! I know exactly how you feel… I get you! lol! This morning I was sitting at my desk at work and talking, very loud I might add, to myself! I was trying to straighten my thoughts out and didn’t even think that someone else could hear me until I hear “what did you say to me?”btw, the hockey players imaginary convo was hilarious.