Saturday, January 14, 2006

I Could Be Wayne Gretzky...

Well, except I'm not nearly as outwardly aggressive as I am in my head. Oh yeah, and I guess I probably don't ice skate all THAT well; I live in SC for goodness sake. We don't exactly have ice here. And the final and most important reason: I like having all my teeth.

Despite living in the South and not having being surrounded by ice, we had some last night. We have an ECHL team (East Coast Hockey League). And I'll confess to being a fan. Not a fanatic, but a fan. And last night we got a really big treat. We went with a group of about 15 to a game. And three of us got to go down and sit in the manager's box. Our arena wasn't built for hockey, so it's a typical arena and the seating starts just below the top rim of the glass. So you're always looking down on the action. Except for when a stray puck puts you in the middle of it... That's not fun.

The owner's box and the other luxury boxes are all down at ice level and you sit right at the glass. I wasn't prepared for how close you are to the glass. Within two minutes of us sitting down two feet from the glass, someone was smashed into it right in front of us. I admit, I screamed. It's startling. And it didn't look at all fun for the players, but they give as good as they get.

I will admit that being so close gives you a pretty good view of very athletic hockey players. Although, with all that padding it's hard to distinguish anything but their butts. :-)

Since I can't be a hockey player (see above list), it certainly put some interesting stories in my head!

I didn't have my camera with me, but I found this to share:

Our team traded him, so he's gone :-(. But he's still a cutie!

Here's a picture of him while he was with our team:

He's not supposed to smile! He's an intimidating hockey player for goodness sake!

April

PS: I was naughty today and instead of writing all day, I read. It was great. I haven't read a book in too long. So, I read two. :-) Andrea Kane's I'll Be Watching You and Lori Foster's Fantasy. Both were really good and something I would recommend! But please note that I have gotten a little writing done and finally I was able to add to my counter... A whole 500 words!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now those are some great pictures to drool over!

I've only been to one hockey game, but I do watch it on tv from time to time. I used to skate..before I had kids. Maybe some day I'll go back to it!

April said...

We actually have a public ice rink, but I've never been. Every once in a while, we head north and go skiing and I'll go ice skating then though!

I wish we hadn't traded him... But he's in a better position now, so at least there is that...