My "hockey balls"

Recently, someone asked me if I've noticed anything different in my personality since I've started playing hockey. I thought about it, and answered that I think I'm more confident than I was. That's not saying much, considering I've never been all that confident, ever. But apparently, I also grew balls.

Earlier this week I was in a minor car accident in which I was absolutely, positively, nowhere near being anywhere at fault. An idiot with several missing brain cells tried to pull out onto a two-lane highway to turn left. Guess who was approaching in the left lane, minding her own business? Guess who honked madly, slammed on the brakes, and still was hit by this moronic individual who continued to pull out into oncoming traffic? Yeah, that would be me. Some choice words were exchanged, and the other driver backed his car back onto the street he came off of, to clear the road for traffic. I didn't budge, wanting it to be obvious to the cop where I was and what happened. And I had every intention of being a nice civil person. Until I was walking around the front of my car to inspect the damage, talking on the phone to my husband and telling him about the "***ing ***hole" who crashed into me. When I hung up, the passenger from the other car yelled across the street "Who's the ***ing ***hole?! You need to learn how to ***ing drive!"

Oh man.

Not the right thing to yell at me.

I charged across the street and got right in this jerk's face, yelling back at him. He continued yelling. We were yelling over each other and pointing angrily at each other and the scene, and the witness who had seen it all suddenly came over to try to calm me down. "Its not worth it...." she said, getting me to back away. And she's right. And that is absolutely not like me at all. Nevermind the fact that I could have gotten myself in a heap of trouble if that guy had a few more screws loose and a weapon of any kind. At that point the cop showed up and yelled from his window for all of us to get in our cars. I thought for sure at that point I was going to at least get a lecture. But you can always count on Ranger fans....

When the cop eventually approached my window, he looked down at the "C" on the shoulder of my Rangers jersey and said "That better be a Messier jersey." I said with a hopeful smile on my face, "No, it's Jagr....". He groaned, grabbed my paperwork, and walked away. Could have been worse though, he could have been a Devils fan. Then I definitely would have been in trouble. But I think the fact that both the driver and the passenger of the other car gave him all kinds of shit probably trumps any hockey loyalties and will go farther in this guy's memory should there ever be a situation that comes down to the jerkoff's word against mine (such as, any kind of ridiculous charges that result from me charging across the street like that).

I seriously have no idea where that burst of brashness came from. I can only think it must be "hockey balls", because I get the same way when defending my net. And I'm still fired up about the incident, honestly. Hopefully I can bring some of that on the ice with me when we have our next game.