Birthday ice! (and beer. and cupcakes.)

As birthdays go, mine was pretty great yesterday. It started on the ice and ended on the ice. Can't beat that, right? At 12:01 a.m. on the 29th I was on the ice with the Hawks. At long last!!! It was an interesting game. We only had 9 skaters, 7 of whom were defensemen As a result most of our "forwards" were actually defensemen in forwards' clothing- including GoalieHusband. It was also our first game with the mixed group of "old" and "new" Hawks, so there was a bit of a different dynamic. The other team fared worse than we did, numbers wise (only 6 skaters!) but they still beat us 4-3. I'm actually not too worried about it. We played hard, and played as a team, which is something that had kind of been lacking in our last season. There was no yelling or grousing on the bench either. The new guys seem really cool and I'm sure it'll just be a matter of a few games before we all gel. Our next game is much earlier, so we should have better numbers.

I was surprisingly energetic all day at work, not dragging like I thought I'd be. I got home, had a PBJ, a quick nap, and GoalieHusband and I headed back out to the rink for Quarry Cats practice. Practices have been going great the last few weeks; the coaches are really organized and working towards specific goals with us. I can't wait to play an actual game and see how this all pays off. I think we're really going to be kicking some butt this season.

But the two best things about practice last night didn't happen on the ice. First off, as we were all changing afterward, there was a knock on the door. The coaches usually give us time to change and then come in to chat. They seemed a little early this week. I was on my way into the shower and half the room was in various stages of undress, so we yelled for them to wait. And then after I got out of the shower and was standing there in my towel, there was more banging at the door. Our "enforcer" (who I know will read this and be proud I called her that haha) got up and yelled "Not yet! We'll tell you when we're ready!" I dressed hastily and went to the door to let them in... and in comes GoalieHusband and the other two coaches with a tray of cupcakes with hockey-stick candles! They sang to me, I turned multiple shades of red, and we all pigged out on cupcakes and beer. Then we all headed over to the other ice surface...

One of our defensemen also plays on a men's team, which up until now had played at a different rink. They just started the fall season here at "our" rink, and had a game last night, so she did half our practice, and then headed over to play with them. Naturally we had to go over and support her team. The rest of her team and the team they were playing against were absolutely astounded by this small group of yelling, screaming, cheering, glass-pounding sweaty disheveled women. D-Girl wasn't embarrassed at all. Not one bit. ;) All she did was step on the ice and we went bananas. We heckled the other team's players. (Come on, if you're wearing 69 and take a douchey penalty you deserve to get heckled). One of the guys on the other team is someone GoalieHusband and I have played open hockey with several times, and he just turned and stared at us at one point. I grinned and banged on the glass at him. We greeted her with a cupcake and a bottle of beer when she got off the ice. Someone came over to us and asked "Are you D-Girl's family?" Well yes... in a way we are. Ha.

We bribed the rink worker with a few cupcakes and Twizzlers and he let us hang out back in the locker room again for a while. So, after a ridiculously late game on Tuesday, and smelly locker-room-party until late last night, I'm a little worse for the wear today. To make matters worse I left my wallet in my hockey bag, so it's going to have to be crappy office coffee for me, not the elixir that is Dunkin Donuts.

It's ok. It's all completely worth it. Back on the ice again with the Hawks on Sunday night.