It's Go Time

This week has felt excruciatingly long, waiting for this tournament. Up until yesterday, that is, and then it felt way too short. I ended up sick with some kind of strange not-quite-a-stomach-flu that I was afraid was going to get worse and keep me from being able to play. So, even though I felt a tad better today, since I have more vacation time than I'll ever be able to use before my company is bought and it's been maddeningly slow at work, I decided to stay home and sleep a lot. It seems to have helped. I would have gone with GoalieHusband to cheer on the Hawks in their playoff game, but I figure a little more rest can't be a bad thing.

Except now I'm wide awake. I'm packed for the most part- except for all those girly shower and makeup things that I won't be able to pack until tomorrow morning. And now that I'm feeling a little better I'm getting really excited again. Tomorrow afternoon, GoalieHusband is going to meet me at my office, as will Flipper and the Mayor. We'll take 2 cars but we'll head up together - hey, we have to stop at Belchertown and take a picture, come on. Hopefully we'll have enough time to check into the hotel first before heading to the rink for our first game, which is around 10pm.

I can't wait. I feel like I've been watching sand in an hourglass for the last few weeks. Not only am I getting back on the ice with my team, but tournament season is just about underway. Last year around this time I was nervous as hell. My first tournament was our home one that we hosted, so that wasn't so bad. Then a few weeks later I was on the road to Ithaca, knots in my stomach, way outside of my box. I had a few "OMG whatamidoinghere" moments but for the most part I was fine, and I even had fun. And I wore my silver medal all the way home.

Now, knowing what to expect, and more importantly, knowing the girls now as well as I do, I'm really excited to whoop it up again. We have this one, then in a few weeks we're off to Tampa. A few weeks after that we head back up to Ithaca. A month later we host our own tournament. There's one in July, but I'll be on vacation so I'll miss that one. And then there's one when I get back from vacation in August. So that's 6 for the team, 5 for me.

But it all starts tomorrow. And I'm determined to win this one. It's going to be hard; it's a mixed C/D division, and we have a short bench. But I know we can do it.