Overdue...

See, I warned you about the burn-out. This post is now quite anti-climatic but I feel an obligation to write it so I can get on with more current posts. Plus, I threw that teaser in the last post, and I'd really be an asshole if I didn't come through on that.

After our first game that Sunday, which was at 9am, we knew we'd be in the final, which wasn't until 3:30. Flipper and I had already checked out of our hotel room, so we made a Dunkin Donuts run, came back and hung around in the rink snack bar for a bit, browsed the pro shop, and eventually went out to her car to have a snooze. We put the seats back, and ended up chatting like little girls at a sleepover for about an hour. Pretty soon though, we were lulled by the relentlessly pounding rain and both fell asleep for a good long while. Much needed, let me tell you.

We were one of the first ones in the locker room, as usual, and as players started filtering in, it was obvious everyone was already tired. We were pumped though, excited at the challenge of meeting up with the youngin's again. We were awfully amused at their age, which couldn't have averaged much more than 17, and one of the gals quipped: "Most of them probably haven't even had their period yet!" to which someone else responded "Yeah, and some of us don't have our period anymore!!!" The entire room lost it. Well, except for our own two youngins, a pair of 18 year olds who have come on other tournaments with us. I think it's a fair assumption to say they were horrified.

And here's where goldfish-brain kicks in. The details of the game at this point, I'm embarrassed to admit, are somewhat cloudy. I remember going up early, and the score staying at 2-1 for quite some time. Then they tied it, and it seemed like it stayed that way for an absolute eternity. I was wondering if we'd have another OT and shootout like we had in Ithaca, but with just a few minutes left, they started taking penalty after penalty, and we scored not once, but twice more. It was a very close game though. I played very well- I seem to play better with each game in these tournaments, almost like I'm saving my best for last. I'm not sure how that happens, but it does. Maybe the more exhausted I get, the better I play.

When the final buzzer blew, there had been a scrum in tight and I had just gotten to the puck to cover it. The horn sounded, and the girls on the other team let out a whoop and holler and hugged each other. I was momentarily confused. That 4-2 on the scoreboard was in our favor, right? Did I miss something? I'm not entirely sure what that celebration was all about but I cared for about three tenths of a second, and then I was swarmed with happy teammates. There are a few things as a goalie that just sort of define elation. One is the thunder of teammates' sticks against the boards in appreciation of a great save, and another is the pile-up at the end of a win as big as this one. It felt so great to be able to beat those kids.

Lined up on the blue line, awaiting our medals and trophy, we were all smiles. Well, we were until I embarrassed the hell out of Flipper. The announcer had asked who the captain was, and since our captain hadn't been able to make the trip, she and the other alternate looked at each other, each wanting the other to do the honors. Finally Flipper decided to go, and at the same time I turned to clap her on the back of the shoulder, which is when she tripped over my pad and did a faceplant on the ice. I. Felt. Awful. The ref even quipped "ok, not her". Oof. Yeah, with a bunch of cameras there, no one saw that. Not at all. Sorry, Flipper!!! You can trip me next time ok?

We got a nice shiny trophy, and each got pretty snazzy "gold" medals. And I was awarded the MVP puck for our team. Wow. I was really honored. And it's a pretty cool puck, too, because it has a mini plaque on it that says "Summer Sizzler 2011 MVP" or something to that effect. We took about a zillion pictures on the ice, and when we got back into the locker room I updated FB immediately: "could die of happiness right now". (Hey, family and friends were following along at home. I had to post right away. Don't call me an addict.)

Not a bad way to end "tournament season" at all.

Burnout? ...and overdue Tournament Blog

I'm finding that I am increasingly less inspired to blog than I used to be. I don't know if maybe it's burnout, but it seems like all my posts are the same. With this latest tournament, I have lots of cool things to write about, but it feels like it's just going to be the same post as all my other tournament posts have been. Maybe the key is writing more in the moment, rather than a few days after the fact. Maybe it's the fact that I update Twitter and Facebook in "real time" that makes me feel like writing a blog about it is old news. Regardless, I need to write about this one before much more time goes by.

I was looking forward to this tournament with a lot more anticipation than some of the others. I think it might be because it was our last one of the "season", and because I knew my sister was bringing her family to come watch me play. We also had the added excitement of facing the ringer team from our last tournament, the team we were supposed to have played in the championship game that was cancelled because of compressor malfunction.

Most tournaments we've done have had games stretched over two and a half days; Friday through Sunday. This one squeezed the same number of games into a much shorter time span. Our first game was on Saturday at 1pm, and our final (fourth) game ended up being at 3:30 pm on Sunday. There's something about the compressed schedule that made it a little more exciting as well, although it was also exhausting. It's Tuesday and I'm still recovering.

I just had a good feeling about this tournament from the start, despite the fact that it changed from a "C/D" level of competition to a "B/C/D" level. It seemed odd to all of us that they'd combine such a wide range of skills, but I think it was because they didn't have enough teams to create more than one division. Fortunately we had quite a decent mix on our roster as well, and thought we'd be pretty competitive. I think we were all looking forward to our first game, against the "ringer team" that had beaten us 9-1 in the previous tournament. Going in with a few ringers of our own, we figured we had a chance to at least give them a better fight this time around. Even so, I think we mostly expected to lose, and decided we might as well wear our red jerseys and get some use out of them.

Color us all kinds of surprised when we ended up beating them 4-3. It was a good close game, and in all fairness, they didn't have the exact same team and neither did we. They were missing one or two of their flashy end-to-enders, and we had some reinforcements from the C team. It was a good game, and we were elated to not only have beaten them, but have gotten the stink off our red jerseys.

For our next game, the second of the day, we were up against a team we'd played last year. I was looking forward to this game almost as much as I was to the first game, because for this one we were going to have fans. My sister and brother in law live about an hour from where we were playing, and they brought my nieces (ages 7 and 4) to see us play. I was ecstatic. I was even happier when we scored first, since given the wide range of competition level I wasn't sure if we'd be blown out in front of my family or not. That first goal took a little tiny bit of pressure of me (in my own mind). Unfortunately, they scored three quick ones right after that. I'm pretty sure all three of them were by the same player, one who apparently had a knack of making me look like a traffic cone. Very frustrating goals. It became apparent very quickly during the game that the average age of these players was somewhere around 18, at a very generous guess.

Toward the end of the 3rd period the score was 5-6, and they took a delayed penalty. I sprinted (as much as a goalie can sprint...) to the bench and the door was barely closed before everyone erupted in cheers. I whooped and hollered and I think I may have actually jumped up and down a little. Nothing like a tying goal with about a minute to go! I went back out to my net, but we couldn't manage a complete comeback. Still, a tie against what amounted to a U19 team felt like a pretty sweet win to all of us.

When I came off the ice to greet my family, my nieces were shy about coming up to me. "Go give her a hug", my sister prompted. I knelt down to make it easier, and the older one observed "it's really hard to hug you!", her arms barely making it around my chest protector. They were very enamored with my gear, and when I asked to pose for a picture with them, they insisted on each holding one of my sticks. My brother in law took what I think might be the most adorable picture on the entire planet:




The five of us went out for a bite to eat afterwards, and it was good to see them all, even if the girls were a little punchy due to it being WAY past their bedtime. But they weren't the only ones staying up late. After my sister dropped me back at the hotel, I figured @lct29 and I would call it a night pretty early, given our hectic day and our 9:00 ice time the next morning. I should have known it wasn't going to work out that way. Naturally we all ended up crowded into one room, yapping and laughing and playing drinking games. We had our college girls with us again, and they obliged me when I requested we play the game they taught us at the last tournament. Only about half of us played, but the other half had just as much fun watching us make idiots of ourselves. By 1:30 though I was ready to go, knowing we had to be up early the next day. I think @lct29 was ready way before that, but she waited for me to finish the game. (For the record, we have discovered that we make excellent roommates, and I think it's a pretty much foregone conclusion that if the QCats are on the road, we're rooming together. Yay for awesome roomies.)

Once again, I've rambled on far too long, so I will stop here and save the last two games for another post. Here's a teaser for you: our final game was against the "U19 team", which generated possibly the best locker room quote in the history of tournaments.

Out of the Mouths of Geezers...

My body seems to really be appreciating this brief hockey hiatus. In the mean time, just in case you all were missing me and my babbling (admit it, you were), I figured I'd come share two things of mild interest. Neither is hockey related, but the first thing potentially could have been. I guess I just really can't stay away from hockey, because even though I said I was going to take another week off, when I got back from vacation I started thinking "hmmm... maybe I'll go to open hockey on Wednesday". And then I fell down the stairs.

Nothing's injured, but I have a bruise that as it grows is almost covering my entire butt cheek. Sunday morning, I woke up and wanted a glass of water, so I got out of bed. Our stairs are carpeted, but the steps themselves are kind of short, so both GoalieHusband and I have slipped on occasion. We've always caught ourselves though. Not this time. My right foot went out from under me and although I grabbed for the railing and, missing that, put my arms and feet out to try to break my fall, I bounced down several steps on my left butt cheek. Really, really hard. I landed in a pile at the bottom of the stairs, and almost passed out. I could tell nothing was broken, given how I landed, but holy crap, that pain was worse than when I broke my knee. I lucked out. I could have really done some damage if I'd landed differently. Fortunately I'm just left with this ENORMOUS bruise, which is really gross in kind of a cool way, and the following day had some back and neck pain I guess from bracing myself. So yeah, I decided not to jump right back into hockey and wait until the end of the week as originally planned. Message received, Universe. Loud and clear.

And the second thing, which is what really prompted me to open up this window in my browser and start typing: I work with this older gentleman who is in his early 70's. Yes, his 70's. He's spry and with-it and funny as hell. He's got more money than God but he keep working because he likes what he does. He gets up early every morning to work out and stretch. And unlike most people his age, he embraces and works very well with all the latest technology. We've worked together for almost 15 years, so when he emailed me yesterday and misspelled my name, I just had to bust his chops about it. He replied "I was just using the short version. You know... the twitter way."

I was sitting here at my desk wondering if it could really be possible that he had a twitter account. It didn't seem likely, but I sure wouldn't put it past him. And something about that amused the hell out of me. As I was sitting here pondering what kind of things he would tweet, if he was on twitter, he stopped by my office and asked how I liked his response. I laughed and said it was good, and he then left no doubt it my mind that he in fact does not have a twitter account.

"I was twitting, see? Actually," (adorable geezer laughter) "I had to ask my wife how to even spell twitter!"

It's too bad really. He'd blow that stupid "shit my dad says" account out of the water. Maybe I'll start a campaign to get him on there. The world needs more old geezer humor.