Recap

Alright, I think I lied to everyone. I thought we won one, lost one and tied two. But maybe we lost two, and tied two...? I'm not sure. All I know for sure is that our last game was against ourselves (the second team) and we totally had a blast (well, I did) because it didn't matter. Neither team was going to the championship game.

Lets see, highlights?  I skated the puck pretty well a few times. I quit turning away from the puck in the third game.  I realized when T called my name, all I had to do was look at her and she would shoot the puck right. To. Me. Because she is that good. I also had at least 3 good shots on goal (none went in) and there might have been a fourth, but I can't remember for sure. I also got the puck away from one of our intermediate players (yay, me!) and I really played hard against "blue pants" whoever she was. I didn't get far on her, but I tried!

So, our next tourney is the 24-26th and it sounds like we have four teams, one novice, two upper-novice and one intermediate. I think I might get placed on upper-novice, but I don't know for sure. EEK! It's definitely a step up, but after this weekend, I think I can do it.

More about the weekend; my ride was great, it didn't drain every ounce of emotional energy out of me. In fact, I was spot-on about my other ride. She was an energy-suck. You know the kind? You leave their presence and go "what the hell just happened? I need a nap." This ride was energetic, full of great stories and background on a LOT of stuff. My roomie was great. Easy-going and quiet, which I appreciated. She didn't need the TV or music on all the time, and I didn't feel like I needed to be with her 100% of the time. Perfect. It gave me the opportunity to spend some time with lots of others, getting to know a little bit about them. Yes, I have learned at least four peoples' names, AND I have learned a little about them, too!

After our third game, I suggested we find out what color our other team was going to be, and how about we show up on the ice in the same color ... I crack myself up. So we did! With our other jerseys underneath. They also had a surprise in store, they had one of their gals skate out in a prom dress. No joke! It was a carry-over from last year when they all showed up at the "social" dressed to the nines. Remember, the skate rink and community center are the only things in town? HI-LAR-EE-OUS!!! The whole crowd (of 25) loved it. Us in our matching jerseys, our little strip-tease when we changed, and the prom dress. No wonder they invite us back! I guess we made an impression, the tournament coordinator emailed us saying she had some ideas for our "Apples vs Apples" game. (Our team was the Bad Apples, theirs was the Good Apples.)
The social was a blast! Our last game, against ourselves, was at 8pm and then we showered and headed to the community hall for spaghetti dinner. There was dancing -- we have some great dancers on our team -- and a lot of talking and drinking going on. The group I was with cut out at about midnight:30, but I hear that others stayed for a few more hours. We were on the road by 9:30 the next morning and back home fairly early in the afternoon.

All in all a great experience I would definitely do over if I get invited!  If we have women's hockey next season. But that is a story for another time. It's too political for me, because I don't get all the little issues about it, suffice it to say we might lose our rink. It makes me sad, but I am out to enjoy hockey while I have it!