Our Little Town recently got its very own minor league hockey team. They're roughly the equivalent of Single-A baseball, so they're a bit rough around the edges when it comes to things like passing, shooting and goaltending, though they have a cool name and snazzy uniforms, and they hit each other very well. This made the crowd happy, and was thus a Good Thing and very appropriate.
With Kim off at a conference on Friday, the girls and I decided to go see one of the games. We thought we'd have the place to ourselves, but apparently hockey is big here and the place was just packed with screaming fans.
If you've ever been to a hockey game, you know this is something of a mixed blessing.
On the one hand, it is always best to have a raucous crowd at a live sporting event. The athletes play harder. The fans enjoy more. The house makes more money, thus keeping the team around longer. It's just better.
On the other hand, well, let's just say that the girls and I had a few conversations about polite versus impolite words and the boundaries of each. It's not like I could turn around and say, "Hey! Watch the language! Where do you think you are, a hockey game?" Because they would just have said "Yes, yes we are."
Well, no, that's not what they would have said. Not quite. And then I would have had to continue my explanations to the girls and expand those explanations to include what is and is not anatomically possible or advisable, and there is no "win" there.
But there was plenty of win at the game, at least for us.
There were boom sticks for the girls to clatter together, the better to destroy our neighbors' eardrums and drown out their rather limited vocabulary. Our neighbors were both blindly partisan, berating the refs for making clearly correct calls when they went the other way, and loudly critical in rather unoriginal ways. The clattering boom sticks were better conversation, really. I can think of a number of situations in life that would be improved by the addition of boom sticks, in fact, beginning with just about every staff meeting I have ever attended for most jobs I have held in my life. I think that during my next meeting I will just sit back and visualize this, and they can wonder why I'm smiling.
There were also snacks. Lots of snacks, though we limited ourselves as best we could. We had sugar, but refrained from purchasing any of the beverages being consumed around us in bulk. Did you know they come in plastic bottles now? Special "sports packaging" versions of your favorite beers - what a country!
And when all else failed, there was the game.
Lauren took those pictures with her own camera. She's quite a photographer, really.
We stayed until about halfway through the third period, when Tabitha's adrenaline gave out and we had to go home. Lauren would probably have stayed, though she conked right out once we found her bed. She was worried we'd never find out who won. It's not like they cover this team on the news.
But there is always Teh Intarweebs. Apparently the good guys lost on two goals in the last 1:10, so perhaps it is better that we left when we did.
I'm glad the girls are hockey fans. We'll have to go back.
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