hello, my name is grumpy

Maybe it's hormones, maybe it's lack of patience, maybe it's a bad attitude. But I was not very excited to be at pick-up for hockey last night. First of all I hadn't realized that our ice time started 45 minutes later than it had the week before, and nobody had pointed that out to me. So I was there 45 minutes early. And I was there 45 minutes later...which meant I faced 45 minutes less sleep. As the ice arena is 30 minutes from my home, I had no intention of going back, and so I utilized the time to work on my knitting, which fortunately I had taken along with me. The first half is now done. "Woo hoo" I say with little enthusiasm.

And then... And then when we finally do get on the ice it's this one guy trying his darndest to shoot the puck through the center of my body, I swear. I don't really mind taking shots like this. They're strong, clean shots (although I can't figure out why players - particularly guys - think they're exceptionally well-planned shots since they go RIGHT AT THE GOALIE...) and are easy to stop (see previous parentheses), so it makes the goalie feel like he/she is doing a good job. That wasn't my issue with this particular dude. I was much more frustrated by the fact that as he went flying around the ice with his show-offy shots, there was always at least one gal who could have gotten an even better shot if he had just dumped the puck back to her. I was mad. Wasting the team's time as they prepare for a tournament, wasting my time as in real games people don't usually get non-stop breakaways, and being a conceited jerk trying to impress I'm not quite sure who. I got off the ice. I couldn't take it. I thought I was going to have to sock him.

And then when I jumped back on the ice the teams had switched sides and then I got about zero shots and just stood there most of the time. Overall not a very good experience. And I was crabby for having been at the ice arena for so long and now having to drive back home at 11p.m.

Grr.

I did, however, find out that the ice arena has curling. I'd love to try that sometime.

I long for the "good old days" when I had a goalie coach to work with. I never realized how lucky I was to grow up with Mr. Townsend who would make sure he or another coach was working with me on skate saves or keeping my floating stick on the ice (bad habit I still have...boo) while the other girls worked on passing and plays and whatnot. In college I was also so blessed - there was an ex-college goalie who came to most of our practices and worked Melissa (the other goalie) and I until I thought we were going to pass out. Those were the days...