missizzy | Entries tagged with hockey

Over the past four years, I have very slowly fallen out of the habit of watching or even following hockey anymore. Until last month, when the Caps were supposed to go down to the Penguins yet again, but somehow didn't. When they made the finals, I turned the TV on in the middle of Game 1. Then Vegas promptly scored; it seems that my tuning in still causes the Caps to get scored on.
So I didn't turn the TV onto hockey again until last night, when Twitter informed me the Stanley Cup had been safely won at last. It was a very strange experience, seeing it all happen now. I had no longer invested myself in the Caps winning the way I did five years ago, but once you've loved a team, you never stop caring for them. Watching Alex Ovechkin lift the Cup for the first time(with the Vegas arena speakers playing Remember the Titans! Perfect for a DC team), watching the other men I'd once cheered for, even though there were so many gone that I missed badly, and finally watching Ted Leonsis lift it, there was an hour last night where I was half a decade younger, still able to feel the joy and relief that it was finally happening.
Of course, seeing any group of people that overjoyed is worth it, especially if you know enough to know why they are. I've missed that. And with this week having been as lousy as it has been for the world otherwise, you take what sources of happiness you can get.
In terms of moments as a sports fan, I don't think there'll be any for me that'll beat watching Ashley Wagner win her world medal live. But seeing this silver won was a good one too, if a touch bittersweet.
Now, of course, it seems as if the parade will interfere with my mother and my going into DC to see a production of Camelot. Oops?

Thursday morning my mother woke with very bad chest pain. When she was having serious trouble breathing, my sister ended up driving her to the ER, where she was diagnosed that day with...very bad chest pain. We were left to spend the weekend wondering if it had been born of stress or of something else. At least she was feeling okay by then, and we were able to go to Rosencrantz & Guilderstern at the Folder and Marriage of Figaro at Wolf Trap. Both productions were basically okay, and enjoyable for the material, but nothing truly remarkable. Then yesterday we got the news that she has a mildly dilated aorta. They can't operate on her because of her hemophilia issues, so for right now they're just going to monitor it.
Stressful enough, but today was even more turbulent. First the new cleaning service arrived, and initially didn't want to clean our house. Eventually an offering of more money for each visit persuaded them to, and they did such a truly amazing job at it now we must keep them, even though I still don't like having strangers going around my room like that. Then a crazy accident at one intersection caused a highway to back up, sending cars out to clog a zillion other lanes. I spent 45 minutes waiting for the bus in vain, then finally called mom, who said she'd come pick me up. I then watched two buses arrive three minutes apart before she called again twenty minutes later, with a report of just how bad the traffic was. I ended up walking up a clogged street to meet with the car, and then we escaped and got home via a pair of back streets, an hour an a half after I'd left the Pentagon. Good thing we were having the cold chicken tonight.
Enjoyed watching the Blackhawks win the Cup last night, especially as opposed to the possibility of the Lightning win it, but still would like someone new to win next year. Preferably my own team, of course...

Sinus attack is now passing; my head, which was not in good shape yesterday, feels almost normal, and my throat is only slightly sore. I even tried to run through Snow Patrol's "Run," which is going to be the next song I record, then went crazy trying to figure out how to play the instrumental interlude at the end. I think I may give that one a few more days; my voice isn't returned to normal yet.
Enjoyed Eurovision, but rather disappointed in how the voting panned out. Even if the Swedish song genuinely was the best song of the night, watching the win be contested between the Russian and the homophobe was rather demoralizing. At least the homophobic man rather than the homophobic country winning will effect next year's contest a good deal less. Plus the French song deserved a far better fate.
Going to be weird over the next two days, with nothing more to watch besides the NHL playoffs. And if the Cup Final ends up being Lightning vs. Blackhawks, my interest may decline; the Blackhawks have won enough recently and I don't care for the Lightning at all. I'm there if the Ducks make it, though, if only for Bruce. Meanwhile, I'll probably finish my follow-up to "When the Righteous Give Way" tomorrow; it's close to done.

Current Music: Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Midnight Radio

Have taken leave from work for a week, and Thursday through Sunday will be at a Jane Austen conference in North Carolina, but have also taken some time to just laze around watching Wimbledon. And help take the cats to the vet, and buy them a little motorized water fountain to try to encourage Clarissa to drink by keeping the water fresher, because she wasn't drinking enough. And explore a few shops in Crystal City before enjoying dinner this evening with the man who is soon to leave me for graduate school. The place looks pretty neat though the shops are very much aimed at the people working above; lots of eateries and places full of expensive things rich men buy for themselves or their wives. And go to the dentist tomorrow for the filling of a tiny cavity, before preparing for Thursday's journey. And dying of anxiety during the final NHL game of the year last night, unable to watch if only for superstitious reasons, coming to the conclusion that I'm not sure I ever really want the Caps to make the final after all, because if this was what my backup team doing so did to me, I'm not sure I'd survive that(though also I *really* didn't want the Bruins to win, of course). And noting all together my physical discomfort when excited/anxious is getting worse, and I might need to see my shrink again. And bristle over the Supreme Court; I've reached the point where I'm so mad at them I don't even give a damn if they strike down DOMA-which I don't trust them to do anyway. Even if they do, they'll probably deliberately wreck it with some other ruling next year. I think that's all, at least for the weekdays themselves(the weekend also involved sampling pho, which is edible but I find the smell unbearable, and an unsuccessful attempt to get costumes). Oh, and my writing, but that's a given. I do feel more relaxed, though maybe a few more days of this would've been of more help.

GIP, reintroducing the icon I used to use whenever I was in pain, though I always wanted to make a headache-themed one of the walker from Return of the Jedi which gets hit by flying logs on both sides with the caption of "HEADACHE!"(the DVD commentary even talked about trying to figure out ways the Ewoks could take down the walkers, and thinking of taking down one by "giving it a headache") Though right now my heart aches. I tried not watching the Caps-Rangers series, because I'd noticed lately whenever I'd watched the Caps had lost. Fat lot of good it did them, or me. I am this close to just giving up on the Caps for good. Sometimes you have to accept that something isn't even going to happen, and now I'm losing faith in how this team is being managed.
And now as I type this the Bruins win too. If that slimy owner gets his hands on the Stanley Cup again, I will have to either pretend this shortened season never happened or stop watching the sport all together.

Current Mood: crushed

Watched pattern dances Sunday for the first time since couple have been allowed to pick their own music for them, watching the Novice pattern dances at US Nationals. Kind of think it’s cheating with the couple who did their Starlight Waltz to Pirates of the Caribbean as what was pretty much a paso doble, when it was already the other pattern dance. Quite appreciated the pair that did the Norwegian Wood Waltz in 60s costume, and then followed it up with My Heart Will Paso Doble On, which was just funny. Enjoyed the free dance even more, even as it distracted me from Obama getting sworn in, if only because I didn’t get to see much of the junior dance competition.
Caught the tail end of the Junior Pairs free today, on the other hand, and loved seeing Britney Simp0son & Matthew Blackmer do so well after the JGP disappointments. Jessica Calalang & Zack Sidhu too, though I didn’t arrive home in time for them. But poor Madeline Aaron & Max Settlage. Her brother talking them up on how prepared they were and that terrible skate happening anyway because it does sometimes and them so miserable afterwards. Hope it doesn’t cost them a Junior Worlds spot.
But why in the Junior Ladies event so late? *sigh*
Speaking of the inaugural, I admit I tend to be cynical about politicians making speeches. But I did notice a very strong reaction on Twitter, and even before then I recognized the emotional significance, to Obama acknowledging LGBT people and even advocating for their equal rights in his speech. The rest of us he advocates for will wait until he actually does something, but there, it’s still been so little time that’s becoming acceptable that bringing them into the speech is doing something.
Haven’t watched nearly enough tennis this week, scared of Sharapova, a little sad for Serena, coming dangerously close to liking Stan Wawrinka again.
But don't even talk to me about the Caps. In fact, I'm getting over the return of hockey pretty quickly...

I admit, despite my protestations to the contrary, this week I really hoped that the end of the lockout was truly in sight. But of course not; then the owners remembered that ours is now a world that rewards bullies, and acted accordingly. All I wonder at now is Gary Bettman's ability to mock us. Apparently he claimed tonight he's tormented at the thought of cancelling another season? Really, Mr. Bettman, it's bad enough you think us fans as walking vending machines, do you have to treat us as complete and total idiots too?
Idiocy from Congress on disability protocol is more expected. Endured EEO training Tuesday morning, when the first half consisted of a guy where we couldn't understand his words, and then a woman came in and amoung other things talked about the disability program I'm employed under, and when she paused for questions all the assumptions and prejudices of people came out. It was hard to sit there and listen, but had I stood up and tried to everyone let everyone see a real life example, would I have broken down? Part of my modus operandi for getting extended is not letting people notice when the fuses upstairs start getting strained, so of course they forget there's anything wrong in the first place. She gave them the truth, of course, but it was probably in one ear and out the other of everyone listening. Really, how could I have been surprised by Congress behaving no better?
Dreamed twice this week of missing the bus. Also of getting taken away by Nazis along with my family, with my mother tweeting that it was the final end.

Current Mood: infuriated

I think the bus service is getting worse. It's supposed to stop by where I work a couple minutes before 8:30. I do have a bit of a trip to the office from the bus stop, but I'm definitely arriving later. And tomorrow we have an office-wide meeting starting at exactly 8:30. Hopefully it'll get quicker when school gets out for the summer. Morning wasn't easy; I discovered most of my tops were in the dry cleaning. Will hopefully get some more this weekend. Which it really needs to be already; started to feel the fatigue this afternoon. At least when I got home my sister was visiting, helping my mother set up her blog.
Want the Kings to win the Cup without any more trouble, if only because if they do, I can tell myself the Caps wouldn't have won this year anyway. Grieving deep for the lose of Mike Knuble, meanwhile. I understand why they felt they couldn't keep him, but where are we going to find a guy like him? I think my backup cheering team next year will be whoever signs him. If we have a season, of course...

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Madonna-Don't Tell Me

As I said in my last entry, it was very satisfying to see Tim Thomas get scored on by the black player; I'd actually been hoping Joel Ward would pull that off the entire series. But as soon as I found out it had happened, I had a pretty good idea of how at least a section of Bruins fans would react. Sure enough, at least one tumblr on my following had expressed their horror at some of the tweets before I went to bed, and by the time I got up Friday morning it was to read the headlines.
Most of the blogs and articles are skirting around the truth about it, of course, that's not just Ward, it's not just the playoffs, it's not just hockey, and it's certainly not just Bruins fans. I don't see this as a reflection at all of the Bruins fanbase in particular. Had that game ended with a black Bruins player scoring on Holtby, I have no illusions on how those fans that call a certain captain "Cindy" would've reacted. It's that we never got rid of racism in way too much of the U.S. population, and now that we've got a black president, they're no longer willing to be quiet about it. It's the impetus behind the Tea Party too; the media way not be willing to see that, but at times it becomes very obvious. Tim Thomas may claim his motives for decrying Obama are non-racial, and they may even genuinely be(or he may have convinced himself they are). But that does not change that he is supporting a racist cause.
Ward is still the man of the hour, but I worry about what will happen should he now go back to playing badly. They'll get after him however they can, and he's indicated that while he can ignore simple racism, some of the comments about his game this season have gotten to him. The racism won't go away if we all continue ignoring it, and I don't know if this is over yet.

Current Music: Seu Jorge-Life on Mars

The thing is, if you follow a team like the Caps, sooner or later you get so worn down it's hard to keep the faith, especially when you've been battered by a year where it seemed for too much of it like the team wasn't even trying. I don't know if I ever really believed the Caps would win this series. Intellectually, I knew it was perfectly possible, but I just didn't believe it would happen that way.
I haven't been able to watch the Caps live for more than a couple of minutes at a time for a while, and I haven't watched any of the last round live. I was pretty placid this evening, following on Twitter & Tumblr while focusing on other things. Then I saw the reaction to the winner on tumblr and pretty much screamed; my mom came in asking if something was wrong. I've watched the highlights and seen the reactions, and I'm still not sure I believe it.
It would've been enough had anyone scored it. But that the tea party goalie got showed up by the black player is very satisfying(well, Ward supposed to step up the playoffs; that's definitely one way to do it), and then Mike Knuble gets the assist. This is worth the entire agony of this entire season.
Let things go as they will in the next round. I am content.