a l'il ipod touch painting

This summer was only the second time since starting to play hockey that I took the months of July – August off. I didn’t really miss it much, but it only took one game for me to get totally immersed in it again. Maybe because I had (what I thought was) a stellar first game (one goal and one assist, no penalties) but the last two have been completely horrid. In our division 98% of it is getting to the puck first, and both times I had absolutely no energy. I think I never do well at early Sunday games, or on days when I ride 11km to work and back. When I don’t have the best game imaginable, I feel let down, and, well, there’s $60* down the drain.

I love hockey because for that hour that I’m on the ice there is absolutely nothing else on my mind. For that one blessed hour a week, there is no when can we learn a new song already and hey, if the guy I convince the company I’m working for to hire forgets to mention that he’s going to work at home one day its not really a bad reflection on me, is it , and dammit am I ever going to get another illustration job again and christ, do I really have to get up to get you something yet again, and you don’t really think that I lost all your lighters, do you? and all the other minutiae that you would not believe I spend so much time and energy thinking about. Its a relief people!

What happens, though, when you have a sucky game is, it sticks in your mind afterwards and you feel kind of pissy, especially when it will be 11 WHOLE DAYS before you can try and make it up and reassure/prove to yourself that you are not a complete waste of space out there, and that there has been some improvement. And it could sit and fester there if it weren’t for the best cure for that particular ailment, which is going upstairs with your team to hang out after the game.

* this is a slight exaggeration, but not really

Here’s my kokeshi for the upcoming show at the Japanese American National Museum put on by the Los Angeles Toy, Doll & Amusement Museum. Like the last one I made, I found it pretty hard to part with her. Next time I’m making one for myself!

So we’re out of the playoffs, and to add insult to injury we lost to the team with the 55 points in 19 games gal (who scored 8 goals in 2 games against us), in spite of our best efforts to shut her down. I have to admit that almost team-wide we were off. I don’t know if it was nerves or missing our Kessler or just simply, an off night. The worst part is that I don’t take losing very well, and the madder I get the more intent I am in rubbing someone out in the boards, shoulder to shoulder. I always feel a bit ashamed afterwards, even though I always maintain that there has to be and always will be a physical element to the game, women or not. In fact they should allow it a tiny bit more and every woman should play one season just to recognize their own physical strength.

But the best part about it was that as bad as we all felt after losing (and we’d gone about 8 games without losing – I was beginning to think we were invincible – turns out we’re vincible), hanging around with my teammates and having a good laugh afterwards was the best thing imaginable, and made everything alright in the end. Seriously, I like my team so much I’m taking up golfing this summer just so I can see them.

So you may have noticed from my twitter update that we won the international tourney out in Delta last weekend (which just goes to show you, we WILL drive an hour for 19 minutes of ice time). It’s taken until today to start feeling slightly like myself again, to get over the exhaustion and the aches and pains that left me largely immobile yesterday. It was worth every minute of it.

Highlights included meeting some fine new hockey players (our team was two teams combined, as neither could get enough players out), bonding with my Kaos team-mates (have I mentioned lately how great they are?) and playing alongside one of the best defencepersons I have met in awhile. And there was a hot tub in there too – the only down-side was two days of greasy pub food.

But most of all, it was pretty satisfying to beat 3 American teams (we faced off against Canadians in the final), one of them being a university team, the USC Trojans. Are there divisions in university hockey? I was slightly confused by our beating them, although they gave us the best game. I was also surprised at how apologetic they were on the ice – not the kind of behaviour one expects from Americans, and this was true for all three teams we faced – they kept saying sorry at the slightest bump. And the more they apologized the more I was like:

So much for the unapologetic Americans and the nice but boring Canadians!

I’m obsessed with hockey and music these days, where all I would like to do is go to stick and puck and then come home and play with garageband. I want to write songs, songs, songs. There was a time when I just wanted to draw all day and now when I get to draw all day (ok, I still love drawing all day) at the back of my mind I want to pick up my guitar. It probably has to do with the fact that the band is on our January break and I don’t have that outlet but that will be coming to and end soon. Seriously though, if I was in charge of everyone in my band’s life, we’d be practicing all the time, writing songs together, doing a recording only project where we would could just focus on singing, and learning to play all the songs I love. So I guess its a good thing that I’m not in charge because they would quickly become my musical slaves.

Last night I got to watch a video of two of our hockey games (one I was not at, unfortunately) and for the first time saw myself playing hockey. It was quite weird. And this is not meant as any sort of criticism of my teammates, who are awesome beyond belief, but I was struck with how boring we looked. That most definitely means me. It was like going back to watching a Canucks game after the World Juniors, like, come on, show a little spirit! I lack hustle, that’s the only way to say it. Is it stamina, or desire, or both? Probably both, because its hard to hustle for an hour. But I think back on all the women I’ve met who’s hockey skills I’ve admired and the common thread was that wanting to get to the puck first. Then the encouraging thought was that sure, my backhandwristshotslapshotsnapshotmohawksstopscrossovers suck but I can always improve my hustle!

Seriously though, I could see why it might be less than interesting to watch us play, and certainly will think twice about it before I invite anyone to come watch. The good thing though is that we have a game today, where I will have the opportunity to work on it.

Its kind of funny to use a teapot to illustrate my lady day, since there was no tea involved (except for the cup I made myself just a few minutes ago), rather some espresso, some singing, a game of hockey, and getting quite messy drawing with my daughter.

We had our first game today back in our old division, having been unceremoniously relegated in November and then getting moved back up in January. I was rather disgruntled at the move down, having about the strongest team we’ve ever had it seemed unthinkable that with our new, stronger players we were not able to compete with teams that we’ve been playing against for the past few years. I suppose that it was taking a bit of time to get used to each other, coupled with a high number of absences by the 5 or so players who really can make a difference on the ice in the early part of the year. Although it was kind of fun to have a hair less stress on the ice, I’m pretty glad to be back where we were. It was nice that we won today against the team that broke my finger last year. It was nice that our goalie got another shutout (her third one in a row).