Perigee and the Playoffs

Game 3 of the WHL Championship series tonight! Portland Winterhawks vs the Edmonton Oil Kings.  This time around, I'm bringing a posse: three friends and two of their kids. That's right, it's girls' night for hockey. I would like to stress that I mean that in an entirely non-puck bunny kind of way. Even if these guys weren't jail bait, I go to hockey for hockey.

I'm excited because playoff games are so much more intense than regular season games, and the crowds are really into it. It still pisses me off that hardly anybody shows up to the games until the Hawks make the playoffs, but whatever. I'm always there, if my schedule/budget allows for it.

Last night was the supermoon, but I didn't see it in its super stage because of the goddamn clouds. It was still a lovely sight, and I got one decent digital shot of it.

I'm incredibly excited for this Halloween: I've taken a week off and a good friend of mine is flying out for a visit. We're going to be Laverne and Shirley for Halloween and it is going to be awesome. I can't wait. Halloween is my favorite "holiday," and nobody ever wants to do anything fun. I think it would kick ass to dress up in L&S's bowling outfits and actually go bowling...

Stonewatch 2010

Just went to see my doctor. I gave her Stone #1, and she said she would contact the ER for a copy of my CAT scan. After reviewing it, she may refer me to a urologist, which I believe I was supposed to call one after I got out of the ER. Yay for ADD.

So no work for me. It's driving me nuts.

Oh and I have to go pick up drops for the pink eye. My doctor just looked at me and said, "You poor thing. Kidney stones are bad enough on their own!"

So that's that.

Doc is sending my stone off to be analyzed. Will be interesting to find out what kind it is and how to NEVER GET THEM EVER AGAIN.

Firefighter hockey tonight, but I can't go unless someone drives me. I have no friends, so there goes that.

Tonight's gave seven versus Spokane will determine whether or not the Winterhawks move on to Round Two. Fingers, toes and kidney stones crossed.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had.

I took the Max to work every day but one this past week. Wednesday morning, I hurried to the train; not because I was running late but because I wanted the exercise. It was dark and I didn't see that the sidewalk buckled. I was going pretty fast when my shoe caught on the cement and I flew forward. I landed on my knees and hands. As I fell forward (slamming my chin into the ground), my glasses flew off my face and my water bottle sailed overhead, landing about ten feet away. Then my backpack hit me in the back of the head. My first concern was that I'd broken my glasses. Fortunately, they were fine. I made it to the station in time to catch my train, but on the ride home, my knees started to ache and I realized I'd scraped up my palms pretty good. When I got home, I was in a lot of pain. When I took off my clothes to get ready for bed, I saw this:

I hit the ground hard enough that that happened, despite the fact that I was wearing long johns underneath my jeans.

I woke up the next morning in excrutiating pain. My chest felt like I'd been doing push-ups all night, something in my right knee kept shifting as I walked, and I couldn't (and still can't) lift my left arm without horrible, icky pain. My sister thinks I may have torn something and insisted that I call my doctor. Unfortunately, she can't see me until Tuesday. So I'm mainlining Alieve, even though it doesn't really help.

Thursday morning my sister and I had some Legal Things to take care of. I'm not going to go into specifics because it's not my story to tell, but the outcome was not in our favor and it has devestated my family. By the time I limped into work Thursday night, I had been awake for almost 30 hours. We were short staffed because one of my co-workers was on vacation, so there was no way I could go home. My supervisor let me leave early, at 4:30, just in time to catch the first train out of Portland. Unfortunately, Tri-Met got their online schedule wrong, and I waited in the freezing rain and wind for over 20 minutes. When I got home, I got on my phone and downloaded a free application called PDX Bus. Very helpful.

Lunesta is doing better. The other morning she jumped out of the chicken hospital cubby we made for her and demanded to be let outside to join her feathered family. She's been running around with them ever since. We're still keeping a close eye on her, though.

The geese and ducks have decided to start laying their eggs on the front porch. Thanks?

Thursday night when I got into work and drank my third cup of coffee (total, in 35 years) in order to stay awake, the lab manager walked in and told me she was teaching her baby to breakdance. Then she told me that her husband had invited me to play D&D with him and his buddies. I was surprised -- because that is my usual reaction when someone expresses an interest in spending time with me -- and excited. I haven't gamed in .... shit .... 15 years? Longer? My mom used to fly out to Florida for a week or two to visit my grandma, and my (then) boyfriend and his friends would come over. We would spend the entire time gaming, playing cards and eating pizza. If it was winter, we would get the sleds out of my garage, jump into our cars and drive to Kasey Meadow to go sledding (or to this suicidally steep hill behind a church). We would have sled wars in which we would pair up on sleds and then race down the hill while trying to knock each other off our sleds. Totally sober, too. Good, clean fun. I used to sleep on the floor with my sister and my boyfriend's buddies while my boyfriend slept in my room because he was a big girl's blouse.

Anyway, gaming was fun. Probably still is. I had some of the best times of my life during those campaigns. I miss that. So I'm happy to have been invited, though the thought of walking into a house full of strange men makes me want to shit my pants and die. I'm shy, is what I'm saying. I do know one of the guys, though. He worked as a tech the first week I started at the lab. He was filling in for the lab supervisor, who was on maternity leave at the time. Cool guy. They mostly game at his house, though sometimes they meet at K's house. I'm hoping to end up at one of those games because then I can play LEGO Guitar Hero with K afterwards.

Did I mention? I GOT MY JERSEY.

Yes, my face really does look like that. I was cursed by a gypsy.

I should have asked for a medium, but I apparently have body image issues and still think I'm tremendously fat. I reckon I could return it for a smaller size but I won't. I don't care if it's huge. I can pretend it'll fit over actual hockey gear someday.

I haven't watched any Olympic hockey, but I've got the big USA game recorded on DVR. I'll be watching the game on Sunday, though.

Aw, KGW just played a brief interview with Ryan Malone!

The Winterhawks are playing the Spokane Chiefs this Friday. My (and my sister's) birthday is on the 7th, so I'm planning on going to Friday's game. As a present to myself. Cam Neely is going to be at tomorrow's game. He was a Hawk for the 1982-83 season and got the hat trick that won them the Memorial Cup for the first time in the team's history. I can't afford to go to both games, though, so Friday it is. Hopefully.

One of my co-workers keeps saying she's going to bring me a piece of vegan chocolate cake for my birthday, but I hope she doesn't. I don't "like" it when people to nice things for me. I find it hard to accept, mostly because I'm not used to it.

Well, I'm going to cut this short (haha) and go to bed and try to get away from this pain.

Icy balm

The Wings lost 6 - 0 last night. Owwwwwwww, my heart.

The best remedy for *cough*bad*cough* hockey is ... more hockey. So tonight before work, I'm going to the firefighter' last regular season game. They're up against 3rd Rock who, by some amazing coincidence, are third in the standing. I imagine they all look like John Lithgow.

I dropped my iPhone at work last night and now the screen is fucked. I can turn the phone on and click around, but the screen just stays grey. Or blue. Or light purple. Sooo ... shit. Guess I have to give AT&T a call. I don't like not having a phone. I feel safer knowing help is only a phone call away at any given time. Ergh.

R got us all Voodoo Doughnuts last night, and was kind enough to get two vegan ones for me. I ate half of one on my break because I hadn't eaten since lunch the day before.

On that note, I've been playing around with my Dexedrine spansules. I've been taking 20mg at once and it worked pretty well for several months, but a friend of mine takes 15mg and then 10mg an hour later (I believe), so I thought I would try that. I had to get my Rx refilled yesterday, so I took one spansule when picked them up and another an hour and a half later. I picked a great time to experiment; things have been picking up at work, and we were really overwhelmed last night. I was able to focus really well and get a lot done. I was still a half hour past my scheduled time, but oh well. I need the overtime. Too bad the company forbids it. I think if any of those pigfuckers in Corporate had to work night shift, they'd seriously reconsider that little rule.

But I digress. I do tend to get hyperfocused a lot at work. You wouldn't normally think that's a bad thing, but if my supervisor and or/co-workers didn't remind me, I'd work straight through my lunch. I've lost 30 pound since being diagnosed with ADHD almost a year ago (January 24th). I started taking the instant release Dexedrine in February and switched to spansules in May. Needless to say, I wouldn't have lost this much (or any?) weight if it hadn't been for the meds. As if literal peace of mind weren't enough, they help me not stuff my face with food every time I'm stressed out. I have found that, when I take a day or two off from the meds, I'm still able to eat reasonably.

Anyway, the dogs are staring at me, so I'd better feed them before they eat one of the cats. I let them out when I got home and Curly Joe wiped out trying to run up onto the porch. From where I was standing, it looked like somebody threw him at the house; I laughed so hard, I woke up my sister.

Oh! Wait! Some lovely hockey news:

Winterhawks Place 5 On NHL's Top-100 Draft List

POSTED: 11:46 am PST January 12, 2010

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The NHL's Central Scouting Bureau has released its mid-term draft rankings, and five Portland Winterhawks players are among the top-100 draft eligible skaters. Forward Nino Niederreiter is ranked No. 14, center Ryan Johansen is ranked No. 16, defenseman Troy Rutkowski is ranked No. 43, forward Brad Ross is No. 69 and defenseman Taylor Aronson is No. 90. No other Western Hockey League club has more than three skaters among the top 100. The NHL Draft is scheduled for June 25 and 26 in Los Angeles. The Winterhawks visit Kamloops on Wednesday.

My baby hockey is better than your baby hockey! Thhhhpppphhhhtt!

Gad, I hope I can get my phone fixed.

P.S. Watch this. Repeatedly.

The snows they melt the soonest when the winds begin to sing.

The news has been going on and on about Wintergeddon, and here it is, 12 hours past the predicted snowfall and .... no snow. They say it's tricky to track snow here because of the Gorge, the mountains and the Pacific, but I think Oregon is just chock full of panic mongers. I'm scheduled to work tonight, and as much as I'd love to stay home, I really don't want to have to miss $$work$$.

I've been to five Winterhawk games this year. If I counted correctly. That's a lot for me, but not nearly enough! Did I mention I met some of them as well? A couple of weeks ago, they were at the Fred Meyer in Oregon City, signing autographs. Good kids, the lot of them. Aed went with, and I asked her to get a poster signed for Indi, which I will mail to her one of these days...

The last game I went to was against the Spokane Chiefs on the sixth. We went into overtime but lost in the shootout. Had a lot of fun, though. Afterward, R and I took the Max back over the river and walked to the Red Cap for dinner and drinks. Well, R had dinner, I had a drink. Just the one, but it had vodka in it, so about five sips in I was feeling pretty toasty.

Plenty more to say, no time to say it.

Cheers.

You won't die of a thousand fakes or be beaten by the sweetest of dekes.

This is some shit up with which I will not put. (Mucha traded to Kamloops.)

Okay, so I have no say in the matter. I’m still not happy. My only comfort is that I was able to witness the most amazing hockey game ever, and Mucha was between the pipes for all of it. I am, of course, referring to the Winterhawks’ November 7th Dash for Cash game against the Seattle Thunderbirds. Granted, I haven't seen a lot of (live) hockey, but I stilll know what great hockey is. And this was great hockey. No goals for either team in the first period, then Seattle scored a few minutes into the second. Chris Francis (the hero of this particular story) tied it up with a power play goal at around the 11 minute mark. Seattle got two more goals in the second, but Francis got his second goal of the night in the third period.

With less than a minute on the clock, a lot of people around us started to pack up and leave. "Can we go now?" my sister asked. I was horrified.

Me: No!
Grubs: Why not? It's almost over.
Me: It's not over until that clock hits zero.
Grubs: *scowls*
Me: Unless we score soon and tie it up. Then we go into sudden death.
Grubs: And after that?
Me: If nobody scores, we go into a shootout.

The final faceoff was in the Seattle end with less than three seconds on the clock. Francis got the puck and shot it right into the net, not only sending the game into overtime, but pocketing a nifty little hat trick as well. There was a couple sitting next to me who had been rooting for Seattle the entire time, and the chick had been pretty smug when Portland got called for a no-goal in the third. So when I started screaming along with the other Hawks fans, she got real quiet. HAHAHAHAHA.

For your viewing pleasure:



Neither team scored in overtime, so it went into a shoot out. Jacob Berglund (who is quite the little Datsyuk) scored after Seattle and Francis once again saves the say with the second and final goal. The crowd went insane and the Seattle fans next to me got up and left without a word. Heehee. Oh, it was such an amazing night. I'm so glad I was able to be there for it, especially now that we've lost Mucha.

The game was at the Rose Garden. I got us seats in the 200 level, which turned out to be pretty good. I've seen hockey games in four different arenas: the Ice Palace, the Rose Garden, the Memorial Coliseum and the Mountain View Ice Arena, and while the hockey out here is not quite the same as NHL hockey in an NHL arena, it's still wonderful in its own right. I've only ever sat in the nosebleeds of the Ice Palace, and am perfectly content with that. I don't really think there's such a thing as bad seats at a hockey game. Just being there is enough. But the nosebleeds at the Rose Garden and the Coliseum are more like chin bleeds, and the seats at the Mountain View in Vancouver is just one small section of benches on one side of the tiny rink.

The 200 level seats I got at the Garden were really nice. Here are some shots:

*sniff*


*SNIFF*

This gives you an idea of what the view was like from our seats. I really like this section because you can see the goal pretty well, but when I chose these tickets, I thought they were near the players' bench. Good to know for next time! I like to watch them think about what they've done when they get sent to the box.

Much to my sister's (and, if she were there, Julie's) horror, Tom-A-Hawk showed up. He managed to get the Seattle fan next to me to go over and pretend-fight him, except the Seattle fan got a little too into it and punched him in the beak. I almost pissed my pants from laughing so hard.

Kurtis Mucha and captain Brett Ponich:


As I said, it was a pretty amazing game, and I'm so glad I was there to see it. R and I are going to tomorrow night's game vs the Regina Pats. Expect more pictures and updates in the days to come.

I must toddle off now. I'm taking my mom swimming tomorrow morning and I really should track down my bathing suit.