my soft spot

just a mom who plays hockey and knits

Monday, December 15, 2008

We made it through, and it was good!

Friday
I had a game scheduled for Friday night, and the whole day, I kept making other plans in my head as to what we'd do that night--go see a movie? Put up the tree? Strange. I guess I'm still nervous about starting back into hockey, and with a new team, etc. And then there was the deal with the hockey sticks. I'd left mine at Belmont, remembered in time to call Liz & Andrea while they were still at IHOP, and they were kind enough to stop by on their way home and grab them. I wasn't sure how to coordinate getting them, and we tried to set up dinner, but my babysitter wasn't free early enough, so that wouldn't work. Finally, Andrea was asked to sub for us (yay!) and ended up bringing them herself--in a new stick bag for me! And not some plain ol' black one: a pink camo stick bag. It is crazy! And perfect. And easily findable in a sea of boring ones. Thanks, Andrea & Liz!

I carpooled to my game for the first time--Yosh, who lives just up the way, is now on my team! We tossed/shoved our bags into the back of my car and headed to the rink. Because I'd had my sitter get to my house earlier (back when I was thinking we could meet for dinner), we had plenty of time and got to the rink almost an hour before the game. Nice to have time to get ready, and be ready to go on the ice when it opens up, rather than rush!

The game was fast and fun, but didn't count--no refs showed up. (ugh!) I think we lost 2-3. I played wing, which was a big change from last time, where I played D and felt good but I still have quite a bit to learn. I had totally forgotten where D stands for face-offs!

After the game, we went to Wing Stop for wings. Tasty! I got home about 1/2 hour after I'd said I would, so when my sitter called his parents, they weren't home. Turned out they were already on their way!

I tried to go to bed, but felt jittery, so I started a knitting project (of course!). Finally turned the lights off after 1AM.

Saturday
In the morning, G got up and crawled into my bed for snuggles--but stopped short with an astonished look. "Do you REEK?" he asked. Um, I might. Got myself up and into a shower, and crawled back into bed with him. Better.

We lounged around for a few hours, and then got dressed to go get his friend from school with whom we had a playdate. G and he spent the first hour in a pillow fight, which ended abruptly with G taking his clothes off (the ultimate weapon?). The friend exited the room, I spoke with G, and he reclothed. They played a few board games and then it was time for us to take him home again. We'll do it again next weekend if possible, for a longer playdate.

Then we got ready to go down to the south bay. I was getting more and more irritated with G, who was acting up, when I finally realized: if we were late meeting up with Andrea, it was ok. The rest of the day/evening was really not a rushrushrush time. So I got together what we'd need, got us ready, and we got into the car, about 15 mins late.

Thankfully, Andrea messaged me just as we turned onto 101S and asked how close we were--that Val was playing with some toys at the eye doctor's and was getting into it. We met up about 15 mins later than we'd planned, at the Cupertino Daiso store. I'd wanted to go to a Daiso for ages (and of course, once I started looking for the Cupertino one, found one just down in Union City), as I'd heard they had cheap knitting needles. I'd like to teach G's class to knit, and through Freecycle, I'd gottten 10 pairs, but needed about 10 more.

And--yay!--they did have cheap knitting needles. Not the $1/pair I'd hoped, but $1.50/pair is not bad, either. I managed to get all 10 with a mixture of bamboo and plastic. The plastic ones seem a lot like the Crystal Palace Daisy needles, which I've knit with with no problems at all. We picked up a couple other things and started looking for Andrea and Val. Completely toured the store without finding her. (It would have been more convenient for her to be a 6' tall African-American man, but that couldn't be helped.) G encouraged me to call out for her, so I called her name twice, but nothing. I checked my phone and realized Liz's Xmas concert was about to start--so assumed Andrea had left to be on time for that. Quickly checked out and went to our car--and got a message from her wondering where we were--she was still in the baking section. Ha! We decided to meet up at the concert.

The community center where the concert was held is a beautiful place. It has a fountain that perhaps only runs in the summer but is very dramatic even without water. G and Val enjoyed running around until Andrea and I got too cold :) so we went back inside. The concert was really great--I can't believe they are that high quality without auditions. I'm guessing G only remembers the cookies. :)

I managed to finish seaming my sweater while we sat in the lobby (only trusting our kids to be quiet enough for a few songs), and wore it to the Sharks game that night (and also today!). After the concert, we set out for downtown SJ and got parking in the garage right across from the Old Spaghetti Factory. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones crafty enough to get there early and park and go to dinner. The group ahead of us were quoted 1 1/2 hours wait for dinner, and with just the 2 of us, we still got quoted 45 mins. By this time, G was famished, so we passed on old spaghetti and went down the street a bit to Peggy Sue's. Much better.

There were tables available, and not only did they have coffee shakes, but they offered cheap beer! And Liz knows I'm all about the cheap beer. We settled in to wait for our food, and once G's cheeseburger showed up, I realized I'd completely forgotten, in my excitement about coffee shakes and cheap beer, to actually order my patty melt. Duh! They got it in right away, and wouldn't let me pay for it (wow!). G and I settled in and watched the end, then the beginning, of The Dark Knight, which I hadn't seen before. G kept asking me questions--"Who's that? Why is his face that way?" which I answered the best I could without the benefit of subtitles nor having seen it before. We had a leisurely time and then packed up to drop things off at the car and get bundled up for the game. I was glad I'd packed so many warm things--my body was fine but my legs were chilly, so I ended up draping my scarf across my lap for most of the game. G, of course, took things off as the game went on and was still fine.

The game was really exciting, with the Sharks making some dumb moves and a lot of great ones. The Blues were fast, aggressive, accurate... it didn't look good for a while there. We did get up and cheer each time the Sharks scored... and in the end, got up 5 times (which meant Round Table Personal pizzas for every ticketholder in the building!). The Blues put it in the net often, but in the end, only 4 times to the Sharks' 5. *Phew*. G asked, when it looked dire, whether we could demand a refund (ha! since we were given the tickets...?!?) if the Sharks didn't win. Um, they only promise you a *game*, not a win!

I got tired at the end and was willing to leave early, but G wanted to stay to the end, so we did. It really was great fun (thanks, Heather!) to see a 'real' game. I was glad they still had the shark's head that they skate out of at the beginning--G really enjoyed that.

I questioned one of the ushers on the way out, and he didn't know if Round Tables up our way would honor the tickets, so he gave us directions to the one near Santa Clara University, and we got them there, to go. As we waited, G noticed the stockings on the wall with names, especially the one that said "Aliens." Huh? I pronounced it in Spanish aloud, to see if it made sense as a name. Well, kind of... and then I heard a RT employee behind me calling out to another, as Aliens but with a Spanish accent. He was there that night! Really good-natured about his name, too.

We got our pizzas and headed home. Just after I told G we'd be getting home about midnight, I looked in the rear-view and saw him nodded off. Thankfully, I was able to wake him enough to get him to walk inside and fall into bed.

Sunday
We both slept in on Sunday, and even though I was up in time, I still didn't get my butt to church that morning. It was good to stay home and relax. We love those lazy mornings, which we didn't get before now, as he always had martial arts at 10 on Saturdays and I was always needing to be at church on Sunday by 9:30 or 10 for Sunday School, handbells, or singing.

We finally got up and dressed by noonish and got out by 2 to pick up some things at Trader Joe's and drop off the Prosecco from there at the church fridge. This way, I didn't have to worry about chilling it or remembering it. Done!

We got back to church at 5, met up with my sitter (genius idea of mine) there for him to hang with G for the 1 hour of rehearsals and 1 hour of concert. This freed me up to sing with the choir as well as play the handbells, and then flute for the last piece. It all went really well... well, except for the last handbell piece, which we played the worst we ever had. I actually did well until one of the last, fast parts, where I borrow a bell from my neighbor... and she was still holding it! Ah, well. We finished "Trepak" (from The Nutcracker) with a bang and the audience seemed to still love it. The previous piece, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," which is done with mallets and a distinctive Jamaican sort of theme, has lots of backup percussion with cowbell, ratchet, cabasa, and wood block. Fun.

We had some tasty stuff downstairs, cleaned up, and went home to read a bit before bed. The end.

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