I have been tagged in the early rounds by Christy at Behind The Jersey (started by Mike Chen here), and as stupid as this may sound, I’m honored. BtJ is a really good blog, and even though it’s about the Red Wings, you should be reading it. I’ve been tagged early, even though I’m new to all this, and I’m an “evil Avalanche fan.” Hey, we’re all evil, we love hockey.
My five things:
1) I am a USA Hockey referee.
That’s right. Go ahead, catch your breath. OK? I got my certification last year, but still haven’t worked my first game. There are lots of reasons I haven’t, including the fact that I still haven’t bought a ref’s jersey, but there you go. If you find a slight bias about the refs on this site, you can blame that. Some say if you can’t play, you ref, and I probably fit that. I just started playing a few years ago, and I suck, so I’m OK with that description. I like the idea of being involved with the game at ice level, and this is an appealing way. Now stop laughing.
(I still think Mick MaGoo has no place in the NHL)
2) I broke both my arms in a scooter accident last year.
That probably wasn’t what you were expecting. Well, what can I say. It happened, and was a pretty significant event. I have two plates in my left arm, and one in my right. If it wasn’t for my helmet, I wouldn’t be here today. I crashed into the back of a smaller car, went through my windshield, his rear window, then delivered the quote of the year:
“What do you suppose just happened?”
For what it’s worth, I’m fine, but I have no slapshot, and am weary of trying. If you are lucky, I’ll post pictures of the scars, but for now, this is what the scooter looked like afterwards.
3) I used to have lots of hair.
See that picture in the top right corner of the blog? I’m the one on the right. The one without the hair. My hair used to be big, messy, and unkempt. If I had my way, I would have all the evidence destroyed.
4) I work in musical theatre.
For the last several years, I’ve been touring the country, working as crew for Broadway musicals. I’ve been through most of the US, as well as Toronto (6 months in 1998) and Montreal (2 weeks in 1999). At work, I usually wear a hockey jersey.
5) I didn’t see my first live hockey game until 2003
That was Buffalo @ Atlanta, which went to overtime, and triggered some repressed memories of watching Gretzky win a cup on TV when I was younger. I haven’t been the same since.
This is fun. I get to tag American Hockey Fan (both of them), Wild Puck Banter (first person to post a comment on my blog), Army of Ohio, and Zanstorm @ Waiting for Stanley
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m here for the conversation. And I think it takes two things to have that conversation, hockey and personality. This is all about personality. So, in the next few days, I’ll put a list of “5 weird things” posts up here. Get to know about the people you read.
And quit staring at me like that. It’s just 5 things. You don’t know the rest.
8 responses to “5 Weird Things”
What a great list. One interesting thing about this is that you find out things that never would’ve come up in a normal hockey conversation..:-)
Well done!
Geez! That poor Scooter! heheh, nah, glad you’re alright! I’m still laughing about the referee thing though!
Should have said it was on your Harley, not that your scooter isn’t manly or anything. lol
Hodge:
Scooters are manly. You see some of the scooter punks coming out of Detroit these days.
Zan:
What? It’s not manly to ride a scooter dressed as a ref?
Why not just call it a “Reefer” from now on whenever you are cruising on one of these bad boys.
Cool that you are working on Broadway musicals.
I didn’t mention it in my five weirdest things, but I too did not see my first NHL game until 2003…January 15th, to be precise. That game was the Canes vs. the Penguins, which should have been a disappointment for me because…
1. One of the reasons I chose that game for my Christmas present was that I wanted to see Ronnie Francis and his most famous teammate in Mario Lemieux together on the ice in person. Didn’t happen because Lemieux had been, was, AND would remain out for the rest of the season with a groin injury of some kind. (What else was new then?!)
and
2. My Canes gave Sebastian Caron his first career NHL shutout.
But, I really was not disappointed because I was just freakin’ glad to have finally seen a game AND my favorite team (AND most favorite ever player…got really lucky with that game because a couple of games before, Ronnie had his jaw hurt badly by a New York Ranger. Praise the wonders of plastic surgery!) in person. Up until that point, I was a true poster-child for there actually being proof that people *can* get into hockey through seeing it on TV, thanks to the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs in my instance.