Those Were The Days

What's more fun on a Saturday night than seeing the Washington Capitals take on the New Jersey Devils? Well, a win would've been nice. But a celeb sighting, a trip down memory lane and laughing at Johan Hedberg, who seemed to find the ice particularly slippery, (honey, I'm sure the Caps would let you borrow their skate sharpening machine) made the night worthwhile.

The Kid and I got to the game early, as usual, and hadn't been settled in our seats long before one of the Caps photographers stopped by and asked to take our picture "for the Web site." I had been battling a cold all day, so despite wearing more make-up than your average Olympic ice dancer, I still looked like death warmed over. Sorry lady, no pictures today. She left and the Kid went down to watch warm ups.

When he returned to our seats, I wasn't there. He looked around, not worried that he was seemingly left alone in a huge stadium with thousands of strangers. As far as he's concerned, this is his turf, he's completely comfortable. I had my eye on him the whole time and when I returned to our seats he asked, "Where were you?" Just curious, not concerned.

"I was talking to Caps Girl," I said. 

"Caps Girl?! Where?"

Caps Girl writes The Blonde Girl's Guide*, a fun and informative hockey blog focused on the Caps. The Kid and I read it together and we love the pictures she posts. She's the one who inspired the Kid to ask me to post more pictures of him on this blog so he could "be famous." She's a bona fide celebrity in his eyes and he thought it was cool to see her for real. 

In between warm ups and the start of the game Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" played on the arena sound system and I sang it to the Kid remembering the good ol' days of the Caps. I love the way the Caps have evolved...the stadium is packed for every game, the sea of red is amazing and the deafening loudness during a game inspires even quiet little me to scream at the refs from time-to-time. And I've gone from not being able to give away to tickets to having an If-You-Can't-go-to-a-Game-I'll-Buy-Your-Tickets list. It wasn't always that way.

Sometimes I get nostalgic for the old days.

• No Lines -- After a beer or two, I really hate that now there are long lines in the ladies room. Ditto for the food stands. And the bar.
• Hockey Bingo -- When your team doesn't win...ever...you make up things to do during the game, like hockey bingo. It's just like traditional bingo, but you mark off a card with things that could happen during the game -- goalie assist, blood on the ice, drop pass to no one. It gives you a reason to watch the game when the outcome really isn't going to matter.
• Peter Bondra, Richard Zednik, Jan Bulis, Yogi Svejkovsky, Chris Simon, Steve Konowalchuk. In no particular order.
• Coat chairs -- Now that all the seats are filled, we don't have a seat where we can pile all the coats of the folks in section 115. Now we have to sit on our coats, not terribly comfortable.
• Tom -- (Which may or may not be his real name.) He sat behind us and had a voice that...um...carried. He also hated Russian defensemen so Dmitri Mironov and Sergei Gonchar were more than happy to get the hell out of dodge the minute they had a chance. We all complained about him. Of course, he is responsible for establishing the "Flyers suck" cheer for basically everything, so at least some good came of it.
• Cleaning out the Inbox -- Couple of hours of bad hockey gives you all kinds of time to sift through the e-mail on your Blackberry. All of section 115 were able to establish that elusive "inbox 0."

Aaaah...the good ol' days. I'm glad they're gone.


*Parents, especially rookie hockey parents: The Blonde Girl's Guide is an excellent resource for learning about the game of hockey and the Washington Capitals. Of note, Caps Girl swears on her blog at about the same rate that I swear on this blog.