Final hockey good-bye

CUP tells me that I blogged too much about my last day of work, so in order to spite him, I'm blogging about it once again! If I didn't annoy my kids as much as possible, what kind of mother would I be?????

Luke and I went to the rink tonight, to sort and find new homes for all the hockey equipment. One of the adult hockey players is a PE teacher in a very rural, low income area, so we donated most of our stuff to him. He introduced the kids in his school to floor hockey and they loved it. Now they will have some additional equipment and skates. I feel really good that our stuff is going to be well loved and not just sitting in storage somewhere.

Luke was a huge help tonight. He worked so hard to get all the stuff hauled out to the cars and trailer. Luke and I worked for 3 hours and we were pretty tired out when it was time to leave.

This is all that is left of my scorebooth. Waaaah!

The End of an Era

I've never posted videos before, mainly because I didn't have any! I hope I can figure this out.

Video #1: The first video is of Luke and Drew, playing their last game. They are both in black jerseys, Drew is #28 and I think he has white pants. Luke is #19 and he has red pants with black knees. You can also hear Steven commenting in the background.

Video #2: This video shows part one of a small fight. Four people are sent to the penalty box, two on each team, including Steven. Steven is wearing the black jersey with yellow shoulders.

Video #3: The third video is part two of the fight and resulting penalties. There is a bit of swearing in this video, so if kids are around, you might not want to play it! Hockey players LOVE the "F" word. Keep in mind that the penalty boxes are right on either side of my score booth. I'm used to the swearing and arguments that go on between players, when they are sent in at the same time. It isn't unusual to have them throwing things at each other or getting into a fist fight right behind my booth. I was crushed up against the score table and hit in the head with a hockey stick during one fight and Mike was hit in the head with a thrown helmet, during another, just to name a few. Hmmm, when I look at it like that, I can't believe I loved that job so much!!! You can hear me, in the background, yelling "that's enough" and "stop". One of the players, who is yelling at Steven and his teammate is my friend, Bart's son, Cory. On the video you can only hear what is being yelled from one penalty box, not the responses coming from the other. You can also hear my friends, Stephanie D. and Scott V. teasing the players about getting kicked out of the league!

Video #4: The last hockey goal ever scored at WISC!

Last night of work

I've spent more hours than I could possibly count, sitting in this score booth!

Well, last night was a little less traumatic than I thought it would be. I only cried twice, which was a LOT less than I thought I would. I did fine most of the night because I was working really hard to convince myself that it was just a regular work night and not the last work night ever. That worked pretty well until my friend of many years, Stephanie, was leaving. Her son, Nathan, is Luke's age and he starting playing hockey in our league about a year after we did. Stephanie is also the friend who "made" me get Wrigley and she has two of his brothers, so it isn't like we will never see each other again. In fact, we will be seeing her this Saturday at a Halloween event for the kids that she works at. Anyway, her son had two games, but she was tired, so she decided to leave after his first game and have someone drop him off at home after his second game. When it was time for her to leave, she started talking about how sad this was and how we had been together for so many hockey games and so many years, etc. That made me cry. I was really proud of myself, though, as I only cried for about 30 seconds and was able to compose myself, which is unusual for me! Then Stephanie had a change of heart when she got home and came back for Nathan's second game. She said that she just couldn't miss the last game ever played at our rink. I teased her for making me cry for no reason, since she would probably do it again when she left the second time, but I was really glad she came back!

Me and Stephanie

Then my friend, Christian, who is one of the hockey players that has played with us since he was about 15, also made me cry when he was leaving. He assures me that he will still be around to bug me, at least until May, when he will be leaving for graduate school. I'm really going to miss him, he has always stood up for me when I had any problems at the rink, including always letting me know that if anyone gave me a hard time, he would beat them up for me! He has also been extremely supportive whenever I had a difference of opinion with the rink owners or when I was frustrated about their lack of dedication to the hockey program as a whole.

My friend, Mike, and me with the Colonial Cup

The last ever Championship Team at the Williamsburg Indoor Sports Complex!
Steven is in the yellow and black jersey, just behind the goalie. Congrats to Team Revamp.

My last day of work

Tonight is the last time I will be working at WISC. I've worked there as a paid employee for the past 6 years and for 2 years before that, I worked as a volunteer. I am not happy, as I really like my job there. I still find it hard to believe that they canceled all the hockey programs and decided to sell the rink. Tonight will be really weird.

Work went well tonight

I had a really good time at work tonight and very little pain. I got to talk to a lot of the guys and my friend, Stephanie D. I haven't really talked to most of them in a few months. I also ended up staying about an hour after I was done, to talk to some more of the guys and my friend, Stephanie B. I used to talk to her two nights a week, so we had a lot to catch up on.

Also, the games were really good, with the team that Drew, Steven and Luke were on winning in a shoot-out. Luke got the game winning goal!

Not going to work today

Luke and Steven are going to work for me tonight. I have a cold and I'm just too tired and yucky feeling to go. Plus this will give my leg one more week of healing before I have to sit on that bench again.

Steven went on a date today, taking a girl he met at hockey out to lunch. I peeked out the front window as she was picking him up (even though I was forbidden to do so) and she looked cute. She is 19, has long black hair and a decent looking car. I was trying to see if she had her seat belt on, but I couldn't tell. I don't think Steven put his on, which is scary, but what can I do? It will be interesting to see how the date went when he gets home. I'm not thrilled with the idea of him having a girlfriend, since he can't yet manage his own life, but he hasn't asked my opinion!