Moments of chaos, interspersed here and there with moments of calm.








Practice was rough last night. Craig running a lot of whole ice drills for no good reason, and a relentlessly high level of skater ability around me, so everything was fast, jump, hustle, do it again. Scrimmage was insane; new TC guys who apparently thought I was good enough to push around hard. That's cool; I just push back (and did), but it was tiring, and usually pushing like that is combined with some acknowledgement. I'm not used to just getting banged up and guys twice my size walking away like it wasn't anything. I mean, not in practice, not in that friendly context, or what usually is.

The same guys in the locker room talking loudly about riding their bikes behind girls on the trail even though the girls rode too slowly, so they could watch their asses. It's so different from what I usually experience there. Where'd these guys come from?

Odd, at the end. Dan stopped me and thanked me for getting him out of his hole, and back into hockey. "I'm in better shape and happier than I have been in twenty years," he said, which is more than he's said to me together in the last six months.

Dan plays on three teams now, subs on others. He eats up the ice and gives even Gil a run for his money. He was holed up, wasting, when I met him. I'm glad.

It was strange, though, too. That, and then "good luck. Goodbye."


I'm not sure what I was expecting, from him or anyone else.



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- posted by Kate @ 10:51 AM