17 Oct 2005
It was Saturday. I was still feeling strung out from lack of sleep. There was a hockey game though. There were tickets. Montreal was hosting Toronto. I had to go. I had to be there. It was my first chance to witness in person one of the greatest rivalries in professional sports.
So I went. All strung out from lack of sleep. Finding it hard to breathe and sometimes even stand on the hot and crowded subway. Light headed in more than a few ways I found my way to my seat. I sat and took in the atmosphere. The Bell Centre, at long last. I had finally found a reason to go. It wasn't as legendary or fabled as the old Montreal Forum, which in death was reborn as a movie theatre and shopping centre.
I went on a good night. It was a special night. They were retiring numbers from famous players from years past. There was a magic in the air. A palpable sense of awe throughout the crowd as the three gentleman warriors stepped out onto the ice. A wave to the crowd. One last huzzah before slipping away back into the long dark night of fading memories; the place where heroes go when there are no more dragons to slay.
It was loud. It was spectacular. In all ways it was almost holy. From the cheap tasting nine dollar beer to the streams of curses and swearing from the drunken fans around me. It was wonderful.
I went with a friend of mine to the game. As we were walking through the masses of people. Husbands in red, Canadiens fans; wives in white, Toronto fans. Even before the game, the fans jeering and yelling at each other. Battle cries and ancient cheers. You can feel the atmosphere dripping with the history of it all. So many games over so many years. So much blood, and heart and so many tears spilled in the name of what so many call just a game. I looked at my friend and smiled as I said “These are my people. More than gamers, more than geeks, more than movie nuts. More than anyone else, these are my people.”
Hockey is so much more. It is a way of life. It is a culture. It is the last bastion for warriors with a sense of honour and a need to prove themselves. It is a great sweeping passion that takes hold of you. It is also not for everyone, but everyone should try it.
The game was wonderful. How often does one get to see living legends and legends in the making? Legends like Belfour and Lindros, doing what they do best. The hits were big, the shots were hard. The crowd was wild and loud. Every time that Lindros touched the puck they entire arena booed at him. He is a man who offended the entire french-canadian culture, and yet, they still love him in some way. They still cheered when he scored. He's a living legend after all.
When it was all over. When all had been said and done. Toronto skated away with the win. The building cleared and the streets of the city filled with fans. They yelled at each other. They analyzed the game. What went wrong? What went right? One fan in particular stands out in my mind “That's three wins! We might win the cup this year!”. As a fan of the sport you just smile and nod. You take it all in and tuck it away in that special spot that the best memories go. It becomes something you can look back on in your latter days and muse about how great it was.
13 Oct 2005
I'm exhausted. So very exhausted. So very tired. I took two days off of work this week because I couldn't wake up or get going.
I had a cough and a stuffy nose so I thought it must just be a strange cold or flu. I don't know though. It's day three and I'm still exhausted. I've been eating right, drinking right, taking it easy; basically doing everything I can think of. Still, I've been sleeping 75% of my day away for the last couple of days.
Everything feels normal other than being tired.
My building had no hot water today. So I started the day off with an invigoratingly cold shower. Then I proceeded to drink two cans of coke, just for the caffeine. It's not working. And I hardly ever drink caffeine. I kicked that habit ages ago.
So what's wrong? I wish I knew. Someone suggested loneliness or depression. I guess that could be. I've been lonely for a long time though, so it's odd it would just start affecting me out of the blue. I'm probably just messed up in the head.
I'll give it another week and see how things are. Hopefully the yawning will stop by then.
I will continue researching sources of fatigue and see if something clicks.
Have a nice yawn day everyone.
08 Oct 2005
So I play World of Warcraft. I play it a lot. Tonight the raid I go to Molten Core with finally kicked Ragnaros' fiery butt back into the lava!
It was an amazing and thrilling moment. Such a huge achievement! 40 people working together toward one aim. The group has been working toward this moment for quite a while and we finally did it. People were shaking they were so excited by it!
Not bad at all for a pick up group :)
/cheer
/dance
/love
07 Oct 2005
Yesterday I walked home from work with a couple of a friends. One of these friends is a lot like me. He's been living here in Montreal for a while and he's had some bad and some strange encounters with people. Both of us sort of expect that in city life. The other friend has lived in Montreal for about five years and he hasn't really had any strange encounters.
We we're walking through this spot, between the construction site and the train tracks, and there was a guy to the left of us. He was going through the garbage that the near by apartment buildings had put out for the week. He was tossing frying pans, circulating fans, bicycles, and other miscellaneous junk on to the back of his rust coloured truck. Well, it wasn't actually rust coloured I guess, since it was really just actual rust.
He gave as a bit of a once over as we walked by, but we just stepped a little further away and kept going.
About 15 minutes later the three of us were on the subway. I looked at them both and I said “Well, that was my weird encounter for the day. I'm glad to have that over with.” The first friend, he nods in agreement. The second friend said “What guy?”
My first friend and I just looked at each other in disbelief. “The guy! With the pots and pans and fans and rusty old truck. You know, where all of the clanging was coming from.”
Second friend “I didn't see that. Where was that?”
The first friend and I just stood there in stunned silence. We understand now why our other friend hasn't ever had any strange encounters or witnessed anything odd. It's because he is completely unaware of his surroundings.
Even today. I still can't believe how he didn't see that guy, or hear him, or anything.
In other news—
This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. I point this out, because I don't think anyone who actually reads this blog happens to be Canadian. I'm looking forward to it. Tomorrow I'm heading up to a friends place for the weekend to hang out and catch up and eat KFC for thanksgiving.
It's a little odd. This is the first thanksgiving that I haven't spent with my family. I wonder when the first Christmas will be? I hope never. There are just certain things, at least in my family, that hold basically no value if family and friends aren't around for it.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everyone! I hope all of you find or have something bright and wonderful happen to you this weekend
06 Oct 2005
So those who know me in the face to face sense, know that I'm a huge hockey fan. I love it! I can't get enough of it!
If you ever see me not wearing a hockey jersey it means that I'm going on a date, some special event is happening, or they are all dirty.
Last night was the opening night of the season. I'm sitting at my computer, watching a hockey game on the tv to my right. An old friend messages me:
“Are you watching hockey?”
“Of course! Are you?”
“Absolutely! It's opening night! Did you see that hit?”
“YEAH! God I missed hockey! :)”
It's just so wonderful to have it back! The shoot out sucks. After watching the wonderfully intense third period between Ottawa and Toronto last night, the shoot out was very anticlimactic. You see this 60 minutes of hockey filled with guts, determination, emotion and then… you watch them skate, one at a time, to take one shot on the goalies. Wooptydo… It takes away from the the most key element of the sport. Hockey is a TEAM sport.
So today I'm walking to work. Maybe I should stop walking to work and strang things will stop? So yeah, I'm walking to work. This guy pulls over, hops out of his car, throws both thumbs up in the air and yells over at me. “Oilers! Those are my boys!” I just smiled and nodded and said “Yeah!”. I'm wearing my Edmonton Oilers jersey today.
I have found that wearing hockey jerseys, at least in Canada, is a very social thing to do. A friend of mine who smokes said that he found it was a great way to meet people when you go to conventions etc.
So a couple of years ago (the last time there was hockey :( ) my friend at I were headed to LA for E3. During that year the Calgary Flames made a cinderella run to the cup finals.
At the time I was living in Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. So we had to catch a connecting flight in Toronto. In Toronto I ran into this girl wearing a Toronto jersey. She smiled at me, came right over and we started talking. We went our seperate ways a few minutes later and wished eachother safe trips.
Day one at E3 I decided to wear one of my Flames jerseys. I swear, I have never met so many people in a single day. People would come over to me from all over. “I used to live in Calgary…” “Flames for life… “ “Go Flames! Go!” “It's so nice to talk to someone who understands hockey…” Story after story, person after person. It was great. A few people even gave me extra swag from the show because I was a hockey fan.
The highlight was of course that same girl from Toronto happened to be a reporter at E3. We ran into eachother everyday and talked. It was fun.
Hockey is the key!
That was all pretty random? Eh?