23 July 2000
Was away in Seattle again earlier this week and had a lot of work to catch up on Thursday and Friday, so I'm a bit behind with my journal entries.

Got back Thursday afternoon after flight delays due to fog, so I missed my 1pm meeting with EO. He was planning to go to the Giants game at 4pm, so he suggested that he get me an extra ticket and we have our meeting there. I agreed on the condition that the game would be over in time to get to the Ice Chalet by 8pm.

I ended up getting to the rink at 8:10, but that was good enough. It was great to get out on the ice again after a few days off. My friend J even surprised me by showing up at around 8:30, and we alternated skating casually and racing each other around the oval.

me, helmetted and hopeful

On Friday at lunchtime I went to East West Hockey to buy a new pair of gloves. The guys there had told me that my used gloves, which had felt enormous to me the first time I tried them on, were too small, and I'd started to understand what they were talking about. Plus, I wanted a little more protection for my forearms, as well as a less-worn grip.

I got a new pair of Vic 350 gloves with articulated fingers and a cuff that hits my elbow pads. I thought they felt pretty good in the store, but when I hit the Olympic rink at Oakland Ice that night, I was *really* impressed. Could it really be the gloves that were making my shooting and stickhandling that much better? Who knows, but I definitely had a better feel for the stick.

The Olympic rink wasn't busy at all (no pickup overflow, thank god), with only about 10 of us out there at its most crowded. I spent a lot of time shooting, passing to myself off the boards, stickhandling, and pivoting from forwards to backwards. I didn't specifically practice stopping because I have an idea that I'm overthinking it. I'm just going to work on other stuff for a while and see if stopping just happens. If it doesn't, I'll return to it later.

I skipped this morning's stick time session in Oakland because I stayed out late last night dancing (I learned my lesson about trying to practice on too little sleep last week), but I plan to go to tonight's pickup game in Redwood City after my friend nj's birthday party. Hope I can bring some of the magic I felt on Friday night to the rink with me—it would be great to be considered a reliable pass recipient, and to be able to take the puck all the way to the net without freaking out and shooting from the blue line. I came off the ice Friday really believing I can do it. My challenge today will be to keep that feeling alive by not thinking about it!

the new gloves

The new gloves

23 July 2000 *LATER*
A ton of people showed up for pickup tonight (though only one goalie), so I didn't sweat as much as I normally do (or even as much as I did Friday night when I was just practicing). My first couple shifts were on D, which I found totally disorienting—I've finally got the hang of the off-sides rule and knowing where I'm supposed to be when I'm a Wing, and it was like going back to the drawing board. Where the hell was I supposed to stand/skate? All I could remember was the instruction to "keep your butt against the red line" when your team is in the offensive zone, but whenever I did that I could never get back into position to defend my goal on a possession change. Frustrating. I finally resolved to sit out until someone playing forward came off.

Of course, this meant playing less, since for some reason our defenders came off much more frequently than the forwards. Oh well, I was just happy to know what I was supposed to be doing when I finally got my chance to go on O. I even scored a goal—**on the net with the goalie in it!** I was so proud of myself I yelled "YAAAYY!" when the puck went in (something I also do at the driving range when I hit one long and straight :). Even the guy who's really good congratulated me on a good goal. Yippee!

Not all of my playing was great. Toward the end I must've gotten tired (or stiff from sitting on the bench so much, maybe); as I skated out for one shift it felt like my skates were on backwards, and I went down with no one even near me. During that same shift I ran into Mike and went down hard on my tailbone (where the hell was the padding in my pants????), and I felt my neck do the whiplash snap. They actually stopped the game for a few seconds after that one. I figured the best thing for it was to keep loose, so I got up and kept playing. I'm wearing my street hockey pants with an ice pack stuffed into the tailbone pad slot right now, and I've taken four Advil, so hopefully I won't be stiff tomorrow.

In related news, after much prodding from Mike and the encouragement of a couple players on my team tonight, I've resolved to join the Night Owl B League mid-season. I think after the break for the ice repairs there are only two regular-season games and three playoff games left, but waiting til September to join just might kill me. Either that, or Mike will. He insists that the B League games aren't nearly as intense as the Sunday night pickups (which also include A League players), and I seem to be holding my own in those. I had worried about joining a team that was just starting to play well together and messing them up, but if it's really as laid back as Mike says it is, maybe they won't mind taking on a newbie.

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