20 August 2000
It was a quiet night for pickup—only 7 of us showed up, including a new goalie. Actually, there were only 5 of us plus the goalie to start with, so John pushed the nets up against the boards at of one end of the ice and jumped in the game to make it 3 on 3. Eventually a 7th guy came out, so John changed into a red jersey and subbed in for one side or the other depending on who needed a rest. And thank god, because for such a small amount of ice to cover, it was incredibly tiring. By the end I was totally soaked with sweat.

Before we started the half-ice game we skated around and practiced shooting on the goalie; as usual, I missed the puck completely on my first skate in. I've got to stop doing that! Actually, there are so many things that I've got to stop doing (like taking passes with my skates) that it's hard to keep track of them all. One skill at a time.

The new goalie was really nice. It turned out that this was his first time ever playing ice—up until tonight, he'd only ever played roller. His coming out will be a good thing for the B league, which is short a goalie. He said he's going to start playing for the team that's missing a netminder this week. It just may be the incentive I need to work on my flip shots—he was saying in the locker room that once he goes down it's hard for him to get back up. (In roller the surface isn't slippery, and the rubber wheels are pretty sticky, which makes it easy to pop back up. Not so on ice.) Deking and flipping the puck into the upper corners could offer the best scoring chance against him.

Al, attempting to look mean

The half-ice game in progress

Mike dons his goalie gear

Lars, having a beer after the game.

24 August 2000
We lost our game tonight (the second one I've played in). My legs felt a little shakier this time, and I fell down a lot, but I played hard and was involved in a few scuffles for the puck in front of the net. I wish I could have turned at least one of those scuffles into a goal. :(

The interesting thing was that I actually seemed to scare the goalie. Now *there's* a turn of events! A couple of times I was all alone in front of the net, and G was screaming at his defense to "come cover this guy!" Toward the end he yelled, "that's the guy! That's the one! Somebody cover him!" Even if I didn't do anything else useful in front of the net, at least I unnerved the goalie. It was fun being the scary one, no molded face mask required!

After the game, most of my teammates were supportive and said I played fine, but one started in on the criticism as soon as I walked into the locker room. "Lori, you've got to go in harder," he said. Me: "Yeah, OK." Him: "You know what I'm saying? You've got to go in harder." Me: "Yeah, I heard you." Him: "Just go in harder. You know what I mean? Go in harder." Me: "OK, A, not now." He was starting to irritate me.

Everyone else started mumbling about things that hadn't gone well, and R started getting on another player for not being open for a pass. "I mean, no disrespect or anything, but jeez, get in position!" Just when it started to get really negative, there was a short silence... into which A announced, "Lori, you've got to go in harder." Me: "JESUS CHRIST, A, I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TEN FUCKING TIMES!" Someone: "Ten *what* times???" R: "That's what we need, a little piss and vinegar!" Me: "I mean, NO DISRESPECT OR ANYTHING." Everyone laughed, but A's probably mad at me.