me looking girly, even in hockey gear.

in front of the net, looking for a pass

5 August 2001
Played my first game in the women's league on Wednesday.... well, two games, actually. Illyn and Heidi had told me that the teams were always short, so I showed up early to sub in the first game. We had seven players and the other team had about 10, so we played 5-on-5. The game was pretty fast, and so was I—about Illyn's and her friend Karen's speed—but I found that even though I was keeping up speedwise, I was a little afraid to call for the puck. What if I missed the pass? What if I shot wide? What if I fucked up completely? I decided I wasn't worthy.

Which of course meant that I was rushing around mostly for nothing.

By the time my game rolled around, I was already pretty tired. We had seven players again—four of whom had played in the previous game—but so did the other team, so we played 4-on-4. In this game, I found I was one of the faster players on my team. Unfortunately, speed didn't do me much good, however, as the slower players kept passing to where I had been rather than where I was headed, and the other speedy player never passed at all.

There was one hilarious (to me at least) moment in front of the net where I watched another skater come around the back of the net and try to score. I was in front of the net, had my head up the whole time, and was watching her closely, so I calculated when to step in and stick check her. When I did, the other girl, who had her head down, ran into me full tilt. Weirdly enough, I remained upright while she careened off my shoulder and landed in a heap. Who knew keeping your head up could make that much difference?

By the end of the second period I was *really* tired and ready to skate off, but I had another 16 minutes to go. I made it, but I felt like a wet noodle afterwards. It may be a while before I try to skate two consecutive games again!