BrockLi Soup

Did Rupert Murdoch buy another hockey team? I just had a dream that a guy I knew in high school was playing for MySpace in the NHL. They weren’t half bad.

Unless there’s a loser’s game, I’m done with hockey. We (surprise!) lost the first playoff game for this quarter.

Hockey was really the first sport I enjoyed playing. I did basketball and baseball in grade school, but I always dreaded the games - I only played because everyone else did. I did some volleyball in middle school and soccer in middle and early high school, but was never too thrilled about either. Hockey has been more fun than I ever thought a sport could be. College was really my only opportunity to try it; my high school started a team my junior or senior year, but I certainly couldn’t afford equipment at the time. I spent about $250 on gear two years ago, and I’ve been playing free ever since - no ice fees for intramural.

While I’m going to miss playing, I’m sort of relived that it’s over. I’ve never been the alpha male must-win-everything-I-do type, so I’ve been perfectly content with losing pretty much all the time. I wasn’t content, however, with accepting our fate as crappy players without trying to get better. I don’t care if I lose, but it’s going to piss me off if I’m not doing the best I can. When the team around me isn’t too interested in doing any better, it’s just frustrating because I feel like I’m never moving forward.

That’s not to say that this is the prevailing mentality on the team. A lot of the people that I’ve been playing with for the past year or two have gotten a LOT better, and I see it every time they’re out on the ice. Even so, it sort of felt like there was a backlash from people that just wanted to stay mediocre as a team.

It doesn’t matter. It’s over, and I had fun. I would have liked to have done better, but life has to have some shortcomings or you won’t appreciate the good stuff.

It’s unlikely that I’ll ever play hockey again. I could join a men’s league, but they’re pretty pricey and the other guys are bound to be a lot better than I am. If I get a job at RIT or come back here for grad school, I’ll play again, but that’s probably the only way it will happen.

And I won’t miss the stink of hockey equipment in my room, that’s for sure.

Why did a second guy ever start smoking?

“Here, put this in your mouth. Set it on fire and suck on it.”

It’s obviously a stupid thing to do. When there’s a structure fire, people are hospitalized for smoke inhalation. If there’s ever a fire, I should be able to save everyone in the building before my nic fits subside.

Every time I smoke, I realize how ridiculous it is. Inhale smoke - by it’s very nature, it’s a bad idea. And yet, we keep doing it. Thanks to the tobacco companies, we have nicotine, and we become addicted. I’m not saying that we’re not to blame, but they’re not helping any.

Every month or so, I say I’m going to quit. Every fall and winter, I promise to quit so I can play hockey. And every game, I curse myself for giving up, because I still can’t breathe.

Will I ever really quit? I hope so, but I seem to be a spineless candy ass.

Wednesday, I played racquetball for two hours.

Thursday, we had a hockey game.

Yesterday, I played racquetball for two more hours.

Today, I hurt like hell.

My torso’s the worst part. I never thought it was possible to ache in places I ache; usually my chest hurts, either from sickness or a pulled muscle, but this time it’s my gut. My sides hurt when I cough. I also pulled an ass muscle earlier this week - not as bad as a groin muscle, I assure you - but it’s still bothering me. And of course, my arms and legs hurt from running and shooting and skating and swinging.

I feel old.

I can’t wait for this hockey season to start. As part of the Week of Welcome for freshmen, the ice rink had open skating on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, so I went all three nights. It went a lot better than I expected, having not been on ice in six months. My skates are pretty dull, but my feet felt fine, I was doing OK, and my back didn’t even start bothering me until Wednesday night.

It turned out to be a better warm-up for hockey than I expected. I just wanted to spend some time skating hard to get back into it, but when there’s 60 people in the rink, you have to maneuver pretty well to avoid killing freshmen. Really, there’s no better way to practice that than actually doing it. Skating with a stick always makes you better: you focus on handling the puck and ignore your feet, so they do what they need to do. The same thing happens on a full rink: you focus on avoiding people, and your feet just handle it. You can’t think about it too much, or you can’t do it.

I went down a few times, but it was funny every time. Fotios and I tried a high-speed dosido, which resulted in a warning from the rink staff and a bloody elbow. On Wednesday, after 45 minutes of people doing laps, the entire rink was covered in about an eigth-inch of standing water. I took a turn too hard, forgetting how dull the skates were, and went out sideways. I was absolutely soaked, along with everything in my wallet.

I didn’t have much to do today and I felt like shopping, so I picked up some new laces for both my rollerblades and ice skates. I broke one set, so I’ve been swapping a set of laces back and forth between the two pairs of skates, which was wearing them out pretty quick. I also decided to get a new stick, because I cracked the blade at the elbow late last season. It’s still holding together, but I don’t know how much longer it would last, so it’s been relegated to street hockey play only. The new one bends back a little bit at the end of the blade, so it’ll be good for flipping the puck off the wall or over other sticks.

Tomorrow around noon, I’m going shopping again with Lucas and Fonny. Lucas will be getting equipment, like he’s been promising since last winter. Fonny wants to see how much the gear will cost him before he decides if he wants to play, but he sounded pretty interested.

It’s going to be a good quarter.