Oh, Yeah!

Our friends are totally awesome! One of my friends (we've known each other since we were 3!) asked Urban Cowboy and I to join him at the hockey game last night. He had entered a contest and won so he got free tickets to the game and was able to bring 3 other people with him. In addition to winning the tickets, he also won a free jersey and the goalie's stick with the team's signatures! Coolio, right! Ok, but the best thing he won was this: (drumroll, please) A TOUR OF THE TEAM LOCKER ROOM! Woohoo! Urban Cowboy was in sports fan heaven! I thought it was pretty cool to check out the locker room, too. They even have a lounge area to chill & watch tv or play video games before games. The most outstanding feature of the locker room, though, was the smell. I mean, it seriously STANK. Now, Urban Cowboy has played hockey since he was old enough to be on skates and he's told me before that hockey gear is pretty smelly. It makes sense - unlike other sports, hockey gear gets sweat on and then it just stays all wet and gross on their bodies until they take it off. Not to mention, they're on the ice skating their butts off wearing 20 pounds of gear and with jerseys/pants/warm socks all layered over it. Even when the equipment manager puts the giant, industrial fans on the gear to dry it out it's not like they're sending it all to the dry cleaners between each game and practice. So, what I'm saying is from a practical standpoint, hockey gear is supposed to smell bad and there isn't anything you can do to change that. Now, what I'm also saying is this: YUCK! People, it was rank down there! The closer you got to the locker room, the stronger the smell got, and the more I wondered if it was really worth it to take the locker room tour. Urban Cowboy was sniffing it up, loving every whiff! I guess, for him, it was the smell of nostalgia because it's been awhile since he's played hockey. For me, it was reality smacking me in the face because Urban Cowboy talks about if we had kids he wants them to play hockey. So, I'm looking into my future and seeing myself trapped in a little car with a couple of kids and their bags of stinky, stinky hockey gear. Ew. Anyway, locker room stink aside, it was a kick-ass night. Our team won by 2 goals, there were 12 total goals in the game (which is pretty high for hockey and it was an exciting game to watch!), and we got to hang out with a good, and incredibly generous, friend. Oh, yeah!

PS I was hoping to get a glimpse of some semi-naked hockey players while we were in the locker room but was not that lucky. Maybe another time. Of course, considering the smell, would I really have enjoyed the sight that much?