First Game Back

Now that N's playing for the big city program, we spend a lot more time in the big city... funny how that works. My point is that we don't really have a need to go to the old arena, the home of the old lame program. However, since the big city program's ice rink caters to so many different teams, they have a big shortage of ice. To accommodate this enormous need, the big city program gets ice all over this area, including at the ice rink of our old lame program. This of course meant that it was just a matter of time before we found ourselves back there. This actually happened this past weekend.

First, some background. Our old lame program plays at an ice rink that doesn't get as much usage as it could. Youth hockey has a girls and a boys program, and there are girls and boys high school teams. There are also a few adult leagues that play at night, but that's about it. Consequently, they have huge amounts of ice that go unused, which is not only a waste, but it's not the most ideal financial situation for an arena. Ice rinks are enormously expensive to run, and you hope to fund these costs by selling as many sheets of ice as you can. When we were with our old lame program, there were hours upon hours of unused ice, which doesn't seem economically viable, but what do I know?

On the other hand, the big city program has one ice rink, and there is a huge demand for ice. They are home to much bigger boys and girls youth hockey programs, and they cater to two different high schools, both with a girls and a boys team. AND, in addition to numerous adult leagues, the big city high school has a JV team, unlike the other high school. I've been told some of the adult leagues play from 9:00PM until well past midnight. Is that crazy, or what? They are trying to build a second rink, which is completely justified, but until that happens, it's just the one rink. Personally, I don't know how they manage to accommodate everyone... other than sending people to other ice rinks.

And that's what happened to us. N's team had a game over “there” and I knew it was going to be a little weird seeing some of the people I loathe. Actually, just one person, but he seems to live there. Sure enough, as soon as I walked into the arena, a bunch of the guys were standing there. I said hi to most of them, but when I came to said individual, I said, “Why don't you lie down in front of the Zamboni when they're making ice?” I didn't actually say that, but I sure as heck wanted to.

Truth be told, I did see several people who are still good friends, which means most everyone, and it was nice catching up. Plus, I got to hang out with N's old head coach, AL, who is a very cool guy. We chatted about the state of our old lame program and it reminded me of another good reason why we're not there anymore. I'll leave it at that.

All in all it was fairly uneventful, and N's team won, which is always a good thing. I'm sure we'll end up back at our old rink more than a few times this season, but that's beyond my control and if anything, more fodder for this blog.

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Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Sanghyun Lee for the pic.