End of the Summer

I'll bet you thought I forgot all about you.  I didn't.  I swear.

I've actually been writing posts for months, but not posting them.  I had a folder of half-written thoughts and I'm going to try to complete them.  Some of them are timeless and some are a snapshot of a day, probably months ago.

I had an interesting summer, which really started all the way back in April.  There were cruises (The Caribbean!  Alaska!).  There were visits with friends and family (California!  Virginia!).  There were business trips (Vegas!  Twice!).  There was the idea of a guy, and then there wasn't.  There were concerts and baseballs games and road trips and sunny days.  I took up jogging.  I ran in a race.  I had fun.

Its time to settle into fall again.  School has started -- I'm already panicking about a statistics midterm -- and hockey starts tomorrow.  It's time for normal to begin again.

The End of the Summer

It's going to be 76 degrees today. I couldn't be more excited about that. My favorite time of year is autumn. I fell in love with North Carolina in the fall. I fell in love with a boy (or two, or....three?) in the fall. I made new friends and started a new job and have had all sorts of things in my life start in the fall. This year I even went back to school. It seems like more of a beginning to me than a new year or the first warm day in the spring.

There was a big football game yesterday and even though I don't care even the teeniest bit about it, I probably watched because, well, that's what you do in the fall. I count down the days until Canes camp starts (it started Friday!) because I love nothing more than to be in a big room with a huge sheet of ice. I'll get a glimpse today and then I have to wait and wait and wait until my first real game on November 1st. That's practically election day -- I'll have to adopt those election countdown tickers as my own.

This summer has brought back so many long lost friends. It's really been incredible how many people have come back into my life in such a short time. I have my girls in California, more contact with my cousins and their better halves, my college roommate and now another treasured friend just this week. Of course, none of them live here so it's easier and at the same time harder to maintain. When your whole friendship exists through emails and texting and this very blog, how easy it is to put off writing and then the person just slips away. That's really not good enough.

Now that the season is changing, people are going to start to leave too. J will go back to work somewhere else is the world and my standing companion for any and every movie will be gone. L needs to go be with M, they have a wedding and a new life to plan. My nights will go back to revolving around sticks and pucks. Things will calm down and go back to normal. Whatever that is.

No Sacrifice

I listen to some music that no one else I know listens to. I am often sad that great bands who aren't celebrity driven don't always seem to make it into the public consciousness, so I buy album after album so they will know they have at least one fan out here. Sometimes, my little secrets end up turning into the Next Big Thing (see John Mayer five years ago).

Anyway, I recently got the new Theory of a Deadman cd (Scars & Souvenirs, barely in stores now). I first became aware of them several years ago during the hockey playoffs when reading a song listing on a Canadian hockey website (I really, truly am a dork when it comes to hockey. I told you.*). As a result, their music tends to put me in a hockey mood. The last track on the new cd is an absolutely perfect hockey song. Some of the lyrics:

Everybody expects me to break but I'll never break down again
Everybody expects me to give up but you'll never see me giving in
Everybody wants me to lose but I'll never lose who I am
No I'm sorry to say There'll be no sacrifice today

Really athlete-ish, isn't it? I even thought about emailing the Canes and suggesting they add this to the rotation during games (they play the same 20 songs every game and I'm a little sick of Cotton Eye Joe). I was so happy today when I saw a commercial for the OLYMPICS that used No Sacrifice. Someone else with a little pull must have heard the same thing. It just brought a smile to my face. Maybe I'm not their only fan.


*Please note it has been exactly 2 months and 1 week since my last hockey mention. I am trying. However, I'd like to point out the Canes drafted two guys named Zach this weekend, and one more named Michal Jordan. I suspect he'll play his minor league hockey for Carolina, then be traded to Chicago as soon as he makes the big team. He'll end his career playing for the Caps.

Say Goodbye

Stillman, Commodore headed to Ottawa after trade from Carolina
Caniac Nation is freaking out a bit today. I came home and did what I do when hockey trades go down. I check out what the interwebs have to say.

It's never good when the trade headline give top billing to the players leaving your team. It's like, these two great guys have gone away to win where they can. Good luck with that, boys! Oh yeah, almost forgot. You get these two back in return. Good luck with that, Canes fans.

Better Off

Every time I go on vacation, I try to make myself a better person.  Sometimes by learning languages (Russian - CA road trip '99, French in Montreal '04), sometimes it's self help books (Dr Phil, another CA trip), sometimes I go places where I can learn things.  It's always something.

 

I am currently in Arizona where I will be attending a conference for work.  Until that starts, I refuse to do anything to better myself.  I slept in.  Bought two coffees (got one to drink then and bought an extra to keep in the fridge in my room -- it was really hard to find!).  Went to the pool for 2 hours.  Went shopping and bought presents for my dogs and got take out from The Cheesecake Factory for dinner (as in, I'm having cheesecake for dinner).  Went swimming again.  Now I'm watching hockey and then I'll go swimming again.

 

I'm in paradise and I know I'm being self-indulgent and lazy -- but do we really have to strive to be better every day?

 

[By the way, Better Off is by Theory of a Deadman, a Canadian band I discovered watching, of course, hockey]