Some Days You Know You're Too Far Gone

I've been a Leafs fan as long as I can remember, but just as important I'm a hockey fan. I'll watch 4 year olds play if I'm at the rink. Let's face it, I watched the Ballard era Leafs; I paid money to sit my arse in seats at Maple Leaf Gardens when they were the laughing stalk of the NHL. If I watched that hockey, chances are I'll watch any hockey.

Watching is one thing, but getting there is the other. I'm the opposite of most people in that whilst I love snow, I hate, despise, and detest driving. Given my d'ruthers I'd take a cab or transit. However, Sunday morning hockey practice at 07:30 makes that impossible. Most mornings it isn't too bad, but this morning we'd been walloped with snow. We don't normally get 10-15cm overnight so it was a shock when I woke up to all the snow.

Luckily my little car had no problem getting out of the drive way, but the side streets had not yet been plowed. The pylon buried underneath the snow didn't help. I made a deal with child that if the main road had been cleared, we'd continue to practice, if not we'd head home.

Well, we got there. We got there 40 minutes late but those 20 minutes were the happiest 20 minutes of my son's skating life. Finally getting onto the ice after sitting in his gear for an hour, by the smile on his face you'd think he'd been locked in the candy shop with a limit free credit card.

For a die hard night owl, for a woman who won't wake up at 06:30 on Sunday for chocolate or sex, for a woman who won't wake up that early for chocolate *and* sex, that smile and the "I wish practice was longer" when he stepped off the ice made it all worth while.

Now I'm the one looking forward to Sundays at 06:30.

Yes, it's true, I am too far gone to ever go back to being without hockey, and I can't imagine being any happier.