Preds – Stumbling Through Life

I think I deserve a cookie for posting Tuesday Randomness two weeks in a row! Maybe I am finally out of my slump. There are times when I think that when Chandler left and Alan entered stage wrong, my desire to write went with Chandler. Now? I don’t think it was that necessarily, it was knowing how uncertain things were with Alan. . . never wanting to jinx it. But then again he had an awfully hard time staying faithful so maybe it is best that I didn’t really document that time. Live and learn right?

Let’s see, I am still the same dorky Amy, addicted to all things sports. I finally became a season ticket holder with the Nashville Predators (yay #smashville!). I went to the Used Equipment Sale this past weekend and picked up a Ryan Ellis hockey stick. He is my favorite Canadian ginger! Love him! Now I have to figure out if I can ever get him to sign my stick. I plan on mounting it on my living room wall with my growing collection of hockey pucks.

Once the hockey season was over (oh, that was in June people) I washed all the rally towels, t-shirt giveaways, my hockey sweater and oh yeah. . .my probably really rank jeans that I refused to wash during playoffs. My lint trap looked like something Gnash might have puked up. I also had to admit I have a slight problem. .. see I have clothes for work, a limited supply of casual wear for warmer weather and the rest of my closet looks like a sports store threw up in it.

Gee, I didn’t realize this was going to be all about puke/things that come up. Sorry?

Anyway, I was on a roll last fall with my Cubbies (LOVE!) so of course I had to pick up all kinds of playoff t-shirts. Then I broke down and bought the Steelers (LOVE) infinity scarf so I could be kind of dressy at work. Which led to a late hockey season decision to purchase the Preds scarf which was then worn through a good portion of June (oh yeah, did you know we made a run for Lord Stanley’s Cup?).

And I will go ahead and admit, I am a very lucky girl. I was able to attend most of the games through the playoffs. And let’s just say that playoff hockey is on another level and then add our crazy crew who let’s face it, took a few traditions from football and hockey, smashed them together and all the sudden we were the talk of the NHL. Traditional markets didn’t care for us, said we were loud, rude, obnoxious while some saw a great storyline coming out of a southern town.

We are a smaller hockey market, that came in with three other teams. One of the expansions no longer exists in it’s original city. And it wasn’t us! We had a huge scare ten years ago and I remember the fight to keep them here. I attended plenty of games where we sucked, we lost most of the games, the barn wasn’t near capacity and an owner who wasn’t completely honest about his financials.

But that’s the funny thing about Nashville. We have a lot of self loathing (look no further than Music Row and the execs), the multiple personalities when it comes to the neighborhoods and some neighborhoods that just can’t figure out their identity. But there are two ways to identify someone that is considered a Nashvillian. .. if we spot someone famous, we may nod their way but we don’t stop and chat, take pictures or ask for autographs and the other is when you ask us how long it takes to get from Bellevue to say the arena. .. we will say 15 minutes. The second is so bad because the only way you can get anywhere in this town within 15 minutes is either via helicopter or it’s one am and you’ve been able to arrange a road block so you can get from point A to point B within the 15 minute timeframe.

So our little market that could had a grassroots movement of sorts to save our Preds. Sure, in the beginning most of us didn’t understand icing, power plays, shots on goal, hooking or high sticking however. .. we can read. So between learning how this sport worked, we got a quick intro into going all in with a team to keep them here. I give mad props to the marketing team because they really got our community. They had ticket reps feeding tickets to people on the street and slowly taking them away with the allure of game packages. And soon little pockets of fans creeped up throughout the city. We had the Cell Block, our rowdy friends in the upper deck who really got the chant thing going. And no, we don’t have practice or meetings to discuss the chants. In the advent of social media, the chants spread like wildfire.

I remember chanting, “we want tacos” when we needed one more goal since five goals got us a free taco. Thank goodness they went to Frosties at four goals. Hey, we will yell our hearts out for the free dollar item! Some things I miss, like the Predator like blimp that would fly around during the game and spit out tickets for prizes. They still show some of the old graphics (Get Loud Nashville. . .I believe that was one of the first ones).

And because we are Music City, crazed football fans who love our hockey players. . . well I think everyone knew we were going to kick it up a few notches when we strolled into the Western Conference Division finals. Our first time to that dance before the big one and man, we were crazed. The catfish flew everywhere, I held one (I would have kissed him had he been a bit fresher) and downtown transformed to a golden city. And then we arrived to the big stage, fighting for the glory of Lord Stanley’s Cup.

And in true Music City, only in Nashville can this happen, a trifecta of a perfect storm: Bonaroo, Fan Fair (wait, sorry CMA Music Fest) and then hockey in JUNE! All at the same time. Parking downtown on a normal evening is not pleasant, parking down there when you have major events happening at the same time, a high school graduation and an awards show was moved from our barn to the Music City Convention Center and the chaos from providing some over the top entertainment for the NHL stage. . . umm yeah, a lot of bad words were uttered. The parking lots gouging us had to be a part of Dante’s seven circles of hell.

Mayor Barry, please, please, please. . . mass transit for all. PLEASE!

But overall, I am so proud of my boys! It didn’t end the way I wanted it to but what a ride. And we are all anxiously counting down until October to raise the banner and keep showing the nation just how much we love our hockey!

But I am kind of really, OMG, I can’t wait, excited that football is here (I will take preseason by this point just to have it back on my tv).

Most of the time, it seems like the weeks fly by and I am usually thinking, how is it already (enter month, holiday, season, what have you)?! However, this past week has felt like the longest week ever. To be fair, I typically spend most of the time thinking exactly what day it is because of the work I do (I normally work two to three months in advance). The added layer of confusion is I desk share (awesome program by the way!) that has my desk partner and I switching our remote days each week. I like to think of it as a way to really exercise my brain.

But then there are weeks like this past one that I kind of have to stop, scratch my head and wonder what in the world I did to end up with a week like this. Work has been hectic, but that is normal. I also prefer to be busy, as long as I can manage to keep up with the work. But it was the rest of my life, the one that isn’t consumed with work, that felt off most of the week.

There were a couple of bright spots, Wednesday I went to see Queen + Adam Lambert with Chandler’s mom and older sister. Besides enjoying spending some time with them (which included dinner at Hattie B’s) we headed downtown to my second home. We walked around the second floor by the Patron Club while I gave them some tidbits about the arena, the Preds and pointed out pictures of past performers and players displayed on the walls. Once on the main floor, we hit the merchandise booth and for the first time in forever, I bought a shirt.

I knew we had great seats just by reading the seat assignment but the reality was far better than I could have imagined. We were the section next to the stage, about nine rows up. Well hello there Queen + Adam Lambert! There was no opening act, so it started later than most concerts. But once the show started, I was a happy clam, thankful that I bit the bullet and paid what I paid to attend.

Adam Lambert addressed the big ole pink elephant in the room almost immediately. There is only one Freddie Mercury and he felt really honored to be working with two legends. Then they went back to the music. If you watched my FaceBook live feed, you would notice that most of the time, my camera was fixed on Brian May or Roger Taylor. I like Adam Lambert but I was there to see two of my heroes perform, an opportunity I had never believed would happen.

The show was fast paced, loud, full of energy with touching tributes to Freddie interspersed through the show. And I had a couple of moments where I got teary eyed, Brian May came out while the others rested/changed to talk to us. He then did the acoustic version of Love of My Life, one of Freddie’s songs he used to sing all of the time. And I almost lost it. Then later in the show they did Who Wants to Live Forever and once again I got teary eyed. Or as Chandler would have said, CRYBABY! Yeah, I will own that.

That concert for me was one that I never dreamed of attending. I love Freddie Mercury, having listened to a heavy rotation of Queen growing up. His voice and personality was larger than life and the world is a little dimmer having lost him but May and Roger, along with Lambert managed well. And I can say that I have now clapped along with the crowd during Radio Ga Ga. I feel pretty special now.

But between lack of sleep, the week taking it’s sweet time to get to the weekend and the weather (summer can go away, right now, not going to miss it). I was in a funk. I have also been rereading a series that apparently affects my mood (I will take it off the rotation after this round). By the time I got home Friday from work I was a wound up mess. And beyond grateful that I had two days to decompress and adjust my attitude.

That whole am I imagining things or could something really be there seems to more in my head than reality. And yes, that pissed me off too because hello, I know better. Been there, done that and it never ends the way I think it should. So then I did the whole lecturing myself for being so stupid, letting the walls down a bit and all that fun stuff. As I have said plenty of times before, I am my own worst enemy.

So I have spent the weekend reading, napping, running a few errands, getting a mani/pedi and finally the last bright spot for the week. I went to the Preds Used Equipment Sale today and that was pretty cool. I ended up with my favorite ginger Canadian’s hockey stick (Ryan Ellis) which I will work on mounting on my wall with my vast collection of hockey pucks.

So all in all, it was a really long week that was meh with reminders of what I should not do. If I were a brave person, I would just have a chat with the person but after everything he has been through keeping my big mouth shut is the better option. Here’s hoping to a decent week with a Monday that flies (because we all know I hate Mondays).