I was a grumpy girl yesterday...I tried really hard to shake it off, but it wasn't happening. There was stubborn grumpiness there that was not for lifting! It was one of those days when I needed maximum patience, and lives were imperiled because the reserves were not there!
It was the day of our hockey outing, and I spent a large portion of the day trying to deal with people wanting extra tickets, people deciding that they weren't going to go but not telling me, trying to match the extra tickets with those that wanted them, people asking for tickets for some UK staff and then finally (when I had gone through pain and sorted out a few spares) telling me that he wasn't sure if the UK people could actually make it - after a day of whining about it to me!! Not good!! Stress levels were high - and this was supposed to be a fun outing!!!
We came home to get changed and picked up Paul for the drive back to the Verizon centre. We had some fun times trying to get parked! The Verizon centre has a 10,000 space car park...and it was closed!!!! It was permit holders only last night. We drove round and round...all the meters were 2 hours (not long enough) and all the parking garages were full. Eventually we passed a garage that was open, and had spaces. I said we passed it...literally we had driven past it and had to reverse back up the street to go in!!!
After a quick sprint down the street in the sub-zero temperatures we got into the area and made our way to the seats...in the roof! These were real nose-bleed seats! I'm sure I saw the ghosts of Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing leading people to their seats!! And steep! Oh, how very steep....I had a real attack of the vertigo vapours when I got to the row and had to get past people to get to the seats. I was actually hugging virtual strangers as I was handed along the row, knees knocking....There are UK employees I know a lot better now than I did on Monday!!!!
The game was good! I didn't understand what was going on, but it didn't seem to matter too much! Stephen (who seems to understand most US sports) tried to explain the offside rule to me but I could actually feel my brain beginning to dribble from my ears so I had to ask him to stop. I understand offside in soccer. I even kind of understand the 1st and 10/4th and down thing in football (the American kind). But the offside rule in hockey was enough to make me need alcohol!! The Capitals (Caps) won by 4 goals to 2. It was a close match, until the end when we scored twice in a few minutes. It was amazing that 60 minutes of sporting action can actually take so long to play! There weren't even many stoppages for fights (and I had been promised blood on the ice!) and yet it still took 2 1/2 hours to play the match. There are 3 x 20 minute periods and between periods there is a 15 minute interval (so you can get more food/beer). So, doing the math, that leaves 1 hour of "on field" stoppages during the game!! I was a bit surprised how quiet the crowds were. As a veteran of a few Rangers v Celtic matches (which are deafening) I was expecting a little more crowd noise. Most of the atmosphere was generated by the organ playing, the announcer and the blast of a pop song when there was a Power Play (which I think is when the opposing team has a man sent to the sin bin - that was the only bit I understood!).
Stephen went down to buy a Capitals shirt and came back looking pretty shocked a few minutes later. "You will never believe how much they cost"..."$35", "I would definitely have bought it if it was only $35", "$50...$100", "Even $100 was cheap", "$150...$175...surely it can't have been $200!!". It was actually $190 for a shirt!!!! Can you believe that?? I'm taking him to Target this weekend - I'm sure they'll only cost $7.95 there!!!!
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