How The West Was Won

Ok imagine this, I'm sitting in a darkened house, my 2 and 3 year old kids are fast asleep, my boyfriend is asleep on the couch beside where I'm sitting. I'm watching the game on my laptop because the cbc.ca feed was 8 seconds ahead of my TV feed, headphones on so I don't disturb anyone. Kevin Bieksa scores....what do I do? There's a moment of wanting to jump up and scream, a moment of hesitation because everyone in my house is asleep. So what did I do? I fist pumped into the air and let the water I had just tried to drink milliseconds before the goal dribble out of my mouth. Yup, not the prettiest and I would have and still would give just about anything to be in Vancouver right now and for the next 2 weeks. I thought my biggest regret was not making it back to Vancouver for the Olympics, but that is nothing compared to how badly I wish I was in Vancouver right now.  The scariest part is I don't think it has totally set in yet that the Canucks have made it to The Stanley Cup Finals, I think I still may be in a bit of shock about it all.

Last night this clip from the movie Hardball kept playing over and over in my head, (because you know....I am so a little black kid playing baseball)


Anyway, I've done it the last 2 rounds so I'll do it again. To any new readers, I am very aware they will never read this, it's just my way of getting my thoughts out.

Dear Keith Ballard,
Keith, Darling, we need to have a talk. For my own sanity, and the sanity of all your fans NEVER...EVER..again try to block or grab the puck with your hand when you are in front of your own net. I seriously face palmed myself on that goal last night, I wouldn't be surprised if I have a hand mark on my face today, I haven't looked in a mirror yet. I guess at least this time you didn't throw it into your own net, just deflected it. With that bit of crap out of the way, I am so excited and happy that you got to play in that game last night and be on the ice for the celebration. I think I saw you dancing in the corner of one shot, or maybe you were tripping over the stupid confetti crap but I'm hoping someone, somewhere has a clip of it. The t-shirts you guys got are grey, I guess that's a good thing since you apparently like grey shirts so much.

Dear Baby Tanev,
How the hell does it feel? I thought you had a crazy time when, last year you were undrafted, playing college hockey and then less then a year later you were part of the top 6 uninjured defencemen for the second half  of the regular season for the Canucks. Then after (un)fortunate injuries to Christian Ehrhoff and Aaron Rome you get called up and play in 2 round 3 playoff games. This must be unreal for you, I was almost more excited for you last night then Ballard, and that says a lot. For the record, I will probably always call you 'baby' Tanev, even when..or if...you lose that little baby face you have.

Dear  Mason Raymond,
Are you at the dentist yet? I keep getting the most disgusting scared look on my face when I look at this picture.  I'm sure there was no pain last night, but that must be pretty sore today, wow. Nice to see you are finally getting some facial hair, I think my grandma still has more though.

Dear Kevin Bieksa,
Holy crap dude, I don't think there are even words to describe how I feel about you right now. I'll own up to it, I was calling for a Bieksa trade 9-10 months ago. Am I ever glad that didn't happen. I told my friend Paul before game 1 that you would be 'the guy' this series, I never dreamed just how true that would be.

Dear Luc Bourdon,
Once again, Thank you.

And now onto some others, I have no idea where my mind will be in approximately 2 weeks time, either way I doubt I'll get this out so I'll do it now. To some of the, somewhat , behind the scenes crew in The Canucks Organization

Dear Nicole Van Zanten (aka @VanCanucks),
I am so glad I finally caved and signed up for twitter last summer. The experience has been amazing and the Canucks twitter is the most interactive I've seen of any NHL team. You are rocking it, it's been a huge help with keeping up to date since I am a Canucks fan stuck in Edmonton. Thank you for all your hard work so far, and for everything still to come. If I ever get out to Vancouver in the near future I would love to buy you a coffee or something.

Dear Derek Jory (aka @Canucksgame),
You, my darling, are a thing of beauty. Not only do you keep me up to date when I  have been unable to watch games, you have me laughing like a crazy woman the whole time. I can be in the worst mood ever, and I just have to look at a @canucksgame tweet, or something posted on Fort Nucks and I'm usually in tears laughing.  You've also given me some great material over the season in my unintended apparent goal of making fun of Keith Ballard in every way possible with this blog.

Dear Tina Rogers (aka @tinarogers)
Thank you so much for sending me those playoff towels and that t-shirt. You made me day- you made my month. I usually have to beg people for months to get anything sent this way, whether from the team store or just Canucks stuff in general. It's been tough sitting here in Edmonton  and watching everything going on in Vancouver, so thanks for sending me a little part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs celebration. Would love to thank you in person whenever I manage to get out to Vancouver again.

Lastly, to my main reporter man....

Dear Ian Walker (aka @walkerbigtalker)
You are the man. I can not express how much appreciation I have for you, obviously for running the little piece on my findings about Ballard inability to dress himself properly but for everything else you do to. As I have mentioned to you before, I love the different approach you take with what you write. You have managed to make me like  and even shed a tear for a few players who, before I read your articles, all I wanted to do was slap. As I've said to the others being able to read what  you write helps me keep up to date even though I am a province away from my team. I am excited for what these next 2 weeks hold and what you will be talking about.

The best bloggers around....

Dear Harrison Mooney, Daniel Wagner, and Qris Johnson (aka Pass It To Bulis),
You guys rock my socks. Thank you for Watching every game, and reporting about each accurately and hilariously.  My little blog definitely looks up to your giant blog. When my son was in the hospital in February one of the things I was most pissed off about was the fact I couldn't get an internet connection in the hospital to read your 'I Watched This Game' about the games I missed.

Anyway, this may look like I'm writing this because something is over and done but as I said above this is not the case. In approximately 2 weeks, I am going to have crazy thoughts, either good or bad so I wanted to make sure I got these thank you's out of the way before then.


I promise to stop rambling soon but there is one last item of business. This is probably where any credibility I may have built up over the last 5 months of having this blog, gets shot straight out the window. However, I am female, but with the dirty mind of a male, so there is absolutely no way for me to go at this in an appropriate manner. Last night while everything was starting to settle down a bit after the win @kleine_snowdrop dropped this bomb in my inbox.

Like I said, no appropriate way to go at this picture, but it had to be shared because I laughed for a good 5 minutes.  I have no problem admitting that I do find Keith Ballard good looking, it's a natural thing and if you're going to look at me the wrong way for it, so be it.  People make jokes to me all the time regarding him and I usually make inappropriate comments right back. I think most of the time people are looking for a reaction out of me, so I give it to them. I don't really mean any of it, it's just how I am and the people who know  me and talk to me on a regular basis know that. Know my actual hockey knowledge comes first. Anyway,  I put this picture on facebook last night, going about my marry inappropriate way and I had to laugh this morning because the people to comment to me about it were my very own mom, and my Aunt. Both oblivious to where I went with it, at least at first.

Thank you to every single 1..or maybe the 1 person who actually made it through all this rambling. I'm still riding my high from the game last night. I am extremely excited for what is to come, and extremely excited to be along for the ride with everyone. Lets get 'er done.

Random Pictures and a Dear keith

 Dear Keith,

What was with the helmet pre game? it really threw me off my game of, uh, watching pre game warm up. Were you tired of seeing your hair stand up night after night even after you got your hair cut?. You threw a great hit in the game, nice to see. That's about the only nice thing I have to say though. Now lets just work on getting some pucks TO the net, and hope that one day AV appreciates you a little bit more then Aaron Rome. Good post game interview. I was so annoyed with the game, I was ready to throw my laptop out the window. Good luck on the road.

Score a god damn goal already,
Christine.

Anyway, onto more pressing matters before my head explodes from thinking about that 'game' last night..

Hockey has given me some pretty cool stories in life even though I've never really played the game beyond our school parking lot. My only sort of claim to fame may be that I played floor hockey in school with Karl Alzner and Kenndal Mcardle. Thats as far as my actual  hockey playing stories go. Quick Random story, Karl and I once got in trouble in drama. We were doing improv work and naturally ours was about a hockey game, the teacher made us stop half way through because we weren't being creative enough and had to choose something other then hockey.

I have, however, been a member of many different hockey forums on the internet for a number of years. The first few years I'd love to forget, but the past 6-7 years or so have been pretty cool. I was going through my photobucket account and found some old pictures, I wish I had the rest from these times but I've had laptops die, and laptops stolen and I'm only left with a few. I've met some pretty cool people through them, made some real friendships and the major main one I was involved in even got me baby presents when my daughter was born, all Canucks stuff for her of course. (The jersey was passed down to my son, and is now in a keep sake box and it makes me extremely sad to look and see just how big they are both getting)  They played in tournaments, where I was just the underage drunk girl watching. Hey, someone's got to do the dirty work and yell at the refs and score keepers.

can you spot me? yeah, not going to point myself out :/

Here?I think I'm pretty easy to spot.

When the draft was held in Vancouver I had the opportunity to go with them, this was the last time I was in GM PLACE  before I made the decision to move to the frozen land. Being comfortably drunk before 4pm and booing Gary Bettman? HELL YEAH!.I got my picture taken with my favourite draftee at the time, James Sheppard, however I have a major double chin so that picture is staying in hiding (photoshop anyone?).

god I look young, that was 5 years ago.

I'm so short, the cop and guy 'guarding' the cup were laughing at the size of the Cup compared to me. Your so short Stanley Cup jokes, anyone?

don't  hate me Ted, I love this picture of Cody and I.

I've met many people through various other ways that have somehow related back to hockey. Everything in my life usually does, but those are the people that definitely stand out to me.

When I still lived at home and the fire department was called to my house and I wasn't home, The firefighters commented to my parents how much they loved their son's room as they were leaving. I am 1 of 2 girls in the family.

I came runner up in the ultimate Canucks fan contest on Canucks.com with this bedroom, I wish I still had the other better pictures, but you get the idea.

my grade 12 art project and the only A I think I ever received in my entire 5 years of High school.

Anyway, There is no real point I'm trying to make today, just thought I'd share some of my hockey pictures I recently found.