Holiday Hours

Public Skate's are really the only time I can get on the ice and just practice skating with impunity. The only issue, is that with so many hockey leagues and other ice time hogging activities. Even with Three rinks, Rockville's rinks are still hard pressed to have much time available per day. Kettler has even less, but definitely has the added bonus of watching the Caps practice once in a while while you're there for them, since public skates nearly coincide.

Luckily, it's the holiday season, and while normally that means places are more prone to cutting back on hours, it's reversed and they're open for public skating far more often! Not to mention having the open air rink at Pentagon City open nearly all day long should I sleep in a bit too late one day.

All in all I can easily see myself taking advantage of the additional hours quite a bit through the rest of this week and into next! Should be nice and tiring, and hopefully, not painful...

I Love My Wife.

I really don't think I need to say much about this. She is awesome.

Now to head to Kettler and get them baked. Things just stepped up a knotch!

Expenses, Holidays, and Motivation

So there's no doubt about it, hockey is a rather expensive hobby to break into. You need a lot of different gear, and not much of it is anything you really want to skimp in quality on when your talking about checking another person into the glass. But with the holidays lingering, and college starting up for me in January, money is going to be a bit harder to come by for a little while.

With ice time costing around $11-$12 every skate, getting on the ice for the time I want becomes a bit expensive. Might have to cut back to once a week to save the bank. Cutting back might help me schedule a more solid day of the week for my skate as well though, as the public skate times are some what random.

Motivating myself is hard as well still. I feel most of it stems from my wife's work schedule being so odd at the moment. Hopefully we can get used to it together sooner than later! It's rough being up until 4am randomly. Gym time should be easier to make happen, though I still find myself waiting and procrastinating on that when I'm on an 'off' day. I need to head down there some time today actually!

So if anyone was thinking of getting me anything for the holidays or my birthday, feel free to send cold, hard cash! Hockey gear doesn't buy itself!

It all started on the street.

When I moved to Pennsylvania, I was introduced to Hockey by a close friend. It wasn't a big organized affair, or even all that elaborate. We didn't have much in the way of equipment. We had a few sticks, a smattering of other equipment, a net, and a few of us even had skates we used on occasion. What we did have a lot of was free time, and empty parking spaces.

We would play every morning before school, and every afternoon directly after it. On days we were off, we would play. On days we went home early from the snow and ice, we would play. Sleet, we would play. Dark, we would play. I can't remember much else we ever did besides hockey. If we didn't get to play out on the street, we would go in and break out the Sega Genesis and play NHL, or Mutant League Hockey.

Being in PA, Philly end, we were all Flyers fans. Back in the days of Lindros, Hextall and Desjardins. We never really sat down to watch much in the way of games, but we knew a few of the players and watched SportsCenter as we got ready for school to see the awesome goals from the nights previous.

The entire nieghborhood would come out once we broke out the net. Pj would play goal much of the time, I would slapshot the hell out of him and everyone else just scrummed about in ad hock teams. Throwing sticks after a bad shot was normal. Slight altercations if someone played the ball to hard were uncommon but arose from time to time. With all that, it was the most fun I'd ever had playing any sport.

Buying my crappy street stick a few weeks back all of these memories began pouring back to me. And now every time I watch a game on TV, go skating, or go out to Verizon Center, I'm reminded of how happy this game has always made me, and how glad I am to have it back in my life.

Hockey is hard.

I can't skate. I've never handled a puck. I've never played a single game of Ice Hockey in my entire life. I haven't played an organized sport since I was in grade school. I have no gear to really speak up except a cheap stick I picked up to mess around on the street with. It's been some time since I've had a regular workout program.

With all of that, I think I've got my work cut out for me. I can only get better from here!

My goal with this blog is to keep a record of my progress, my thoughts, my inspirations, my motivation. I hope to keep this going for as long as I'm in the sport in any facet.

So pull up a chair, take a load off, laugh at my failures and injuries, for there shall be many I'm sure, give some advice where you might be able to, and generally enjoy the ride. I know I will.