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Closed a Chapter

Yesterday we closed a chapter that has been a predominant part of our lives for over the last decade. I couldn’t bring myself to write about it yesterday because I really wasn’t ready to acknowledge that it was over. To be honest, I was a bit spellbound at that moment. Alas, here I am realizing that we have closed the youth hockey chapter of our lives. At least for now. I hope someday in the distant future I’m a hockey grandma.

The youth hockey chapter of our lives has been rich and rewarding. It has cost a fortune. I’ve definitely been a benefactor to several rinks, but it’s paid dividends in experiences and relationships that are invaluable. Peewee Quebec was hands down one of the coolest trips I’ve ever been on or will ever go on. Moreover, I’ve enjoyed watching my boys and their teammates develop and blossom on the ice. The energy, effort, and time they’ve put into their craft are incredible.

While we closed a chapter this weekend, a new chapter has already begun. Next week the Mayor will play in the high school all-star game. Additionally, there’s a spring high school league, but I have no clue when that starts. In April, he’ll be heading to St. Louis for a showcase. Saturday morning he’s going to start skating with our friend Joni, who is a phenomenal skating coach. He’ll also continue working with Coach David and Wolfpack Fitness. They’ll make sure he’s ready for the next level.

As with all of life’s transitions, I’m sure it will take some adjusting. I’m not sure the hubby and I will know what to do with ourselves on the weekends anymore. If you walk into Skatezone and hear angry German music, you’ll know I got lost and am again deejaying a hockey game. The Hubby might make the switch from hockey coach to team zebra. Stay tuned for that transition. To all the wonderful folks who have made our youth hockey experience wonderful, we love you and are grateful to have you in our lives.

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: 45-minute spin class, plus 15-minute cooldown courtesy of Apple Fitness
  • Book: Book: Marcel Proust’s Finding Lost Time.
  • Blog: done
  • Today’s song: Country Roads by John Denver
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At a Loss

I’m at a loss for words as I process the loss of one of our former hockey moms Kristine. Her son played rec with both Goalielocks and the Mayor. After rec league, my hubby coached her son and the Mayor with the Davis brothers on the Blackhawks travel mites team. Her son played hockey, so inevitably we haven’t seen or talked to them often. Even so, she and I had kept in touch through Facebook.

I guess a loss like this has the tendency to put everything else in perspective. The Mayor’s team has struggled this tournament and this season. It’s easy to get hung up with the pain of a losing season. Yet, in the macro picture of life, the losses aren’t going to be important. Hopefully, the players will take the lessons of resiliency and perseverance with them into their adult lives. Not to mention the great relationships they’ve built over the years.

The Mayor’s last game will be tomorrow. I’m trying to figure out how I can be there for this significant moment in his hockey career. To be honest, I’m not sure I’m ready to close the book on youth hockey. It’s been the dominating theme of the last decade of our lives. Where does one go from here? Are there places that exist outside the rink? These are important questions I don’t have the answer to yet. Part of me hopes, he decides to play U18 a year before going to Juniors. While U18 is technically not youth hockey anymore, it’s still minor hockey.

Each day 17 people die waiting for an organ on the transplant list. To learn more about organ donation, please visit the American Transplant Foundation.

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: 45-minute spin class, plus 15-minute cool down courtesy of Apple Fitness
  • Book: Book: Marcel Proust’s Finding Lost Time. I had to visit a forum to remind myself of all the main characters as it’s been a while since I’ve read Proust.
  • Blog: done
  • Today’s song: Stop and Stare by One Republic
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Long Day

It’s been a long day that started far too early for me on a Saturday. The Mayor had a game in West Palm at 9:20 am, which meant we had to be there by 8:20. Consequently, I was up before 7:00, which is a bummer on a Saturday. Also, it was for a game we knew we weren’t going to win against a team we’ve already played a dozen times this season. I was FB Live for that game. If you enjoy train wrecks with no filter then my FB live feed is for you.

After the game, we headed to PDQ for lunch after Nick’s Diner was too busy and Anthony’s Coal Fire Pizza was closed. I’m not sure I liked the chicken sandwich I had. It was oddly salty like the chicken breast itself had been injected with saline. The fries, however, were pretty damn good albeit they don’t leave me foaming at the mouth. Nonetheless, I’d definitely eat them again.

Between games, we chilled at home and watched The Office. We’ve watched the series all the way through several times, but it never gets old. I did some grocery shopping for Goalielocks as well since he’d have a tough time managing it due to his shoulder. I love that I can shop from home and have groceries delivered to my injured child two hundred miles away. Goalielocks sent me a list, but of course, I added some goodies like his favorite ice cream to the order. He was very appreciative of the groceries and happily surprised with the icecream.

Speaking of train wrecks, I’d describe the Mayor’s game this evening as an absolute disaster. It wasn’t fun to watch. They’re down several defensemen and it showed. It just wasn’t a very good game. Thankfully, they have two more games to show they can actually play hockey. Perhaps the best part of tonight’s game was learning that the opposing team’s penalty box dad thought I was one of the player’s girlfriends. He thought I looked too young to be a parent. He is now officially my favorite person at the rink. Now, I’m no Mrs. Robinson, but as a woman about to turn 43, I’ll take the compliment.

And now here’s your weekly recap in photos and memes, you’re welcome.

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl in a great game. Rihanna also made a historic pregnancy announcement during the halftime show.

Unidentified flying objects and balloons continue to be in the news. If you’re planning a balloon ride, you might want to put it off for now.

I got back to working out by doing spin classes on our new back. It’s been fun, but the seat definitely hurts your ass.

Goalielocks dislocated his shoulder on Valentine’s Day evening at Volleyball. He took himself to urgent care and his follow-up appointment with an orthopedic surgeon Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, he’ll be in a long for 4-6 weeks. Fortunately, the doctor told him he won’t need surgery.

The Mayor’s playing his last youth hockey tournament this weekend, which is bittersweet.

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: Rest day
  • Book: Book: Marcel Proust’s Finding Lost Time.
  • Blog: done
  • Today’s song: Mrs. Robinson performed by the Lemonheads
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Last Tournament Weekend

It’s our last tournament weekend for the Mayor’s u16aa team. Unfortunately, they were knocked out of states last night when the Everblades beat the flames. Heartbreakingly, they lost on tiebreakers. At any rate, I guess now those teams can spend a nice chunk of change to get their asses kicked by the Panthers and Crunch. Nonetheless, this is the first year the Mayor’s been on a team that didn’t qualify for states, so it is a bit sad.

We’ve been on this travel hockey quest for well over a decade now. It’s odd that it’s starting to wind down. We don’t know what the Mayor is going to do next year. His options are juniors or u18. I’m not quite sure what we’ll do with ourselves when the hockey is truly over. Maybe we’ll start going to the beach again or plan trips that don’t revolve around hockey rinks. Who knows what the future brings? Actually, that’s not entirely true.

Once the hockey is done for us, I’m going to write a book about our experience. Over the past decade, we’ve seen some interesting stuff. Honestly, I can’t wait to put pen to paper and spill the tea on Florida hockey. The best part of the travel hockey experience for me has been our hockey family. We’ve met so many incredible folks over the heads that have become not just friends, but family. Anyway, I’m resting up for our last tournament weekend, so I’ll be in bed early tonight. Toodle-oo!

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: Spin Class through the Apple Fitness App app
  • Book: I finished The Seven Husbands Of Eleanor Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid last night. It was so good. Tonight I’m starting volume seven of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time entitled Finding Lost Time. I have been waiting two years for Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition’s translation of Proust’s final volume.
  • Blog: done
  • Today’s song: Whatever It Takes by the Imagine Dragons
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Good News

We got good news today after Goalielocks’ appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. The doctor noted his shoulder is quite unstable. Moreover, he didn’t think Goalielocks tore anything. At this point, the doctor stated he does not need surgery to fix the shoulder. Thank god! He will be in a sling for the next four to six weeks and will see the doctor again in two weeks. His left shoulder appears to have a labrum tear, which isn’t good news. Nevertheless, the doctor felt both shoulders could be treated with physical therapy with no need for surgery at this time.

It was weird to be so far away while he saw the doctor. Goalielocks has always been interested in medicine and did clinicals during high school. Consequently, I knew he’d be fine interfacing with the doctor without his parents present. In fact, I’m confident that he did a better job articulating his injury than I’ve ever been able to do. He opted not to take ibuprofen or Tylenol for pain, so he could better understand which movements caused the most pain. This way he could give very detailed information to the doctor.

I guess it’s easy to forget that while pain sucks, it does provide vital information to our brains. Speaking of pain, my left knee does not like the spin bike so much. In fact, I find it quite rebellious when I hit the pinnacle of hills. Fortunately, the discomfort in my knee tends to go away once the ride and walking cooldown are over. I’m going to try my knee brace tomorrow and see if that helps. I plan to start running next week, so I’m curious to see how the knee likes the treadmill.

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: Spin Class through JRNY app
  • Book: The Seven Husbands Of Eleanor Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Blog: done
  • Word of the day: flammiferous which means producing or bright with flame. You’ll thank me the next time you play Scrabble.
  • Today’s song: Feeling Good performed by Michael Buble
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Eventful Evening

Our sleepy Valentine’s Day ended up being an eventful evening when Goalielocks called home injured. I had been texting him and calling him about an Uber eats charge that showed up on my credit card on Super Bowl Sunday. He finally called back when he was leaving volleyball with a dislocated right shoulder. Unfortunately, he was thinking he’d need to go the ER, however, his dad and I were able to convince him the ER wasn’t a great idea.

Consequently, I got up and started looking for in network urgent cares near his apartment. Thankfully, there were two in his area. Better yet, there was one that was still open! Here the urgent cares close at 8:00 pm, which I think is ridiculous. Fortunately, he was able to make an appointment at the urgent care for last evening. I chuckled as he texted and called as he filled out the forms. As a mom, I’ve filled out countless forms for schools, hospitals and clinics. Motherhood is a sea of forms that need to be filled out. Honestly, It was nice to no be the person filling it out.

The doctor took an X-ray as as expected nothing was broken. His shoulder was dislocated with a suspected labrum tear. The doctor put him in a sling and gave him a referral for an orthopedic doctor. I had fallen asleep before he left his appointment, but went to bed comfortable in the knowledge he can competently take care of himself in this situation. Sure enough he sent me a photo of himself in a sling once he got back to his apartment.

So our uneventful Valentine’s became quite an eventful evening, so much for the romance. Goalielocks will be seeing an orthopedic doctor tomorrow for his right shoulder. Although, he probably should have the doctor look at both shoulders as he has a preexisting left shoulder injury. In addition his old injury, the Mayor had dislocated his shoulder two weeks ago as well. Consequently, I had gotten a referral for a shoulder expert here in Palm Beach County. Needless to say, they’ll both be seeing the expert sooner rather than later.

The accountability tracker is back now that I’m better and settled back into my routine!

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: Spin Class through JRNY alp
  • Book: The Seven Husbands Of Eleanor Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Blog: done
  • Word of the day: Mohawk. My boys always wanted a Mohawk or a mullet. I always said no. Now that their older, the choice is fully theirs to make.
  • Today’s song: Tennesee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton
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Happy Valentine’s Day

Wishing everyone in the blogosphere a very happy Valentine’s Day! I hope everyone feels lots of love, gets some flowers, and eats some good chocolate. As of yet, the extent of my Valentine’s Day gifts was the Dunkin’ coffee Uber Eats dropped off this morning. I have no complaints, however, as I simply can’t function without my coffee.

Tonight I’m going to take a spin class before dinner. I had planned to take one during lunch but put the kibosh due to an unfortunately timed meeting. For dinner, we’ll have the last of this week’s Blue Apron meals. Yesterday I made a Calabrian shrimp orzo that was out of this world. Truly, it was super tasty and did not a lot of calories. It’s definitely a meal I’ll order again.

My system at work is operating in the dregs of the IT realm, which is to say it’s barely operating at all. Yet again I’ve spent the day facing tech issues. Clearly, it wasn’t how I anticipated celebrating Valentine’s. Hopefully, IT can get it together, so tomorrow our systems will be running smoothly. That right there would be a Valentine’s Day gift to celebrate. Anyway, from me to you, Happy Valentine’s day!

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Spin City

It’s spin city for me now. After two weeks off from working out, due to shingles, I’m finally back at it. This time, however, I started off on my spin bike instead of the treadmill. I figured at this junction the lighter impact would probably be more forgiving on my overtaxed system. The spinning may be a lighter impact, but it’s not a light workout.

I started my spin city journey off yesterday with a fitness assessment that kicked my ass. Afterward, I did a forty-minute class that also kicked my butt. We got a free year of classes with the JRNY app when we purchased the bike. The app is pretty cool. It has a wide variety of workouts for the bike ranging from ten minutes to seventy-five. Today I did a thirty-five minute class during lunch and that was perfect.

The one major drawback to spinning is the damn seat. The bike seat is a menace to asses everywhere. Unfortunately, the seat of the Ic4 is no exception. Consequently, after finishing my ride this afternoon, I ordered a padded seat cover for the bike. Sadly, Amazon won’t be delivering the cushion until Thursday. So until that point, my poor ass will have to suffer with the bike seat.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Super Bowl yesterday. It was one hell of a game and thankfully the right team won. Sorry Philly, but the majority of your fans are insufferable. Honestly, I would have liked for KC to have scored a touchdown on the last drive, but I get why they did it. Hats off to the receiver that had the selflessness and discipline to stop short of the goal line. If I were KC, I wouldn’t have wanted to give Philly’s offense another chance.

I enjoyed the halftime show. I thought Rihanna and the dancers were phenomenal. The floating platforms were pretty cool too. Rihanna has so many great songs. Obviously, there’s been some criticism today, but you can’t please everyone. And everyone doesn’t have to like everything. we’re actually allowed to have different tastes, which you wouldn’t know by reading social media today. Lastly, I have to give her mad props for the world’s best pregnancy announcement and for kicking ass while pregnant. Pregnancy kicks your butt, but it didn’t slow Rihanna down yesterday.

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Super Bowl Sunday

It’s Super Bowl Sunday and for once we don’t have any hockey games today. It’s a miracle! Consequently, we spent the day relaxing at home with the dogs. I finally got a chance to put our spin bike to use and it properly kicked my ass. It did, however, feel good to work out again. I haven’t worked out since being diagnosed with shingles several weeks ago. Let’s hope I’m able to continue working out.

Before hockey, we’d likely spend Super Bowl Sunday at the beach with our toes in the sand. Since we started hockey, we rarely make it to the beach anymore. Unfortunately, there was no beach this morning either. A cold front came through last night and brought with it a howling wind. I love the beach, but it’s never fun to get sandblasted the wind-blown sand. Nevertheless, it would still be beautiful.

As we roll into the afternoon and towards the start of the Super Bowl, I’d like to preemptively extend my condolences to the losing team and their fan base. Let’s hope this year’s Super Bowl is entertaining with great commercials. There have been way too many boring super bowls over the last several years. Lastly, I hope Rihanna’s halftime show is incredible. I like her music, so I’m excited to see what songs made the setlist.

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End of an Era

Today marked the end of an era. It was the Mayor’s last league game as a Hawk. In fact, it may have been his last league game as a youth hockey player. We don’t know yet if he’ll play juniors next year or U18aa. Nonetheless, it is crazy to think my youngest son, who was a four-year mite, is about to age out of U16. Truly, it was a bit of a spiritual experience.

As always for a home game, I was the DJ for today’s game. For some reason, the kids play their best when I play heavy metal. Strangely enough heavy metal isn’t their personal music preference. Either way, the heavier the music, the better they play, so cue the Five-Fingered Death Punch and Rammstein. If the players had their way, there would be more rap in the rotation. Unfortunately for them, or maybe fortunately for the rest of us, there are very few current rap songs with clean versions.

Our first year with Coach David, the boys selected John Denver’s Country Roads for their victory song. I say victory song chiefly because everyone knows John Denver is for winners. Three years later, I played it as their victory song. They held off Clearwater White to get a big win today. The last time we played the team, they killed us. Today’s victory was bittersweet as it marked the end of an era. Feeling nostalgic, I again played John Denver’s Country Roads for their victory song. It’s hard to believe this chapter of his life and ours is coming to a close.

And now here’s your weekly recap in photos and memes, you’re welcome.

While the Chinese ballon was shut down last Saturday, the memes continue to be top-notched. I love this one calling out folks that were concerned about the balloon but have no problem giving the Chinese government their info on TikTok.

The Mayor’s high school season came to an unceremonious end Monday night with a playoff loss. Curiously, the league offered the team a place in the state tournament round-robin stage with no ability to move on to the playoffs. Say what?!? No thanks, we’ll pass.

Tuesday night was the SOTU at 9:00 pm EST. Do they not realize that some of us have to get up for work Wednesday morning? My ass was in bed by the time the speech popped off. I did however enjoy the Cruella De Ville/MGT memes that I saw Wednesday. Since I didn’t watch the speech, my one takeaway is that MGT channeled her inner Cruella De Ville when getting dressed. And if there is a news source you can trust, it’s memes on social media.

The Mayor discovered the workout clothes Jake left behind at Christmas and decided they were now his. Jake, being the awesome big brother he is, was happy to let The Mayor have them.

Anakin snuck out and went duck hunting in the lake behind our house. Fortunately, there were no gators in the lake when he decided to go for a swim. Moreover, no ducks were hurt during his hunting adventure.

Goalielocks came home last night for a visit. It was so nice to see him. All of us, including the puppies, we’re happy to have him home.

And as noted above, the Mayor’s team’s regular season came to an end today. The end of an era. In tribute to the boys and their end-of-season victory, today’s video is Country Roads.