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Hazards Of Hockey

Oh the hazards of hockey. For us hockey parents we’re acutely aware of these hazards, but for the uninitiated it can be a bit scary. There are, of course, several different types of hazards ranging from financial to physical. It definitely takes a little bit of courage and craziness to be a hockey parent.

Unfortunately, today we were again reminded of the hazards of hockey. Late in the third period, Goalielocks was plowed into by one of their players. I’ve seen a lot of collisions in the crease, but this one was especially nasty. I knew immediately his game was over and probably his tournament.

Both boys were having trouble sitting up, so Coach P was supporting Goalielocks, while the ref supported the other player. From my vantage point, I could tell both players were completely out of it. Consequently, the coaches helped both players off the ice to the bench.

Once on the bench, they decided to send Goalielocks off as he was dizzy. When he got off the ice, he was out of it. Even though he was out of it, he was disappointed his game was over. Fortunately, he passed the baseline concussion tests. His pupils looked good, he knew where he was, where he’s from and the day of the week, so I was encouraged.

Post-game the coach at Merrimack College gave the boys a tour of their facilities. Our boys, Goalielocks included, really enjoyed the tour. Meanwhile, the parents appreciated how the coach explained the academic requirements for a division one athlete. Hopefully, this will motivate our boys to focus on their studies.

As we left the rink, I had planned to take a wait and see approach to the head injury. However, after our trip to Chic Fil-A, I knew I’d have to get him checked out. He placed his order, I paid and then ran to the restroom while they made our food. When I got back to the counter, he asked me if I had ordered the drink. He had completely forgotten that he ordered himself a Dr. Pepper.

Consequently, we ended up in an urgent care center. Goalielocks was reticent to go as he didn’t want to be told he couldn’t play. In the end, it was, as I thought, a minor concussion. He’ll be out for at least a week, but we’ll need to follow up with his pediatrician once back in Florida. He’s pretty bummed as he played well this morning and was looking forward to his next game.

Nonetheless, it could have been much worse given the severity of the collision. So tonight instead of heading to the rink, we’re chilling in the room enjoying our room service.

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New England Weekend

We left balmy, beautiful South Florida for a New England weekend full of hockey. After yesterday’s events this is the perfect distraction for our boys. Fortunately, we had several of Goalielocks’ teammates on our flight into Boston.

I seem to remember the flight being shorter, but it seemed quite long. Consequently, I made good use of my time by watching Bad Moms 2 and Loving Vincent. Bad Moms 2 wasn’t nearly as good as the first one, but it was still funny.

On the other hand, Loving Vincent was absolutely masterful. It tells the story of the aftermath of Van Gogh’s life and death via the characters in his paintings through the paintings. Not only does it tell the story brilliantly, but it does so by animating his paintings in glorious fashion. I was completely transfixed on the film and can’t recommend it ugly enough.

Unfortunately, once we landed in Boston the hard work started for me. There’s a lot of freaking traffic from Boston all the way to New Hampshire! Whiskey tango foxtrot! We spent an hour and a half driving from the airport to the hotel. We’re entirely and completely exhausted!

Before settling in for the night we enjoyed a great dinner at the Pig’s Tail. We split poutine and eggplant with our friends. For the main course, we enjoyed flat iron steak and pizza. Now we’re off the bed as we are beyond tired.

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It Wasn’t My Fault

“It wasn’t my fault!” If you’re a parent, this is a phrase you have heard quite often. When they’re small it can be kind of cute.  After all, it wasn’t Goalielocks or the Mayor’s fault they spilled all the toothpaste and put toothpaste footprints all over the upstairs. Of course, it was entirely their fault given there was no toothpaste fairy that squeezed the toothpaste all over the floor.  Unfortunately, the plethora of sweet, minty, stick and blue footprints led to a hole in a wall as my hubby realized the scope of the issue.

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Now that they’re older it isn’t as cute.  Moreover, it’s super important that they understand that it was indeed their fault.  My son’s phone rang in the middle of class courtesy of spammer.  Unfortunately, he had forgotten to turn of the ringer, so his teacher confiscated the phone for the remainder of the day. In fact, the school’s policy prohibits him from collecting the phone at dismissal.  Nope that would just be too simple and let the kids off to easy.

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At this point,  I was at work running from meeting to meeting.  I just taken on a new role at work, so needless to say I’m quite busy. His friend text me to tell me that his phone had been confiscated for ringing.  Naively I assumed he would be able to pick it up as he left school that day.  Interestingly enough he never told me via his friend’s phone that we would have to be the ones to recover said phone.

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I called the school once I saw he was on the bus without his phone.  The front office staff was incredibly sweet and helpful.  She called the teacher, but was unable to reach her via phone.  Consequently, she tried to page her, but to no avail.  Finally, she sent someone to check the classroom as the teacher hadn’t turned in a phone.  When she came back on the line, she informed me they had found the phone in the teacher’s classroom. 

The teacher had left with my son’s iPhone 8 sitting out in the open.  I’m a little peeved about that because I don’t think the teacher nor the school would have paid for a new phone had his been stolen.  Oh and the only way to get it was for us to pick it up.  Now I’m just aggravated.  His school is neither close to home nor close to work for either of us. This had become quite the pain in the arse.

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We were finally able to collect the phone around 6:40 pm.  Curiously, if I hadn’t called the school, we may not have known we (the parents) had to pick up the phone.  We started talking about the situation and the old refrain came up “it wasn’t my fault.”  His argument was he couldn’t control when the spammer called.  Of course, his argument did not consider the fact he had forgotten to put his phone on silent.  Had he put his phone on silent as he does every other morning, he wouldn’t have had it taken away.  At the end of the day, it wasn’t the end of the world, but he needed to take accountability for his actions or in this case inactions.  Fortunately, he caught on pretty quickly, which brought an end to the lecture.

Tonight’s song performed by Shaggy (and apropos to tonight’s title) is “It Wasn’t Me.”

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Grocery Shopping

Since yesterday was a crazy day, I did grocery shopping today.  Fortunately or unfortunately, there’s a Super Target right by our house.  Today I was pretty disciplined in my shopping.  Consequently, we’ll say it’s fortunate we’re so close to Target.  Before I left for the store, I had my list ready, Cartwheel and my Ibotta ready to go.

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If you’re grocery shopping in S. Florida during snowbird season, you’re really taking your life and your heels into your own hands.  I can’t tell how many times they’ve run into the back of my cart.  Nor could I tell you how many times they’ve held up the line arguing over an expired coupon or a coupon for another store.  Thank God for earbuds!

Despite the list and the well intentioned planning, I inevitably forget 2-3 items on my list on the regular.  This week it seems that I got my entire list, but last week was an entirely different story.  Last week, I forgot bananas, sandwich bags and jelly.  Fortunately, we live close, so I returned Monday to get those items.  Well, except for the bananas because I forgot them again.  Perhaps I should try a mnemonic device instead since the grocery list strategy isn’t bullet proof.  On second thought, that probably won’t work either.

This week’s list was quite light  as the Mayor and Hubby are still in Georgia for hockey while Goalielocks and I will head to Boston Thursday.  Of course, I tried to buy enough stuff so the Hubby wouldn’t have to grocery shop in my absence.  After all, the last time he grocery shopped, we ended up with Spam sandwiches.  P.S.  Spam sandwiches are awful.  You may as well put a salt lick between pieces of bread.  P.S.S. the mnemonic device pictured below is a lie!

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It’s back to work tomorrow!  I know you’re as excited as I am about the return of Monday.  Believe it or not, I’m actually excited for tomorrow.  I cannot wait to see my Mayor and the Hubby.  It sounds like they’ve had an amazing trip.  The Mayor will be sure to share all his stories with me upon his return home and that will be incredible!

Tonight’s song performed by Goldfinger is “99 Red Balloons.”  Sorry – JS I couldn’t find a good English video of the original!

 

 

 

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Friday Eve

It’s Friday eve to a weekend full of hockey.  My Mayor and the hubby are headed to Georgia for an outdoor tournament.  Yes, you read that right.  They’ll be playing on an outdoor rink in Georgia.  In fact, I’m a little bummed that I won’t be able to see how the organizers pull this off.  Meanwhile in Florida, Goalielocks’ (my tendy) team will be playing Saturday.  If we happen to lose the first game Saturday, we’ll be playing an additional game on Sunday morning.  Here’s hoping we win, so I don’t miss aerial yoga.

 

In honor of our impending hockey weekend, I’d thought I’d share some links to my favorite hockey related posts:

  1. Love They Tendy
  2. Skol Vikings!!!
  3. My Favorite Night
  4. Hockey Culture
  5. Split Saturday
  6. Hockey Mom Wisdom
  7. Hockey Season is in Full Swing
  8. Saturday Night in Tampa
  9. Split Saturday
  10. Wheels up
  11. Wheels Up Pt. 2
  12. Wheels Up Pt. 3
  13. The Trouble With Travel

After this weekend and next, I’ll have some great stories to share.  Goalielocks and I are headed to Boston next week for a tournament with his team.  It will be our third time to Boston for hockey.  Thankfully, I really enjoy the city and the surrounding area.  Lastly, I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with my Goalielocks.

Tonight’s song performed by the B-52s is “Roam.”

 

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Life With Teens

Life with teens is oh so fun.  I knew getting into this whole parenting gig that we’d be in for it when our sweet, darling baby became a toddler.  Yeah, they were right.  When our kids were toddlers many a tear was shed by them and us.  In fact, for the first two years of his life, I was convinced the Mayor was an 88 year old man from Boca trapped in a toddler’s body.  He was that cranky.  However, it seems nothing can prepare you adequately for the beast that is a teenager.

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There are quite a number of similarities between the toddler and teenage stage that i have notice.

  1. Temper tantrums – While they once threw temper tantrums over losing blocks, not watching Caillou or other very serious toddler problems, as teenagers they now lose their ish over the simplest of things.  For example, you should always proceed with caution when asking teen to go to bed, take shower, do homework or god forbid to do a chore. c1f4170247f3ad17b1276bc1c2f8e137--raising-teenagers-raising-teenager-quotes
  2. Rock solid logic.  Have you ever argued with a two year old?  No, there’s a reason for that.  Its a zero sum game.  The beauty of teenagers is their intellect and their vocabularies are a little more mature.  For example, tonight I asked Goalielocks to take a shower right after practice, so he doesn’t keep everyone up with the commotion.  His response, “great well I guess I don’t get to eat tonight.”  Now mind you, he had pizza before going to practice.  Another favorite of mine is their argument that we want their animals today because we won’t take them to Petsmart or Petco immediately.  To date, we have not lost an animal due to a delayed trip to the pet store.IMG_1260
  3. Their taste is music is equally horrible as it when they were a toddler.  Only when their teens, the music is a much more insidious albeit still simplistic.  If you’re curious what I’m referring to check out the song “Gucci Gang.”  They also think Tupac wasn’t a real rapper and sucks.  No further explanation is needed here. You’ll be begging for the muscial stylings of Sesame Street in no time.
  4. Their personality is often amplified as both a toddler and a teen.  Did you have a strong willed toddler? Well, boy oh boy, are you in luck because you’re about to have a strong willed teenager.  (I’m praying for you now.)
  5. Stubbornness is a trait that both age groups excel at and is so pleasing to parents.    IMG_1475
  6. They’re silly.  At least they share some good traits, eh.
  7. Whether or not they will ever admit, teens need their parents.  In fact, they need us just as much as a teen as they did when they’re a toddler.  The dynamic may shift, the aggravation level will increase, but they will need you.  Moreover, they will need you as a parental figure and not a friend.
  8. As a toddler, you’ll clamor to enroll them into the best preschool.  While when they’re a teen, you’ll agonize over secondary and higher education options.   It is a bit overwhelming at first, but I’m hoping by the third one we’ll have it mastered.

Each and every stage of the boys lives has been an amazing chapter.  Our oldest is an adult, which sounds odd every time I say it.  My oldest has become an amazing man and is proof that the hubby and I can survive life with a teenager! Tonight’s song performed by Nirvana is “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”  I loved this song when I was a teenager attending junior high dances where we’d all bang out head to that song.  For me, it also represents Jake’s awakening into music.  It wasn’t too long after he started choir as a high school freshmen that he began to discover real good music.  Nirvana was one of the first, of many, bands he discovered.

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Life In The Box

It was back to a life in the box for me as we headed to Coral Springs for the Mayor’s two games.  It’s never dull in the sin bin that is for darn sure.  I wasn’t that too busy in the first game, but the second game was different.  The first game we got off to a bit of a slow start and ended up losing 5-3.  Certainly, it would have been nice to win that one as it would have sealed a state tournament berth.

While the Hubby headed back north to take Goalielocks to his practed, I stayed in Springs with my Mayor.  We grabbed a quick bite in between games at McDonald’s for him and Dunkin for me.  I needed to ensure I had my pre-game coffee, so I wouldn’t mess up the mojo.  I had drunk my morning coffee at home instead of the rink per usual, so naturally that’s probably what messed up the morning game.  It’s a good thing us hockey moms aren’t superstitious or anything.

I grabbed my coffee and some oatmeal.  It was my first time trying Dunkin’s oatmeal and I have to say it was pretty darn good.  Fortunately, both McDonald’s and Dunkin are close to the rink, so we had no trouble getting back to the rink in time. As we waited around for the game to start, we were discussing our path to the state tournament. If we had won in the morning, we would have qualified.  Since we lost however, our team’s fate was in the hands of another team.  Needless to say, it is always better to be in control of your own destiny.

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As the zambonis took to the ice, I headed over to my place in the sin bin.  As they finished cleaning the ice, both teams and referees were ready to start the game.  I looked around and there was no score keeper to be seen.  Both referees tried to reach someone unsuccessfully to find a score keeper.  Consequently, yours truly ended up being the scorekeeper.

I have to say, I truly sympathize with the scorekeepers now. There’s a lot going on and the whole thing isn’t setup for a lefty.  The refs said I would start the game and not to worry about the penalties and such, but that wasn’t exactly accurate.  If you didn’t put the penalties up, you had to do the backwards math yourself.  No thank you!  Additionally, ladies there’s a reason men don’t like to read instructions.  Most of the time the instructions are poorly written or leave out key steps – as was the case with adding penalties to the clock.

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Fortunately, I had mostly figured it out (penalties included) by the end of the first period.  I am pretty sure, however, that the score sheets are made for people with 20/20 vision and super small and perfect writing.  Sadly, I fall into neither of those categories, which made filling out the score sheet quite the adventure.  By the third period, we were on run time, which made my life a bit easier.  Meanwhile, the Hubby is texting for updates and getting radio silence.   There was no way I could text and score keep all at once.

We ended up winning the game 9-1, but we lost one of our players in the process.  Late in the first, one of our D-men was checked and flew head first into the boards.  Can I tell you how scary that was?  From where we were sitting in the box, we could tell he was out cold.   Unfortunately, he ended up having to be transported to the hospital with a concussion.  It was certainly a very scary situation.  Thankfully, his mom just updated all of us and let us know that he’s home and will be okay.  Thank goodness!

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Post game, we ended up watching another U-12 A game as it would decide our fate.  Like I said, it is always better to decide your own fate than to leave it in somebody else’s hands.  It was nerve wracking and up to 23.7 seconds left in the 3rd it looked like our season would end early.  Only at 23.6 seconds, the Panthers scored a goal and sealed our fate.  Our squad is going to SAHOF!!!!  I couldn’t be happier for this team.  They work so hard and play so hard for each other that it is fun to watch.  Even on their worst days, they have each others’ backs.  I freaking love these kids and families.

Anyway, we’ve been home for almost 3 hours and my toes are still frozen.  Once that cold gets in your bones, it sure does not want to leave.  I’ll be making myself some nice chamomile tea to try and warm myself up.  Tonight’s song performed by PitBull, JLo and Claudia Leitte is “We Are One.”  The Mayor and I listened to this song as we drove back to the rink and it is the perfect song for him and his team.  Plus the hockey dads will like the samba dancers.

 

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Award Winning

I am now an award winning blog.  The Sunshine Blogger award is a peer nominated award, which is pretty awesome.  Moreover, it certainly is nice to be recognized for all the hard work I’ve put into the site. The great thing about a peer nominated award in blogging is that the nominator understands the blood, sweat and tears that go into a blog.  I’d like to profusely thank Floatinggold whose blog I quite enjoy.  On this great blog, you’ll find great posts from topical news of the day posts, creative writing and wonderful motivational posts.  You should definitely check it out.

In addition to winning the Sunshine blogger award, I’m pretty sure I enjoyed some award winning donuts (Jupiter Donuts), pizza (Louie’s) and amazing wings (Wings Plus.)  Needless to say after the feast that was our team lunch, I probably won’t have to eat again until Sunday.  Overall, it was an award worth Thursday.

Finally, the best part of Thursday of course is that it is Friday eve.  Oh wait, my weekend is equally as busy as my weekdays.  The Mayor has two games in Coral Springs Saturday while Goalielocks has practice in Palm Beach at the same time.  So far, Sunday looks to be pretty open, so I’ll be heading to aerial yoga and spin in the morning.  Fortunately, this will leave me well prepared for the gorge fest that is the Super Bowl.

QUESTIONS FOR ME:

  1. Would you rather move to a new city or town every year or never be able to leave the city or town you were born in and why?  I’d rather move to a new city and explore the world than be constrained to one place in this world.
  2. What was the last picture you took with your phone?  The Mayor eating a Girl Scout Cookie.
  3. You discover that your wonderful one-year-old child is not yours because of a mix up at the hospital, would you want to exchange the child to correct the mistake?  This is a tough one.  I’d probably exchange the child or create a co-parenting situation.  After all, the kids would need to know their biological family and their associated health risks.
  4. Do you ever talk to yourself? When and what do you say?  All the time… It’s like a running monologue on my day and no I don’t answer myself…
  5. What is the best part of being a part of your family?  We have a blast together.  Our life is crazy, hectic, stressful and wonderful all at us.  I couldn’t ask for a better family.
  6. Is there something you constantly lose?  I lose my keys, my sunglasses, my water on the daily.

NOMINATIONS:

QUESTIONS FOR YOU:

  1. Why did you start your blog?
  2. If you could move anywhere in the world (money is no object), where would you move and why?
  3. What’s your favorite book and how has it influenced you?
  4. Coffee or tea?
  5. What makes your heart sing?
  6. If you could see any artist in concert, who would it be and why?

RULES:

  • Thank blogger(s) who nominated you for the blog post and link back to their blog.
  • Answer the questions the blogger asked you.
  • Nominate other new blogs to receive the award and compose new questions for them to answer.
  • List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.
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Monday Medicine

I started my Monday off at the doctor’s office for some Monday medicine.  While I only see my ob/gyn once a year, I resent the fact that I have to have a specialty doctor for every pat of my body.  When we lived in Minnesota, our family practitioner took care of all of our medical needs without referring us out.    In contrast, here in Florida family doctors are few and far between.  Consequently, you end up with a general practitioner or internist, an allergist, an ob/gyn, a podiatrist, an ortho, and a dermatologist.  I could literally go on all day naming the specialties all day!

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To be clear, I have the utmost respect for all of my doctors and am quite happy with all of them.  My complaint is that I hate having to go to 36 different people for every little thing.  As a result, instead of one co-pay, you end up paying 36.   It just stifles my willingness to go to the doctor.  As much as I hate paying the co-pays, I simply don’t have the time for 36 appointments.  I don’t know if it just the reality of living in S. Florida an area dominated by an elderly population or if it is just what medicine has become.

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Fortunately, today’s appointment went well.  I won’t be back to her office for at least another 365 days.   Since she got out of the ob world, her wait times have dropped dramatically.  Today I barely waited and was in and out of the office in less than 45 minutes.  In contrast, when I was pregnant with the Mayor, I often sat in the waiting room upwards of 45 minutes.   Thank god those days are over!

Lastly, in addition to a song, I’m sharing some of my favorite quotes that  use the word stifle.  Stifle is the word for the daily prompt, but I found these two quotes to be exceptionally poignant.  Tonight’s song permed by Pearl Jam is “Alive.”

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Disappointment

Disappointment is such a heavy word as it coveys all the feelings that come along with it.  The pit in your stomach, the sadness, that gnawing feeling that you should have listened to your gut, etc.   I don’t like being being disappointed, but it is a part of life.   I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this feeling.   Moreover, nobody likes to be disappointed by their leadership.  This is something I take very seriously in my role.

 

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I’ve lead teams at major corporations for the last eleven years.  When you talk about leadership, two important tenets are equality and fairness.   If you hold your people to different standards, you will falter as a leader. Actually, you will fail as a leader.  Nobody will have respect for you and ultimately your results will reflect the inequity and unfair practices.  For me policies and procedures are agnostic to performance or tenure.  While this is common sense it isn’t always widely practiced.

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While these tenets apply to leadership in a corporate environment, they also apply to schools, sports organizations, organizations like the boy scouts.  A lack of equity or fairness in leadership is much more insidious when it impacts our kids.  While life is certainly unfair, it emboldens bad behavior.  Unfortunately, due to poor leadership, some kids or players think that they are above the rules.  As a result, they are woefully disrespectful to everyone.  This isn’t a recipe for success.

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Ultimately, these types of leaders create an environment that lacks accountability and respect.  They may enjoy short term success, but ultimately the culture will lead them to failure.  This type of leadership creates an unsustainable environment.  In addition,  people that are treated unfairly learn to be honorable in the face of dishonor.  Moreover, they learn resilience.  Ultimately, they move on to new organizations.  

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As I said above, life isn’t fair, but that’s not what this post is about.  This post is about leading a team or an organization honorably, which creates a high producing environment.  I witnessed a lack of leadership this evening that was  disappointing.  Truly, it was the same story last weekend.   However, change is always on the horizon.  Don’t be the type of leader that creates misanthropic kids or employees or an atmosphere rife with disrespect.

Tonight’s song performed by Offspring is “The Kids Aren’t Alright.”  Offspring’s debut CD was also one of the first CDs I bought.  Moreover, this is one of my favorite songs from the late 90’s.  It is also one of my kids’ favorite songs.  The Mayor had two hockey games at home today.  I was able to play the music today, so I chose a 90’s theme in honor of Delores O’Riordan.  What’s your favorite song from the 90’s?