My Penguin tickets for the month of January fell on Friday, January 16. Unfortunately, Sidders had gotten hurt in the game before and was unable to play, so I was a tad less excited than I would be normally.
I decided to take my cousin Kristie with me, because 1) the last time we went to a game we found triscuits and watched Darius Kasparitis knock the shit out of Eric Lindros, 2) She is just fun to be with and 3) She was in desperate need of a girl’s night out (sorry Lily!).
Play-by Play of the Evening
5:00-I get to Kristie’s house and change into my new “old-Karma free” Penguin attire. See, the last two games I went to, they lost, and being the supportive (and albeit, somewhat insane) fan that I am, I decided I needed to change the losing karma to winning karma. So, I wore a new Penguins shirt and new Penguin earrings in an attempt to turn things in their favor.
5:30ish- Kristie and I leave for Pittsburgh
5:30-6:15ish- We laugh hysterically the entire way there to the point that our stomachs hurt and it’s only been 45 minutes into the evening.
6:40- We head to the doors after deciding it was WAYYYYYYY too cold at -3 degrees to wait in a line to get inside. And, in my continued effort to change the Penguins karma, I refuse to go in the doors that I normally enter. I also made sure I didn’t go to the Pens store first. We then made our way down to the glass for warm-ups, and I choose a different spot to watch warm-ups in hopes of guaranteeing a win.
7:00ish-7:20ish- The Penguins take to the ice for warm-ups. All of a sudden there was a bang on the glass (the puck was shot into it) and a scream that caused several people, both on and off the ice, including myself, to look in the direction of the noise. Turns out, I didn’t have to look very far, just to the person to my left, to see Kristie ducked down with her arms covering her head. When I realized everyone was ok, and it was not a bomb threat or a tornado drill, I began laughing hysterically and actually had to sit down so I didn’t fall down. As an aside to this part of the story, when watching the pregame show on FSN, I could be seen laughing at Kristie in the background during Jordan Staal’s interview.
Because half of the Penguin’s line up consisted of players from Wilkes Barre, I wasn’t very interested in taking pictures so I actually just watched warm-ups. Towards the end of warm-up, Jordan hit a puck off the glass right in front of us. Hearing the second shriek of the evening, he actually looked over his shoulder with a look that I wish I had managed to capture on camera. I’d almost be willing to bet that an eye-roll accompanied the glance. Next game I go to, I am shrieking when pucks hit the glass in hopes that Jordan Staal will look at me during warm-ups.
7:20ish- We head to our seats for the start of the game.
7:30- Game time
Since Sid was not playing, I think I actually only saw about 3 whole shifts. I had to come home and watch the game on DVR so I could see what had happened. Instead. I spent the evening people watching, which was almost as good as the game (once I saw it replayed on tv that is). The guy in front of us (see below) obviously did not own a mirror. First of all, he left the house in a Gretzky jersey to go to the Igloo, home of Mario Lemieux (that was strike 1) and second, did he honestly believe that he looked good in that hat???????????????????? In the words of Meredith and Cristina, “Seriously.” It was like a bad car wreck, you couldn’t not look at the disaster that was his hat and jersey.
The 2nd best person to “people watch” was Jeff Reed. Yes, that Jeff Reed, kicker for the Steelers. Based on his appearance at the Penguins game, Kristie and I nicknamed him Troll. He had his hair dyed white blonde and it was sticking straight up all over his head (the way a troll doll’s would) and he was the most unusual shade of “human” I have ever seen in my whole entire life. He clearly has either been on vacation to the equator recently (which is not possible since it’s football season) or he bought stock in self-tanning methods. He sat 1 section over from us and 7 rows down, so we were able to keep an eye on him all evening. He constantly had people coming up to him asking him to autograph things and take pictures with him. When I called my dad to tell him, he asked me if I saw him to tell him “good game last week, Jeff”. How cute is my dad?
The little kids behind us were adorable. They were probably about 7 and they were huge hockey fans. It was the first game for one boy and the 2nd game for the other boy. The one kept calling Pascal Dupuis, Duupee, which was adorable. They were so excited all night, that it was hard to be mad at them for yelling and jumping around. Although, during the 1st intermission, the one dad bought his son those giant hand clappers, which he then insisted on clapping ALL through the second period. Well, that is, until they broke and the one hand hit Kristie in the head and the guy in front of us in the back (no not the bad hat guy, a different guy).
Before I knew it, the game was over and the Penguins had won! I believe it was because of the new shirt, earrings, and way into the arena, not because the Pens played well enough to win.
10:30ish- The ride home was an absolute blast. I can't even begin to tell you the last time I laughed as hard as Kristie and I did. At one point, I actually couldn't see the road because the tears in my eyes were so thick from laughing.
It was a great night- tons of fun, even without my Sidney playing.
Pictures of my boys...
I decided to take my cousin Kristie with me, because 1) the last time we went to a game we found triscuits and watched Darius Kasparitis knock the shit out of Eric Lindros, 2) She is just fun to be with and 3) She was in desperate need of a girl’s night out (sorry Lily!).
Play-by Play of the Evening
5:00-I get to Kristie’s house and change into my new “old-Karma free” Penguin attire. See, the last two games I went to, they lost, and being the supportive (and albeit, somewhat insane) fan that I am, I decided I needed to change the losing karma to winning karma. So, I wore a new Penguins shirt and new Penguin earrings in an attempt to turn things in their favor.
5:30ish- Kristie and I leave for Pittsburgh
5:30-6:15ish- We laugh hysterically the entire way there to the point that our stomachs hurt and it’s only been 45 minutes into the evening.
6:40- We head to the doors after deciding it was WAYYYYYYY too cold at -3 degrees to wait in a line to get inside. And, in my continued effort to change the Penguins karma, I refuse to go in the doors that I normally enter. I also made sure I didn’t go to the Pens store first. We then made our way down to the glass for warm-ups, and I choose a different spot to watch warm-ups in hopes of guaranteeing a win.
7:00ish-7:20ish- The Penguins take to the ice for warm-ups. All of a sudden there was a bang on the glass (the puck was shot into it) and a scream that caused several people, both on and off the ice, including myself, to look in the direction of the noise. Turns out, I didn’t have to look very far, just to the person to my left, to see Kristie ducked down with her arms covering her head. When I realized everyone was ok, and it was not a bomb threat or a tornado drill, I began laughing hysterically and actually had to sit down so I didn’t fall down. As an aside to this part of the story, when watching the pregame show on FSN, I could be seen laughing at Kristie in the background during Jordan Staal’s interview.
Because half of the Penguin’s line up consisted of players from Wilkes Barre, I wasn’t very interested in taking pictures so I actually just watched warm-ups. Towards the end of warm-up, Jordan hit a puck off the glass right in front of us. Hearing the second shriek of the evening, he actually looked over his shoulder with a look that I wish I had managed to capture on camera. I’d almost be willing to bet that an eye-roll accompanied the glance. Next game I go to, I am shrieking when pucks hit the glass in hopes that Jordan Staal will look at me during warm-ups.
7:20ish- We head to our seats for the start of the game.
7:30- Game time
Since Sid was not playing, I think I actually only saw about 3 whole shifts. I had to come home and watch the game on DVR so I could see what had happened. Instead. I spent the evening people watching, which was almost as good as the game (once I saw it replayed on tv that is). The guy in front of us (see below) obviously did not own a mirror. First of all, he left the house in a Gretzky jersey to go to the Igloo, home of Mario Lemieux (that was strike 1) and second, did he honestly believe that he looked good in that hat???????????????????? In the words of Meredith and Cristina, “Seriously.” It was like a bad car wreck, you couldn’t not look at the disaster that was his hat and jersey.
The 2nd best person to “people watch” was Jeff Reed. Yes, that Jeff Reed, kicker for the Steelers. Based on his appearance at the Penguins game, Kristie and I nicknamed him Troll. He had his hair dyed white blonde and it was sticking straight up all over his head (the way a troll doll’s would) and he was the most unusual shade of “human” I have ever seen in my whole entire life. He clearly has either been on vacation to the equator recently (which is not possible since it’s football season) or he bought stock in self-tanning methods. He sat 1 section over from us and 7 rows down, so we were able to keep an eye on him all evening. He constantly had people coming up to him asking him to autograph things and take pictures with him. When I called my dad to tell him, he asked me if I saw him to tell him “good game last week, Jeff”. How cute is my dad?
The little kids behind us were adorable. They were probably about 7 and they were huge hockey fans. It was the first game for one boy and the 2nd game for the other boy. The one kept calling Pascal Dupuis, Duupee, which was adorable. They were so excited all night, that it was hard to be mad at them for yelling and jumping around. Although, during the 1st intermission, the one dad bought his son those giant hand clappers, which he then insisted on clapping ALL through the second period. Well, that is, until they broke and the one hand hit Kristie in the head and the guy in front of us in the back (no not the bad hat guy, a different guy).
Before I knew it, the game was over and the Penguins had won! I believe it was because of the new shirt, earrings, and way into the arena, not because the Pens played well enough to win.
10:30ish- The ride home was an absolute blast. I can't even begin to tell you the last time I laughed as hard as Kristie and I did. At one point, I actually couldn't see the road because the tears in my eyes were so thick from laughing.
It was a great night- tons of fun, even without my Sidney playing.
Pictures of my boys...
The boys taking the ice
Marc and the boys
Geno
Jordan
Kristie and me
Jeff Reed
