February Challenge: Things I Love - Day 18 & 19
Yesterday's love would've been HOCKEY!
Honestly, people who know me in RL find this obsession hard to comprehend. I am not athletic at all and when I was younger the closest I got to being interested in sports was horseback riding and watching baseball. Hockey is very Canadian (like, it's almost a religion here) but neither of my parents were very into it so it wasn't something I grew up watching. As an adult I worked with/dated/lived with various hockey fans and sort of absorbed it without really thinking about it. The thing about hockey is it's fast - there's none of that huddle/throw/run-for-a-bit/talk-about-it that you get in American football, or the snoozefest of a pitcher's battle in major league baseball. And it's violent, not as much as it used to be but, yeah - fast and violent. There's something very cathartic about getting into a hockey game. Also the games go by fairly quickly so being a fan doesn't have to eat up your whole day. The downside is that although on a non-professional level there are great women's teams, the NHL is a straight-up sausage fest from beginning to end. Even the commentators are all male. This bothers me quite a bit.
Another downside is that my hometown team is the Maple Leafs (not Leaves, don't pick at that too much because there isn't a good justification for it - I've checked). The Leafs are (currently) the worst team in the NHL and they haven't won the Stanley Cup in 49 years. They haven't even mounted a serious playoff run since the 90s. Their consistent failure is a source of great speculation in the hockey world and no one seems to have an answer for it. Despite having had stars and good coaches and ambitious management over the years, none of them have solved the mystery of 'Why the Leafs Choke'. So, it's hard to be a fan in Toronto. That being said, I love them even though it's like loving a demented, spiky, venomous, sociopathic thing. I root for them every year, and even though they are last in the league right now, I'm proud of the progress they've made since last year (short story: the team imploded last year at every level. They are currently rebuilding the whole thing from the ground up). I especially have a soft spot for our goalies (James Reimer, who was benched almost all last season but this season (up until mid-January) had the BEST save percentage in the entire league, and Jonathan Bernier, who was once heralded as a potential superstar goalie and this season has the WORST save percentage in the league) - they have the toughest job in the game.
Anyway, I love the action of hockey, the brutality, and yes, even the bromance of it (I finally get why the NHL has such an RL fanfic following though it still squicks the hell out of me). It's great fun and I mourn it during the summer when it's on hiatus. It's return is just another reason to love autumn ♥
Today's love is FRIDAYS! Because we all need a reprieve from this:
C'mon, we've all been here...
For nearly 15 years I worked in the service industry and was required to work nights, weekends, and holidays while my friends and family all had 9 to 5 jobs. I missed out on a lot. Now, that I work a grown-up job, I've come to appreciate the mental balm that is the approach of Friday. The oasis of a two-day relief from all of your work crap is a special kind of strange for me, but I truly adore it. It goes a long way to keeping me balanced. I actually work harder on Fridays because I know that at 5:01pm I'll be free. Maybe you have to have languished in service for ages in order to appreciate that sentiment fully, I dunno. Anyway, I'm happy it's Friday and hope you all have a great one ;D
Honestly, people who know me in RL find this obsession hard to comprehend. I am not athletic at all and when I was younger the closest I got to being interested in sports was horseback riding and watching baseball. Hockey is very Canadian (like, it's almost a religion here) but neither of my parents were very into it so it wasn't something I grew up watching. As an adult I worked with/dated/lived with various hockey fans and sort of absorbed it without really thinking about it. The thing about hockey is it's fast - there's none of that huddle/throw/run-for-a-bit/talk-about-it that you get in American football, or the snoozefest of a pitcher's battle in major league baseball. And it's violent, not as much as it used to be but, yeah - fast and violent. There's something very cathartic about getting into a hockey game. Also the games go by fairly quickly so being a fan doesn't have to eat up your whole day. The downside is that although on a non-professional level there are great women's teams, the NHL is a straight-up sausage fest from beginning to end. Even the commentators are all male. This bothers me quite a bit.
Another downside is that my hometown team is the Maple Leafs (not Leaves, don't pick at that too much because there isn't a good justification for it - I've checked). The Leafs are (currently) the worst team in the NHL and they haven't won the Stanley Cup in 49 years. They haven't even mounted a serious playoff run since the 90s. Their consistent failure is a source of great speculation in the hockey world and no one seems to have an answer for it. Despite having had stars and good coaches and ambitious management over the years, none of them have solved the mystery of 'Why the Leafs Choke'. So, it's hard to be a fan in Toronto. That being said, I love them even though it's like loving a demented, spiky, venomous, sociopathic thing. I root for them every year, and even though they are last in the league right now, I'm proud of the progress they've made since last year (short story: the team imploded last year at every level. They are currently rebuilding the whole thing from the ground up). I especially have a soft spot for our goalies (James Reimer, who was benched almost all last season but this season (up until mid-January) had the BEST save percentage in the entire league, and Jonathan Bernier, who was once heralded as a potential superstar goalie and this season has the WORST save percentage in the league) - they have the toughest job in the game.
Anyway, I love the action of hockey, the brutality, and yes, even the bromance of it (I finally get why the NHL has such an RL fanfic following though it still squicks the hell out of me). It's great fun and I mourn it during the summer when it's on hiatus. It's return is just another reason to love autumn ♥
Today's love is FRIDAYS! Because we all need a reprieve from this:
C'mon, we've all been here...
For nearly 15 years I worked in the service industry and was required to work nights, weekends, and holidays while my friends and family all had 9 to 5 jobs. I missed out on a lot. Now, that I work a grown-up job, I've come to appreciate the mental balm that is the approach of Friday. The oasis of a two-day relief from all of your work crap is a special kind of strange for me, but I truly adore it. It goes a long way to keeping me balanced. I actually work harder on Fridays because I know that at 5:01pm I'll be free. Maybe you have to have languished in service for ages in order to appreciate that sentiment fully, I dunno. Anyway, I'm happy it's Friday and hope you all have a great one ;D