Oog.

What an exhausting experience. And I’m not talking only about the actual hockey here.

I wake up this morning and take a look out the window. There’s some beautiful snow drifting down from the heavens - I take this as a good omen (snow… hockey? Ah? Ahhh??) and I enjoy the excitement that my Australian roomate is expressing at her first sight of this mysterious white slow-falling rain.

The lift that I was counting on to take me to work today with my huge-ass hockey bag didn’t work out, so I was stuck hefting that giant thing to the metro and then to work.

This was hard.

Also, as I stepped outside I realized that this was not a light snowfall, but it was rapidly turning into a freaking blizzard. I trudged. With my 30 pound hockey bag. And my three hockey sticks. Through the snow that was rapidly turning to slush, thanks to the above-zero temperature.

This was harder.

I get to the metro, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s the begining of a new month. Nice, I get to buy a new bus pass.

Ever try to reach for your wallet with a giant bag strapped to your back while holding three hockey sticks?

Then this fucking metro guy, he asks for ID. I squirm and reach into my other pocket. Then I charge his little booth and use my combined heft to knock it on its side. Then I lit it on fire.

That part was kind of fun.

At work, we prepare to leave to get to the rink, which is about a 15 minute walk under normal weight conditions. Now, add to this the fact that the snow had now turned into a torrential downpour, with snow still on the ground (yes, this = slush), and no umbrella to speak of, with a giant-ass hockey bag strapped to my back, and of course three sticks, and we’re getting somewhere close to the 25 minute mark.

This was very hard. Miserable. Horrible. Pain and wetness and cold.

But then, practice was amazing. Everyone was lying on the ice at the end of it, exhausted, so you know it went well.

More fun times afterwards - the walk back was worse, because of the exhaustion, and then I had to repeat my morning journey to come back from work at the end of the day. In all, I walked the same path 4 times today with that giant thing on my back.

But it was still a great day :D.