A Strange Sunday
I went to two games this weekend. Both up in Seattle. Friday night, the Thunderbirds beat the Everett Silvertips 2-1. Bryan Bridges put in one of the best goaltending displays I've seen in recent memory as he stopped 39 of 40 shots on the night. But the highlight came with about 3 minutes to play in the 3rd period. Everett head coach, Kevin Constantine, threw a pretty good hissy-fit after one of his defensemen shot the puck over the glass, giving Seattle a late power play. Frankly, I have no clue as to what he was so upset about. I mean, it was pretty obvious as to what had happened. And that new delay of game rule is pretty cut and dry...you shoot the puck over the glass in your own end without anyone else touching it and you get a penalty.
Anyway, in his trademark red-faced rage, he ripped his jacket off and threw his lineup cards out onto the ice. And then, to cap off this unbelievable scene, he seemed shocked when the referee told him he was thrown out of the game. Again, how can you be so shocked when a ref tosses you out after throwing something onto the ice. Not just in hockey, but in every other sport, officials tend to frown on coaches (or players or anyone else for that matter) who throw things onto the playing surface like that in a fit of rage.
Listen, Kevin Constantine is the best coach not only in the WHL, but probably in all of junior hockey. He does more with less than coaches with more talented teams. But he eventually has to learn that, just because he's a former Jack Adams award winner in the NHL (coach of the year), he's not above the law. And the more he treats the refs like they're below him and he continues to bully them, things will only get worse for the Silvertips. Reputations eventually catch up with you. The Tips are already known...right or wrong...as a team that dives alot. I'm not gonna sit here and say they do. But, from my neutral eyes, they do tend to "fall down" quite easily alot of the time. So the last thing they need right now are more refs making calls against them that they maybe didn't deserve. And Kevin Constantine better curb his ways before that starts happening.
I was supposed to go to Everett on Saturday night. But after working on Saturday morning and coming home and drinking some rum, I fell asleep in my chair and didn't wake up until about 6:00pm. So I just scrapped that game. Instead, I stayed home and watched "The 40 Year Old Virgin" on dvd. It was an okay movie. It had some funny parts in it. But I just thought it was one of those films that you could have slashed off a good 30 minutes or so and still had a good movie.
Just as I was putting that disk back in it's case, Tom gave me a call around 9:00. He thought I was at the game up in Everett. So he was pretty suprised to learn that I was home. For some reason, he started asking me questions about "Caddyshack". The first was had I ever seen it. I had to tell him that in the summer of 1986 (our first with a vcr) I had watched that movie 45 times (lol). And I really did! Everytime my dad would take us up to the video store, he would always tell me "no Caddyshack tonight". So I'd pick out another movie. And, when we went back the next evening, I would simply get Caddyshack again. And this went on for the entire summer. I remember my other two favorite videos were "The Blues Brothers" and a pro wrestling video called "Great Steel Cage Matches of the 70's".
Ahhhh.....those were the days.
Anyway, after answering his questions about Caddyshack, I asked him why he was so curious. "Because they're having an 11:40 showing of it at the Grand Cinema and I was thinking of going". Of course, I invited myself to go and he accepted.
The Grand Cinema really isn't all that "grand". It's this tiny little theater that caters to the art-house film fanatics on the out-skirts of downtown Tacoma...not too far from Wright Park. Which isn't too far from the Hilltop neighborhood. Which is one of the two areas of Tacoma (along with the Portland Avenue area near I-5) which gives this otherwise great city it's poor reputation. I've seen several great movies there over the years; Run Lola Run, Fargo, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Limey, Ghost Dog; the way of the Samurai and even an old, grainy showings of 2001; a Space Odyssey and The Maltese Falcon. So I figured why not add Caddyshack to that list?
So I did. And I got home really late.
Sunday was a different beast all together. Perhaps there was a full moon out or something. I don't follow such things. But I would guess that might be the main culprit.
Things started out normally enough. I left home a little earlier than normal. For some reason, I had this urge to eat at Dick's Drive-In ever since I had woke up. So after parking my car in my normal lot, I walked over to Dick's in the rain. I ordered my food and took a seat. At some point while I was munching on my burger, I saw this car pull up in front of the window I was sitting at. There was a guy at the wheel who stayed in the car. And there was also this farily attractive young woman who got out of the car and walked into the restaurant. I didn't really think too much of this at the time. But after she walked into the joint, she didn't walk up to the counter to order any food. She just kinda walked around the dining area looking at people. Eventually, she spotted me in the corner and walked up to me and sat down. "Hey there" she said, "my name is Amy. Wanna go out on a date"?
I had a mouthful of burger and a few things running through my head. While I was chewing, I turned my head towards the window and saw the guy in the car smiling and nodding his head. Then I looked back at her sitting there twirling her blonde hair in her fingers. This wasn't the first time this type of thing had happened to me. In fact, the other two times were very similar. They even used the same line on me..."wanna go out on a date"? One time was about 6 or 7 years ago while I was on my lunch break at work in the parking lot of the 7-11 I go to. That woman was a burned-out hooker who was riding shotgun to the real life Huggy Bear. She first told me that I had a "really cool car". That "cool car" was my old 89 Camaro RS. After stiffling a laugh and saying "thanks", she asked me out for a "date". I turned her down.
The other time was about 4 years ago in Spokane. After a Chiefs game, I went back to my hotel. As I was walking up to my room I passed this car that had backed into a spot. The rear window rolled down and a girl asked me if I wanted to "go out on a date". I told her no and went into my room. About 15 minutes later, there was a commotion outside. The night manager was out there arguing with them and threatening to call the cops "again".
If there's one thing in life I've learned, it's that hookers can spot me from a mile away (lol). So I keep that little fact in my back pocket. The fact that, even though nobody else in the world wants to love me, the hookers always will...at least my wallet (lol).
So with Perry Farrell singing his great line in my head ("Love them whores they never judge you. But what can you say when you're a whore"?) I turned her down claiming that I was meeting my girlfriend here in a little bit. Of course I don't have a girlfriend. But it was my way of easing her dissapointment and maybe even curtailing a beating from her pimp out in the car.
After hanging around outside with Kristi, Jacque, Jeff and Jennifer during the first intermission of the hockey game, I went back inside to track Karin down. But before I could get too far inside, this guy wearing a red Kelowna Rockets jersey that I see all the time at the games walked up to me and said "hey buddy! I haven't seen you since the Memorial Cup! Remember that"? I had never spoken to this guy in my life. Oh yeah...needless to say, he was drunk off his ass.
"Nope. I wasn't at the Memorial Cup up in Kelowna" I told him. He looked at me puzzled and said "are you sure? I swear I talked and went out drinking with you". I acted like I was thinking a little bit and said "noooo. Can't say I was there". So he looked at me and said "well, okay. If you say so. Talk to ya later, buddy". And he turned and walked off in the opposite direction.
I was just starting to shake off that bizarre encounter when I saw Karin walking up to me. I stopped and started talking to her a little bit telling her about my strange meeting I just had. Then she started walking in the same direction she had already been going. Which, of course, was straight back towards that drunkard I had just escaped. I tried slowing our pace down a little bit so the guy could stumble ahead of us a little more. But my efforts were fruitless.
He noticed me again and said "are you sure you weren't in Kelowna for the cup"? "No. No I hate to say that I wasn't. I wish I was, though" I answered. Then he asked me "do you have a twin brother or something"? Karin jumped right into the fray and said "he wouldn't know if he did". And I was proud of her...jumping in on the act like that. Karin still may have a future running around with Tom and I (lol).
I simply agreed with her and said "perhaps I have an imposter...someone posing as me. I'll have to look into it". At that point, the drunk kinda threw his hands up at me and walked away. The two of us just kept on walking our beaten path, shaking our heads. "Why are all the weirdo's in life attracted to me" I asked Karin. She said something to the effect of "I hang around you. So I must be weird". I agreed (lol). I then said that's why I like hanging out around the likes of Kurt and Jacque since they're about the most normal people in my little world. "They're normal" Karin asked. "Well" I started "I grade normalcy on a huge curve". She laughed at me and gave me her trademark "I see".
Really, that's about it. Kelowna beat Seattle 4-2 in the game on Sunday night. It wasn't much of a game. Two teams out there on the ice who were each playing their 3rd game in three nights. And the results were about as expected...sluggish play on both sides. If I do have one take on the game, it's how the Rockets exposed how far the T-Birds have to go still. Seattle out-played Kelowna the entire night. But, in the end, the Rockets gutted out the victory. They won that game on sheer will-power. Those are the types of games that championship teams win. The Thunderbirds had their chances, but squandered them away. Yes...they still have a way to go.
I'm off to Portland after work tomorrow. Hang out with Kurt at the game between the Winter Hawks and Silvertips. I'm just hoping to avoid the weirdo's for a night...or am I???
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