Hockey hockey hockey

I have two tickets for tomorrow night's Capitals & Devils game and I can't wait. Last Saturday was the Capitals home opener and it was the saddest day of my life. Well, the saddest day in a long time anyway. I didn't have tickets to the game, I had no friends willing to pay any amount of money to watch hockey.

That wasn't the sad part, though. I was on the Metro going down to the bookstore around 6pm the night of the opener and I found myself surrounded by people in hockey jerseys and Capitals gear.

Hockey fans!
MY PEOPLE!!

I wanted to go so bad and I've been depressed about it ever since. I really need to meet some hockey fans out here.

While I haven't met any hockey fans in the last week, I did meet a New Jersey fan. I work with a native Jersey girl at the bookstore and eventually wore her down to go to the game, but the $25 seats were sold out and both of our budgets are pretty tight. I went on eBay to find some tickets and was nearly salivating. My Jersey girl friend is very independent and very responsible and I'm lucky that's the case. I kept finding great bargains like $120 seats for $90. I wanted lower level seats so bad I was salivating. In my irrational lust for great seats I would've had no problem maxing out my credit card for expensive tickets, taking a loss and selling the seat to my bookstore friend for $25.00. Luckily for my budget, cooler heads prevailed and she wasn't comfortable letting me pay the difference. We ended up buying $50 tickets for $30 a piece. We are both starting our careers and working at the bookstore part time to make ends meet, so even $30 stretches the budget a bit. But I don't care... I miss hockey. I also bought a pair of tickets for the game on the 28th, $19.99 for the pair.

This means I'll make it to at least 8 games this season. Anthony bought me a six-pack of tickets for graduation but I haven't picked out my seats yet. When I go tomorrow I'll look around and decide where I want to sit. I am not crazy about going to hockey games by myself. I love hockey too much, it'll be hard not to be able to nudge someone and say, "Did you see that!?!" Plus, I've been sitting next to J and Pops for so long, I'm not quite sure how other people will react to my random excited sounds. My cheers are completely spontaneous and involuntary, I hope I don't embarrass myself too much.

It'll be really different to watch an NHL game. It will be sad not to have all of my Quad City hockey friends to watch with. Instead of four rows from the ice I'll be more like 4 miles from the ice. Also, I need to learn how to be a Capitals fan. Right now I'm just a hockey fan, I want to see a good game more than I want to see the Caps win. Although I should probably mold myself into a Caps fan, just so I can fit in. I can only name about 2 players on the team, but GO CAPS!!

Hockey is finally here. Without having my friends and my old seats, the NHL is going to feel like a step down from minor league hockey. That's okay though. I'm just excited to be going to a game. Yay! Section 416 row H here I come!

I'm so excited for hockey. I don't know if I can get to sleep tonight.