I am so in love with this month.  I can’t stop smiling.

November 2017, I love you.

I’ve got sunshine, on a cloudy day.  When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May.

The cooler temps (the past few days), the fall colors, and of course my Birmingham Bulls back on the ice.  The smell of the ice, the sound of slapshots ringing in the air.  It’s like chicken soup for my soul.  I can’t even be bothered by Cotton Eyed Joe at this point.

Naturally with a brand spanking new hockey team fresh out of the package and the whole 16 years of having zero hockey relief in this city I have been talking to everyone who will stand still long enough about my team and the few games I’ve seen so far.

Luckily I work with a bunch of guys who know I go to the games (possibly because I’ve drilled it into their heads) and some who will ask about them the next day.  In all honesty, this only encourages me.

There’s just one thing.  With this new conversation topic this strange thing has been happening, particularly when I’m discussing hockey with someone for the first time.  It’s partly humorous and partly making me want to poke people in the eyeballs.

One might expect that if someone asks me how the game was, I’m going to tell them.  Here’s an example:

“Hey Crystal, did you go to the game?  How was it?”

“It was great!  They played so hard.  Passing was a million times better than at the exhibition game.  The goalie made some really impressive saves.  A lot of penalties though.  Lots of hooking calls.”

More than I’d like to admit, at this point eyebrows are about an inch higher than they started and I start feeling like I might have possibly grown a 3rd arm out of my left ear.  Then they will say, “Oh, so you really like hockey then.” or “I didn’t know you liked hockey like that.” or once I got, “Are you the assistant coach now or something?”

I don’t know what exactly they were expecting.  Maybe they thought I’d talk about how cold it was or how the humidity affected my hair.  Perhaps they were even expecting a rundown of the jersey colors or the players from hottest to McSteamiest.

I mean….

Because I live in a state that’s obsessed with college football I know that men talk about football and plays and players and arenas all. day. every. day. without ever blinking an eye about their armchair coaching/playing skills.

But now let a set of breasts walk up with a sports opinion and suddenly no one knows how to deal.

For the record, if I were a coach I would rock it!  (Breasts and inability to ice skate more than 3 feet away from the wall notwithstanding.)

All that silliness aside, I’ve been having the best November I’ve had for at least a few years and I am thrilled.  Almost as soon as one game is over, I’m counting down to the next.

I HAVE A HOCKEY TEAM AGAIN!!!!

Here are a few pictures from the game on November 3rd vs. Knoxville.  Our first home game!  I went to another last night but didn’t get pictures because my phone was running out of battery power.  Blast you, IPhone!!!