In Memory of Mocha

I didn't expect to feel for you as deep as I did so quickly. You didn't catch my eye the first time I walked around the kennel at the animal shelter but when I saw you, you were sweet and didn't get in the face of the other dogs at the shelter. I guess I should have seen it with how excited you were to get out of your kennel, but I just thought that you were excited after 2 weeks of being in doggie jail. You had such a fun ride in the car and a trip through Petsmart where I spoiled you rotten, buying you much more than you needed. I laughed when we got home and you jumped into the trunk of my car while I was unloading the haul from Petsmart. You loved your Kong toy, watching you chase it around the house made me smile. I was worried with how easily you jumped up and were sniffing things on the counter, looking for something to eat. When you met my dad you wouldn't calm down and you decided that you liked my papasan chair and I knew we were going to have to work on the staying off the furniture thing. I tried to give you a bath, but that was a losing battle. I saw then that you were an escape artist and I didn't have your collar tight enough since you got out of it twice. I felt bad leaving you to go to a meeting at work. I didn't realize when I got home that our time together was almost done. We went out once and we came back inside. You looked so peaceful when you went and laid down in the middle of the living room while I was cooking. I was getting ready to eat myself and you were sniffing around the house in a way that made me worry so I put you back on your leash and took you out. You sniffed, you rolled and then you got free. You unclipped your leash and took off. I almost had you at one point and you took off again. Apparently you thought that we were either playing a game, you smelled an animal, or you were trying to get back to your old home. I thought that you were going to be fast enough. You almost made it across the street before the car hit you. I was horrified. I got to you as quickly as I could and you died in my arms. At least you had a good afternoon. You got to taste freedom again. I miss you Mocha.

Inciting a riot

On Saturday my mom and I were at Target and we saw out of town hockey jerseys on people. I thought about what weekend it was and realized that the Puck of the Irish tournament was happening at the ice arena. That always brought back some interesting memories.

One of the first Puck of the Irish tournaments, there was a cotton candy sale to support the hockey association and since my dad was an officer on the board, my mom and I and my brother's best friend's mom were making cotton candy. They were short a scorekeeper for a game and since I'd scorekept games before, I volunteered.

Big mistake.

It was the worst game ever. It was penalty fest. By the third period there were constantly 2-3 people in each penalty box and it was hard to keep track of when the penaties started and expired because only two penalties can be running at once because a team can't have less than 3 men on the ice at one time.

This game was out of control. I'll always remember that finally the ref tossed someone in the box and told me "2 minutes for inciting a riot." I didn't know any better. That's what he told me the penalty was. So I wrote it on the scoresheet. By this time the column to write the penalties on was full, so I was scribbling penalties wherever I could find a spare inch on the scoresheet. I was never so glad to have a game end in my life.

The next time that I saw that ref at one of my brother's games told me that I shouldn't have written inciting a riot on the scoresheet.

Excuse me, but if you didn't want me to write it, don't tell me 2 minutes for inciting a riot.

I'll never forget that game.