Rapid Fire welcomes us with open arms

Games have come to an end for the evening, but the night was too interesting to not sum it all up.  I got into Manhattan on Thursday, which I always do when I am close to my favorite city in the world.  I got to see the Tony award winning musical "Once."  It was truly an amazing show and I would recommend it to anyone that is a musical lover.

So, enough of my life story.  There was a tournament to be played on Long Island, and I needed to make it to Rapid Fire Arena  Friday night.  It was about an hour and twenty minute trip on the Long Island railroad to get to the station where my hotel shuttle would pick me up.  Since, every Fed Ex office in Manhattan was packed, I had to rush and get the boards done at a Staples close to the hotel.  After all of this, I finally got to the rink on time.  This was the first time in about three years that the tournament didn't start without me.  I always judge the traffic wrong and my timing is off in NYC and anywhere near.  I have yet to master that, even though I lived in the city for a while.  Thank God for Jason Muro who always steps in when needed!

Jason was the first one to greet me after grilling me on the phone, and then decided to make fun of me and the cab driver but I refuse to tell you why in this blog...just ask him and I'm sure he will tell you.  Just know that his first word when he saw me get out of the cab was, "WOW!"  A hilarious start. 

I get into the rink and we are ready for puck drop and I get my supplies going. It was a light night, but I was so happy to see Jonnie Mac walk thru the door.  We talked ALL NIGHT, and he hasn't changed one bit.  He's still getting me into trouble, and making fun of everthing!  The best thing about it is that he's a great guy and it's all in fun.  Speaking of that, I've yet to see Mac Jr, and he better be stopping by for a visit at some point tomorrow.  Speaking of tomorrow, we have about 21 hours of hockey tomorrow and it's going to be a long one.

It was good to see Bill Coon bring his Terror team in the peewee division tonight.  They won their lone game of the night 5-2.  We get to see them for a few more games tomorrow night.

It's always a good trip when you get to spend ENTIRE DAYS with Jason and Vio...eventhough they are on the bench most of the day.  They'll crack jokes all day and it just makes the time fly by lol. Watching Jay and Vio coach is a total trip!!  Jay and Vio are usually the exact opposites.  Vio is cool and calm on the bench and Jay will lose his mind if he has to!!

Earlier in the day, though was one of the worst experiences of my life.  My life flashed before my eyes!!  I got to the hotel and walked two buildings down to the quizno's as I was starving!  On the way there, a bird swoops down directly at my face to where I had to bob and weeve out of its way, but it stayed there challenging me, so I started throwing punches at the thing and then ran into the quizno's only to see the employees laughing at me.  I get into the store and tell them the story and they tell me, "yea, he's very territorial!"  WHAT????  Did you just respond to me like this has happened before?  I was amazed, so they begin to tell me stories of what the bird has done, and it comes back EVERY YEAR!!!  I walked back to the hotel, no joke, hiding from this thing, looking for the back entrance to the hotel. I had been punked off by a bird!!!  Not only did the quizno's employees have stories, but when I got back to tell the people at the front desk of the hotel of my traumatic experience, they chuckled (probably because of my animated story- you know how I can get when I get all bent out of shape) and told me the bird had actually caused someone to bleed before!  The lady at the front desk said, "not to scare you or anything."  Scare me?  You're darn right I'm scared!  This face is too pretty to be messed up by some mocking bird!!  I would say he has met his match, but I won't lie to you- it's the bird's world.  I'm staying out of the way and/or running!  "Ain't nobody got time fuh dat!"- Sweet Brown. 

So...I'm sure tomorrow will turn out to be just as interesting.  I'll have to start the day off avoiding a BIRD!  Then I get to see more of Jay, Vio, Mac and the entire Rapid Fire crew!!  It only gets better from here.  Look for more updates tomorrow, and keep checking back for the live scores on the website.  BE EASY!!