Earlier tonight, I was reading the blog of a certain boy who shall remain nameless, and he was talking about getting locked out of his hotel room in Tokyo. I wasn't in Tokyo, but I was in a little Manitoba town when I had to break into my own room ....
Anyway, let's start at the start. One of my very favourite people in the entire world was playing in the Royal Bank Cup last year, and as I was there working, I got to hang out around the rink a whole ton, but was driving back and forth to my town for work each day ... Until the Thursday. Thursday after work, I left for Dauphin, and arrived in time to work the Thursday evening game. I ended up staying in Dauphin that night, heading back the long way Friday afternoon through Brandon where I stopped to do some shopping. Bought this gem of a hat at Brandon Source for Sports from my boy Justin Perreaux, aka JP.Tons of hockey players wear this gear -- I have three hats and a hoodie from Gongshow Gear (all of which, except my Shamrock hat were bought at Brandon SFS) but you can also order online. I will write more about Gongshow Gear and Mac & the boys another day.
Anyway, so snagged this stylin' liddy, had a delicious salad from Wendy's for lunch, heard the wicked buzz around town as Wheat City prepped for the upcoming Memorial Cup which was taking place about a week later. Then I headed back home for a snooze, woke up Saturday morning and went back to the Bank.
And that's when everything started to get crazy.
That night, I was standing down by the glass, working away as usual, snapped a wicked pic of my dear friend who was playing in the tourney, made friends with this guy named Gerry who used to be the head ref for the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and was hanging out with my favourite people, the officials, all night.
After the second game, which my friend's team won, I went down to the dressing room to say congrats and wish him luck in the final the next day. I then retreated to the media lounge to fire off the rest of my photos and finish my work. The boy at Hockey Canada I had been working with enquired about if I wanted to hang out after work.
"I'm going out with one of my friends from where I work," I explain. "He's the only person here from town, and I promised I would go have a beer with him." (I meant one of the ref's that was from the town where I worked, but I didn't mention WHY he was there.)
Anyway, so I leave, and go downstairs, throw my computer, camera etc into my trunk and roll back inside to the curling rink, which is attached to the arena as well. The ice had been taken out and a beer gardens was put in, a band was playing and the refs/linesmen were all milling around. My new friend Gerry bought me a beer and I went to sit with him and my boy Garth (and this other fine-lookin' piece of linesman named Derek I had been trying to wheel for days with stunning blue eyes and a whole ton of tattoos) -- everything was rollin' nicely.
Then my hockey canada friend texts me. "Thought you said you were going out with your friend from town?" and I said, "I am. I'm having a beer with him right now."
"Looks to me like you're sitting with the refs ... you know I can see you, right?" I look up. The lounge has a wall of windows overlooking the curling rink. He can see me sitting with them. Awesome.
"Well, you didn't ask me what he was doing here. The guy beside me in the white shirt, that's him. Look it up."
Gerry suggested we go to another party at this hotel across the street, so we go there for a while, and then back to the rink where we meet up with Garth, Woodsy, Derek, Surminski, and a few other people, and Derek wants to know what I'm up to. I tell him I'm going back to my hotel to grab some rum and get changed. I ask if he wants to come for the ride, and he says yes.
So we go back to the motel, I get changed, and come out of the bathroom and Derek is lounging on the one bed. I grab my 26er of rum and say, "Alright, let's go. Garth wants to pre-drink at the hotel" and Derek's like "what!?" haha
So we get back to their hotel, which is attached to this bar, and I see this kid that plays on one of the teams that got eliminated -- he had caught me creeping on him a couple times over the course of the week at the rink, so I didn't want him to see me being super creepy outside the bar. I ended up making friends with some kids from that team and we all decided to go back and have a couple drinks at the motel. So we're hanging out there, watching TV having a rum, shootin' the shit. Was a good time. We stayed there for a while just hanging out, and then one of their teammates called and was like "dude you guys gotta get back to the hotel before coach wakes up" -- So I drop them off back at the hotel, then come back and realise my keys are inside the room still.
It was one of those kind of motels where you have a door right to the outside, little mom-n-pop owned place, nice, but nobody at the front desk at 6:15 a.m. soooo I had to break in. To my own room. With a credit card. With a Tim Horton's and three cop cars in the parking lot within spitting distance. I had only see that done in movies so had no idea whether or not it would work, but I finally managed to get in -- thanks to my M&M meatshop points card haha -- and pass out around 6:30 still in my clothes.
I woke up at 10:40 to hockey canada boy texting me. Checkout was at 11. Crap. I had to get ready, eat and be at the rink by 12:30. It was Sunday. Mother's Day.
I get ready and bail around 11:10, hop in the car and get off to Smitty's where I had to wait what felt like forever for a table. These American guys who were in town on a fishing trip were chatting to me, asking me why it was so busy there and why I was wearing my sunglasses inside. Partied too hard last night? they wanted to know. I just groaned.
Finally, I got to the rink, ran into Gerry before I'd had a chance to run upstairs to the bathroom beside the lounge where I usually put on my makeup. (Not knowing the chick who watched the lounge door had hooked up with Hockey Canada boy the night before ... sly gal haha she asked me how I was feeling. "Like crap!" I had told her.)
Anyway, it was about to get crappier. My buddy's team ended up nose-diving and losing the final game pretty badly. After getting wallopped I went down to the room to see him, and held him tight while his smelly little self cried on my shoulder. I kissed his sweaty forehead and told him it would be alright. I had to get my photos in and back home as I had to work the next day.
On the way home, I picked up a copy of the paper and saw the photo the sports desk had chosen -- it was of my buddy. I was pretty amped.
All in all, it was a totally awesome time. I would've went back this year in a heartbeat.
And while maybe now I don't feel AS bad for missing the Royal Bank Cup, I do still wish a little bit that I could've went.
Congrats to Pembroke for winning this year's installment.
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