Let's Go Red Wings!

So this is a little late and I considered not doing this post at all but I decided to go forward with it. To celebrate I thought I would share some of my favorite photos, quotes and tidbits of information that that I have found since they won.



So this is the traditional photo of the team on the ice with the cup. As a side note, I spent time looking for Steve in this photo and couldn't find him. I later read that he didn't think it was his place to go down on the ice after they won so he didn't. Honorable but I find it rather annoying.

Henrik Zetterberg with the Conn Symthe (given to MVP of the playoffs) during the parade. I like his use of it as a hat.

Russ and I like to joke about the Red Wings being the Swedish National Team because they have quite a few Swedish players. Here are the Swedish Red Wings (that played in the playoffs, there are actually few more who didn't play so not in this picture) with the trophies the Wings had won up to that point. So the players are (left to right) Tomas Holstrom, Andreas Lilja, Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Lidstrom, Mikael Samuelsson, Niklas Kronwall, and Johan Franzen. And I had to do some research on this one but the trophies are (left to right) the Jennings (given to the goalie(s) who gave up the fewest goals during the regular season), the Campbell Bowl (given to Western Conference champions), Stanley, the President's Trophy (given to the team with the best record in the regular season), and the Conn Symthe (again given to the MVP of the playoffs). You really have to watch hockey to realize what an accomplishment it is to win all of these in a single season.

This picture is actually from game 4 (I think) of the finals. It freaks me out - I have nightmares about this kind of thing but I like the picture.

This is Pavel Datsyuk with the 2 trophies he won at the NHL awards on Thursday night. The one on the left is the Lady Byng (given for the most gentlemanly conduct) and the on the trophy on the right is the Selke (given to the player to the most defensive forward). He took the puck away from an opposing player 144 times during the regular season which is 82 games long. That is impressive, it is really impressive to watch do it. And again you have to really watch hockey to realize just how good he is.

When I went to the Wings-Avs game during round 2 of the play-offs it occurred to me that I haven't picked a new favorite player since Steve retired and Pavel is in currently in the lead. You don't get to hear him talk very often because he isn't very good at English. Here are a few example from the Detroit Free Press:

Datsyuk left the awards show with a good joke. Asked what he'd done the past
week, he was quick with a reply.
"I try to ask my wife because I not remember," Datsyuk said. "I remember party, but don't remember how I wake up at home."

Just as long as you didn't drive home Pavel.

And on Thursday night for the first time they gave out a new award for a lifetime achievement award in hockey - and it was given to Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe. They had a great little clip on him which can be seen on the Detroit Red Wings website if you actually interested.

And lastly Chris Osgood and Nick Lidstrom were on Jay Leno last week. I thought it was pretty funny - you can watch it here if you would like to. http://ballhype.com/video/red_wings_bring_stanley_cup_on_leno/

And hockey withdrawl has already began because now there is nothing new going on and the Detroit papers have nothing to say about hockey.

Anxiety

Tonight's hockey game was suppose to be the first Wings game I watched from start to finish without worrying about all the other things I should have been doing. But rather I was so anxious and nervous I couldn't sit and watch. Initially I thought there was something I was suppose to be doing that I was forgetting about but after walking around the house and making sure there wasn't anything that needed urgent attention I thought that I was just that nervous about the hockey game. But really, the Wings are up 3-0 in the series and are the better team so even if they lose this game I am not worried about them losing this series. (They have now lost the game but I am still not that worried. Maybe a little but still more confident than worried.)

I like to think and clear my head and pray while I walk so I decided go for a walk. So got up left and went for a walk (during a playoff hockey game!) and it took me about 30 seconds to realize that I am worried about a phone I received at work tomorrow which revealed a mistake I made in a job I designed. And tomorrow I will go to a meeting on the job site by myself - this will be the first time I have to go to a meeting of significance to work out a problem without my manager with me.

As I prayed through my fears of every possible situation that would end very badly I thought "Okay this isn't going to go perfectly and it maybe a total disaster but even in the worst possible scenario I won't lose my job over it and I will probably learn something from it." Then I was able to pray that I would learn and grow in my ability to handle these situations which is growth that will benefit me in my personal and professional life. So I am now much more calm than I was about an hour ago. The amazing power of prayer which I admit I overlook way to often. Another lesson to be learned.

A Hang Over

I always wonder about those who drink and then complain about a hang over. I always think, "You did it to yourself." Well, I did it to myself, but I didn't have a thing to drink. I got offered a ticket to Tuesday's Wings-Avs game here in Denver. I had a blast but all day yesterday I was exhausted, had a headache and a sore throat but it was so worth it. I have never come home from a hockey game with a sore throat that lasted a full day so I must have yelled much more than usual but I felt the need to remind all the Avs fans that started out the night a little on the arrogant side that there was a Wings fan in their mist. I don't think I was mean or arrogant but just serve as a little reminder. I never said anything negative about the Avs, I just cheered my team on. Also, it was a chance to yell all the things I yell at the TV in the same "room" as the players, not that they could hear anything I said.

And now I am going to go to bed even though tonight's game still has a full 20 minutes to play. We are up 3 games to none and have a 7-1 lead in the game. The Wings have been known to blow leads but I trust them to be able finish this one off. The guy who sits next to me at work is an Avs fan, I will just assume that he's not going to talk to me tomorrow but I won't make him.

Tagged

So Sabrina tagged me ~ I believe it was probably just to get me to post again after taking few months off. The task is to give 6 words that sum me up, at least for today. At first I started thinking of words that I hope I carry with me for the rest of my life but then I included a few others that I hope God will help me shed as he continues to help me grow. Or like Peter, it can be good or it bad, you just have to learn to control it. But again I will need some more help from God on that front.

1. Aunt
2. Loyal
3. Passionate
4. Awkward
5. Stubborn
6. Student

And as a bonus, for the moment I would say gleeful because for me watching the Detroit Red Wings cream the Colorado Avalanche is just a whole lot of fun, but I acknowledge it is pretty miserable for pretty much everyone else in Denver. And although the Wings are up 4-0 there is 20 minutes left for the Avs to come back and I have seen the Wings crumble before so it is always a possibility. (It is now 5-1 with 12 minutes to play with the Wings scoring a short-handed goal.)

Am I actually a girl?

It appears that after almost 30 years of life I am finally starting to become like other girls. Recently I started purchasing or looking at things that are really rather girly that I have never really had any interest before. For example, I have suddenly become a girl with a lot of shoes. I used to pride myself on being a girl with only the minimum required pairs of shoes. Now there are shoes all over my house, I am constantly trying to figure where to put them so that they are out of the way. When I went to Florida for Christmas I brought 5 pairs of shoes with me because I couldn't figure out which to eliminate and then I bought 2 more pairs while I was there.

Also, I recently discovered that I do like candles, or at least I like the way they make my house smell. And then the skirts - for BSF I am required to wear a skirt (or suit pants of which I don't really have any that fit and you don't really find suit pants on clearance) so I now own quite a few skirts. In fact I now own enough skirts that I could really stop buying them but I still find myself looking at them whenever I am out clothes shopping. (So far very few of the shoes go with any of the skirts but I believe that soon the new skirts are just going to lead to more pairs of shoes.)

Then this morning a woman who goes to the same Curves I do was selling necklaces that she makes out of beads. And I actually looked at them, I even considered buying one. I have not worn any jewelry other than a watch in years and even when I did wear a necklace it was always the same one and rather plain.

I am not sure what has gotten into me lately. But don't worry I still don't like the color pink. And last night one of my friends was telling 2 of us that Target has some cute shirts with hearts on them on sale - and the thought of me going and looking at them made me sick.

Well, that makes it easier

This morning I came into work to find out that my co-worker that drives me crazy quit over the weekend. I didn't really expect him to quit; based on recent behavior I thought the company may let him go but I didn't think he was going to quit. I am trying to not be too excited about this and I refrained from a doing a jig when my project manager told me this morning but I am really quite happy about it. One of my co-workers even remarked that he thought I looked more relaxed despite all the work that I have to get done.

I thought God had a lesson there for me to work through, and maybe he did, it just didn't last as long as I expected.

An Overwhelming Task

Sitting next to me is the stack of pictures that I choose to print from my trip to Europe trip. Between the 3 of us we took a little of 2,050 pictures and I had intended to print about 25% of them. Instead I printed 803 of them, or 39%. The pictures create an 8" stack.

I don't intend to use all of them but I couldn't really narrow it down any further on the computer screen. Well, I guess I could have but I didn't bother to add up how many there were until I was done. Now as I look at this stack I find that I the idea of scrapbooking them seems overwhelming.

But I must admit it is not the most overwhelming task I am currently looking at. I have to clean up the spare bedroom which is where I will do the scrapbook and this involves re-organizing the closet in that room. It is a rather large closet and I use it for storage but I have discovered that I am currently trying to store much more stuff than I was when I first moved in 4 years ago so the current organization scheme I was using is no longer working. In doing this I am going to also re-organize my desk and the closet in the hallway. But still I can't really explain why I am more over-whelmed by the idea of an afternoon task than by a task that will probably take over a year (my joke has been 3 years).

Maybe because I am not sure when I will actually have a spare afternoon to work on the closet and the idea of a year whole of scrapbooking is much more fluid. And the obvious that scrapbooking sounds much more fun than cleaning and organizing. Also lastly, because I am no stranger to craft projects that last me years. If you don't believe me stop by sometime and I will show you a few.