Sunday, August 3, 2008

The Best Idea in the History of Hockey

Growing up in the middle class paradise of Pleasanton, CA, soccer and little league baseball are a way of life. It is essentially a requirement for children to play soccer at some point in their life. Hell, there is even a parade to celebrate the first day of soccer season. (To be fair, the soccer parade is awesome until the age of 8 or so cause you get to dress in a costume and walk down main street. The year I was on the Animals was an awesome year. After 8 years old, the costumes are kind of dumb and you have to be up super early which kind of ruins the effect.) God forbid you don't play soccer (or at least little league). You might get to sleep in on Saturday, but whatever will you have to talk about at school on Monday?

And yet, my hometown has made a step in the positive direction by finally approving the proposal for a Sharks Ice facility in Pleasanton. Less than 5 minutes from where I grew up. Joy! Rapture! It's like Christmas came early, except that Santa gave me an IOU until summer of 2010.

And while I think that the facility will be awesome for the area and help to strengthen the hockey community in the Bay Area, I am more excited for selfish reasons. I play hockey in a Bay Area women's league and, while I totally love it, I usually have to drive more than 30 minutes to get to games. And I had to give up taking hockey classes in San Jose cause a) they were far away b) gas got super expensive and c) it was too damn early to go to San Jose. In a few short years, hockey will be close enough to not make me not sound crazy for how far I drive to play. I might even be forced to try to get a job teaching in the district and facing the crazy parents for the opportunity to have school hockey teams.

I've been super excited about this ever since my mom found an article in the local paper and I'm relieved that the idiots in town who wanted to keep this land undeveloped didn't win this time. Plus, they might have an outdoor skating rink. I think I'm starting to love my hometown all over again. Weird.

1 comment:

Gray said...

I always had something to talk about on Monday. It was called television.