Skates/Player Party
03-24-2003, 8:50 p.m.

Tonight was the Skates Mates Kids Club party. Chrissy and June each got 3 tickets, so we had called and asked Sherry and Chuck if they wanted to meet us there, and they did. In fact, Chuck was pretty excited about it. They didn't go last year (even though I had asked them), because they were both working. I had the girls for their spring break at that time, and we were staying at Jen's because Tonya was in for the week. I kept thinking about how last year, I was there with Tonya and Jen, hehe and it made me miss them.

Stephen and I left work and headed for the arena. We decided to get there a little early so that we could go out to dinner before meeting the rest of them. We were going to invite them to dinner too, but Sherry had to work late, so we went ourselves. It worked out nicely because we got there about 2 seconds after they did, hehe, and we stood around talking until they started letting everyone in.

Last year, we didn't go see the locker room until late in the evening, and it was so crowded. I knew that Chuck would want to see that so I suggested that we go there first. We were the first ones in there, and we were able to stay for a while looking at everything (okay for as long as we could stand the smell.. hockey players might be sexy but they sure are stinky, pee ewww). The best part... last year, they did not let us take pictures inside the locker room but this year we were able to, YAY! I was so excited about that. We got some really cute pictures. After that, we went to stand in lines to get autographs and pictures with the players. Chrissy was so excited because she finally got her jersey signed by her favorite player (Ben Simon).. he even wrote on it, To Chrissy, Best Wishes, Ben Simon.. I don't think she will ever take the thing off. It was cute. June was so excited about getting some pictures too.. but sad because her favorite player is playing in Atlanta right now so she didn't get to see him.

The lines started getting long, but we had a system. We would send Chuck ahead to the lines that we wanted and then after we were done with certain players, we would go meet him and he would already be near the front of the line, and then while we finished waiting, he would go ahead to the next line. In the meantime Stephen was out scouting where the players we wanted to see were. It worked out so well that way and we got to see everyone we wanted to.

When we made it over to see Steve Maltais, June told him, My Aunt won your jersey, hehe.. he said, really, which one? So I told him. He said, wow, cool, I always wonder who ends up with them. He took a picture of June and I, and then June told him, can you take a picture with her alone, cause she thinks you are a good player.. we were all cracking up. She was being so cute, talking to the players and stuff. One asked her, what is your name.. she said June.. and he said, that's my favorite month, cause that is when we win our championships.. she thought that was cool, so whenever other players would ask her name, she would say June, like when you win your championship. It was really cute. They both had such a great time, and really so did the rest of us. I am so glad that we all went together.

We have tickets to go to a game this Saturday and then one next Wednesday, and then next Saturday we are going with some friends for work, so I am so excited. It's almost playoff time and this is my favorite time of the year, and we tend to go to lots of games. I am so excited that we have plans for all the games that we do. Especially since I barely went all weekend. Woo hoo, bring on hockey! Hopefully we can see them winning that next championship in June!