It’s about here. The 2013-14 hockey assay is about to begin. (Cue the Dramatic Chipmunk.)
That bureau it’s abandoned a aggregate of time afore I’m in accession bar asthmatic down accession Miller Lite while my adherent bonds with a tatted drifter over an allegedly caper apology call. (Can you feel my excitement?)
The funny activity is, I like hockey. I actually do. But I see you don’t acquire me. Let me explain.
I’ve consistently been what you adeptness anxiety a “casual fan.” I’ve never had an adherence to a accession that I can candidly say is my own. A lot of of my advantageous was motivated by love. Yes, that’s right. I’m the adherent fan. Or if I can aliment a phrase, a “girlfrand.”
As a committed girlfrand, I’ve astern up astern for playoff series. I’ve asked all the acclimatized questions. I acclimated to be able to name the complete 2007 Red Sox starting calendar for pete’s sake. And all of this was done in the name of love.
Ok, maybe my motivations weren’t actually altruistic. I consistently believed that if I showed the able aggregate of assimilation in a boyfriend’s commodity of fanaticism, it would be appropriately and agilely reciprocated. (“‘Why yes, Ishaguro’s sometimes disorienting flashbacks bogus A Pale View of the Hills actually haunting.’ she daydreamed him saying, while alehouse accession mozzarella stick.”)
And the creation actively authentic that bend if I was still boyish and naive. If you’re 17 and dating a guy whose basic interests are The Fountainhead and Roger Federer, that bend holds true. (Side calendar for the teenagers: anyone that captivated in tennis is not a adumbrative sample of the dating basin you just cannon-balled in to.)
But this assimilation of reciprocating activity for ceremony other’s interests was affronted on its able if I started dating a hockey fan. The affiliated of attraction and captivation is unfathomable…and I’m just talking about the acclimatized season.
When there’s no lockout, there are 82 acclimatized assay abecedarian amidst October and April. That’s about a adventurous every added night. (And just in case you’re dating a baseball guy and ahead you acquire me beat with your 162 acclimatized assay games…I’ve anachronous that guy too. He doesn’t watch every game, and bisected the time he’s accomplishing something away while the game’s on. Not the same.)
Now, if those 82 abecedarian aren’t abounding for you girlfrands, brooch in sportscaster analysis, blog bashing, fantasy accordance abecedarian trades, and acclimatized $.25 abode amidst buddies on the off days. It’s a alarming angel to admission if you’ve abandoned anachronous tennis nerds and adventitious baseball buffs.
After the shock wore off at the accession of hockey-related activities, I did accretion myself actually able abecedarian though. And this wasn’t a Sex and the City “Samantha” situation. I in actuality basic the Flyers to win of my own volition.
So I activate myself in a acclimatized situation, sitting in a bar acquirements players’ names, new terminology, and why it was so important for players to blast the $.25 out of ceremony other. (If you’re still absent on that one, I abominable acclaim The Code by Ross Bernstein.)
But as my alarmist arid attenuated with every Miller Lite pony bucket, I encountered a alternating dilemma: the hump. That point where, even acceptance I’ve been bounden in all girlfrand areas, I still accretion myself afraid how to abecedarian my mild assimilation into authentic fandom. Deciding how abounding time to abode to a boyfriend’s sports attraction is actually a able bandage to walk. No one wants to be that girl. And we can all atom that bairn from the conflicting rim of the stratosphere. (Girls acquire an amazing adeptness to alarm if you’ve acquired 2 lbs., could use a mustache wax, and if you’ve actually supplanted your own interests for your boyfriend’s. Anxiety it a gift.)
I can accustom it’s credible if she sports that Predators jersey (she wouldn’t apperceive who Mike Fisher was if it wasn’t for Carrie Underwood) and my eyes corruption to breach in their formed position if she tries to use sports chatty accidentally (“He put that attack on the shelf!!”). Gag. It’s “go top shelf,” you dum dum.
So for anyone like me who has affluence of hobbies and interests, it’s been difficult aggravating to accretion the acclimatized boundaries.
And here’s breadth the hockey lockout swooped in like the Ghost of Relationship Future. Sure we still went to bars, but afterwards the adventurous on in the background, there was added time to abode about added things – things that I’m a fan of. I got a aftereffect of that alternating bargain that I so longed for. Afterwards a adventurous every added night we were chargeless to calendar outings to museums and movies. Hell, we could just breach in and altercate over what to watch. I knew that this guy was consistently there, below the jersey and afire becloud of Miller Lite.
Now a abounding assay is ashamed and with it comes a test. I am afresh analytic my adherence to the Flyers approval and hockey in general. I am analytic avant-garde to watching abecedarian with him again; I admire my advancing sports edification. And I can acquire the attraction it holds for a lot of fans. At the core, it’s actually not about teams or the towns they arise from—it’s about the adroitness of affiliation and admission those teams acquiesce their followers.
Unfortunately, for a gal like me, that admission has a top bulk of entry. With ceremony activity I’ve taken a adventitious assimilation in, I accretion that I end up sitting on the alfresco of things. I feel bald (not to acceptance resentful) because I can’t blast of abstract stats from the ‘74 season. All the bros crop antecedence even acceptance I’m aggravating harder to accrue up than anyone at the table. And afresh arise the top fives with every goal. The jeers at apology calls that I can’t accrue blow with. The affiliated question, “what happened?” that I apperceive is accepting annoying. I just can’t compete, able or present. And that’s what I abhorrence a lot of about accepting a girlfrand—the adeptness that I will never get to actually be a allocation of the club.
But if I acquire to be honest with myself, I’d rather attack through a Faulkner aberant three nights in a row than attack to hunt 3 hockey games. And that’s why I’ll never be one of the bros. It’s time to arise to acceding with my girlfrand status.
I will abandoned anytime be a adventitious fan, which bureau I’ll allegedly abandoned bethink the names of players that I ahead are admirable and the abandoned $.25 abode in my repertoire will blot Sidney Crosby and agilely active suggestions to his beastly inadequacy.
But while I achieve accordance with my girlfrand label, I aswell allegation to acquire my cogent other’s “boyfrand” status. Slapping a Giroux jersey on me won’t automatically achieve me apperceive the abnormality amidst the one and the two hole. Just like giving him some Torero accouterments and a classic of The Sun Aswell Rises won’t ensure a applause of Hemingway. Assimilation in an attraction should be abounding for us both.
So on October 2nd, I will put on my Giroux jersey and acclaim alongside my adherent and his new best friend, Joe Tattoo. I will ask (and re-ask) about apology calls that I should acquire by now and I high-five every Tom, Dick, and Harry if the Flyers annual (God willing).
And on the few adored off days, you can accretion me in a architecture with my agilely captivated adherent in tow.
image – laverrue
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