Blackhawks vs Cunucks. A night of hockey.

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY! Today is my friend ashley's 28 bday. :)
Ok. So last night Ashley, Trent (Ashley's bf) and I went to the hawks/cunucks game. I had such a great time. Here's my night...
The seats...
Trent hooked us up with some completely sweet seats. We were in the second row in the 100 level. Or if you'd like a better description, second row from the glass/ice. And we were right behind one of the goals (the one the hawks shot at 2 out of the 3 periods, OT, SO). We were right next to wear the zamboni comes on and off of the ice. And when we left our section, the hawks store was right across the way. So we didn't have to fight the crowds to get there. So needless to say, our seats rocked!
So let's back it up a little bit. Getting there...
We had decided to make a night of it. We drove out to Chicago pretty close to right after work. For the game/her bday Trent gave Ashley a Kane jersey. :) (I wore my sisters signed jersey. The team from the 90s signed it.) We got to Chicago and parked the car at Trent's work. Then we walked across the street from his work and ate at the bottom lounge. Cool place. While we were there we found out that they offer a free shuttle bus to and from the game. So we decided to take that and not have to pay for a cab. So totally sweet. We met some other fans of the hawks that were going to the game, they were pretty nice. Ashley and I had decided to make posters so we filled them out at the bottom lounge. The cool thing about the posters is that they were dry erase boards! So we could change our message throughout the game. Mine said: 'Messier guaranteed a win, could you Toews?' Ashley's said: 1st game/bday. All I want is a hat trick p-Kane 88.'
Right before the game...
We were dropped off at the stadium and while we were walking I got to see the Hull and Makita statues. That was cool. I had only seen those on tv. We walked right in the stadium and went to our seats. Such sweet seats (as I've described in detail earlier. hehe)! The Cunucks were warming up in front of us. When they would slap shot the puck and it would hit the glass, it made me and Ashley jump the first couple of times. Hehe.Trent seemed to have handled it better than is. Hehe. When they were done, the ice crew was taking care of the ice and was handing out pucks that were used to warm up with. So Ashley and I got pucks. So sweet! The stadium rocked! We got to listen to 2 national anthems (the Cunucks are from Canada)! And as is tradition with a blackhawks game, everyone screamed and made noise during the US national anthem. Side bar- I've heard some people say that it is disrespectful to do that. I completely disagree. Not only are we cheering for our team, we are cheering for our country. And cheering for everything that there is of hockey and our country. So yeah, those are my thoughts on that. Side bar done.- the video and music they play right before the hawks come out on the ice, so cool. Some great classic images. Chelios, Makita, Hull and the list goes on. They also had recent images of things like Shaw with blood dripping down his face holding up the Stanley cup - the perfect hockey image. Sums up everything about hockey. So at this point I'm totally jacked and ready for some hockey!
The game...
The puck was dropped and I don't think I stopped screaming or yelling at any point until the end. Hehe. Well I might be exaggerating but you get the idea. :) Because of where we were sitting we had such a great view of them against the glass. It was awesome to see their actual faces. There were a couple big hits on the glass right in front of us. So awesome! Got to see Toews do a face off right in front of us! Got to see Kane handle the puck like no one else. Saw Sharp right up close, yes he's as beautiful up close as he is on tv. :) We totally saw the hawks first goal. It was scored right in front of us! It was so awesome to actually see the puck slide in! Sadly we did see the Cunucks first goal too. Still cool to see a goal so close up. Ashley and I got on tv. Its mainly Ashley, which I'm very ok with that. Ashley is holding up her sign, which at that point said 'I love p-Kane 88'. But you can't see all of that. You just see the 'I love'. Still cool though. You just see me laughing right next to her. Hehe. The game was awesome! The people right in front of us was a father and son. They were supper nice! Season ticket holders, for they knew everyone around them. You could see it was something that they did together all the time. What makes it heart warming is that the son is autistic. So awesome! The game went into OT and then it went to a shoot out. Holy crap I thought I was going to have a heart attack. What made it awesome is that the hawks were trying to score at the goal we were sitting behind. It was so cool to see! Sadly we lost the SO and so lost the game. But holy crap, the game was complete and total fun!
All of this shenanigans was Ashley and Trent's first game. Can you believe it?! I've been to a bunch, but this is on the top of my list of best hawks games. It was just so cool!
Here are the pictures.

Dragoncon 2012 scrapbook

So I finally finished the scrapbook I was making for dragoncon 2012. I'm very pleased with the finished product. I like that its not perfect. I'm happy with how it turned out. For the cover and pages I used an old book. I just cut the covering off of the book and ripped the pages out of the book. I then punched holes into everything and bound it all together with two binder rings. Here are some pictures of the final product.

the move

so as some of you might know, i've recently moved out of the city. i'm not city girl any more. but i will get to say that i lived in chicago and that was cool. i'm back in the burbs and rocking it as always. my room is a mess but i'm slowly putting everything where i want it. i will miss living with my old roommate ashley, but it was time to move on.

i'm excited about my new place for a couple of reasons:

1. i have a bigger room, so that is always nice. 
2. i now have a desk, which before i was using a tv tray as my desk. i posted the pictures of my new desk (the one with all the comic book characters). so i'm also excited about my desk just looking totally awesome! hehe.
3. i have a small cabinet dedicated to all of my crafting stuff/hobbies. for i have multiple crafts/ hobbies: i cross stitch, scrapbook, make random things, write, do photography. so i have all of those supplies in this cabinet. i'm very excited about that for before i just had everything scattered in different boxes and bags.
4. i have to say i'm happy that i can now have glutton in my apartment. my last roommate was a celiac and that means she is allergic to wheat/barley/rye (all have glutton). so when i moved in with her i agreed that there would be no glutton in the apartment. and i was fine with that. but i have to say i'm glad that i don't have to worry about that any more. i don't know how people deal with that allergy all their lives. power to those people. so i went grocery shopping for the first time for the new place today and i was excited to be able to buy 'normal' food; ie: bread, ceral, pop tarts. 
5. there's a ledge that runs all the way around my room and i've been able to put most of my nick-nacks and picture frames on it. so that's been nice. before i just put all of those things on my book shelves. 
6. there's a living room. my last place we didn't have a living room. how we set up the apartment was that ashley's room was the living room and then i had the actual bedroom as my bedroom. we used the kitchen/dinning area as the living room. so in my new place there is a living room and i'm very excited about it. i got a couch from my cousin to put in there and i'm excited to just sit in there and read my books.

so those are just a few reason's i'm happy about the move i have made. don't get me wrong, i loved living with ashley and living in the city. but i work in the burbs and most of my friends/family are in the burbs. so it is all around better in the end. i will definitely miss living with ashley and all the fun we had together. she is a great friend. we lived together for 2 years. so it is the end of an era. but it is now the beginning of a new one.

poetry with friends

so on saturday a friend of mine emailed me with an idea to have a poem created by the two of us. we were both at work and he emailed me with two sentences of the beginning of a poem and said for me to write two sentences. and then he would add and then i would add. and we would do this until we were satisfied with it being a poem. i have done exercises like this before, but never outside of school. and i was just in love with the fact that he thought of this. i always love when someone else thinks of literature/writing fun to do with me. so here are the two poems we were on saturday. and we both agreed that we should and will do this more often. so here the two are.

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I stand at the sea with the breeze beating at me
The waves dancing at my feet
smelling sweet salt, sun on my face
the peace and calm are strangers to me

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If I was a poet I would not rhyme

If I was a mute I would not mime

If I was blind I would not close my eyes

The world around me hides under a tree

the roots so deep they are strangling me

the bright sun squints as the colors change

undulating in the rain

I pull the roots free from the tree

Twisted and tangled

I struggle in to see

year 26

so my cousin on her website, did a list of things she wants to accomplish for the year. and i think i'm going to follow her stead and list that for myself. since i'll be 26 tomorrow, these are things that i want to do for the year of me being 26.

get out more. i have an issue of staying home and not going out when i'm invited. i need to take the first step and go places. i need to be a little more adventurous.

not buy any new books. along the lines of needing to save money, i need to just read the books i have, get from the library or get as a gift. i have tons of books at home and plenty of them i haven't read yet. and even those i have read, i can read them again.

save money. to go with what i said above, i need to conserve my money. i have a bunch of bills that need to be taken care of before i can do some of the fun stuff i want to do. so i need to save my money much better then i have been doing.

go back to school. i need to go back to school. that's all there is to it.

write more. i haven't been writing too much lately. i should be writing much more often. though i haven't been inspired, still i should take writing by the horns and wrestle it down. or at least brainstorm more often. hehe.

be truthful. i'm going to come out and say it, i have a lying problem. and i need to be more truthful, not only with myself, but with the people around me.

new job. my job is fine, but it is no where near the field i want to have my career in. i want to be a therapist, and working at a call center doesn't really get close to that.

family. get closer to my family. or at least talk to them more then i do now. like using skype to talk to those who are far away.

go back to doing my hobbies. i need to get back into doing my hobbies more. i haven't done photography in a long time and i use to love doing it. i need to go back to practicing my saxophone. i miss having music in my life. scrapbooking. it's been a long time since i've done that.

learn new things. i want to learn new things such as: sewing (more then just fixing small holes).

cook more often. i kinda cook right now. i'm getting into it, but i want to do it much more often. i want to try to cook things i would never have thought to cook before. such as sheperads pie. i really want to make that. it sounds so good.

explore the city. i have lived in chicago for about 9 months now and i really haven't explored the city. i've only gone to parts that i've already known about. whether it's going to jazz clubs with my roommate, going to new resturants, going to any of the smaller museums, going to historical sites in the city.

hang out with my friends more. i need to hang out with my friends more often. or at least talk to them more. i've kinda shut myself off from everyone. i want to rekindle all my friendships. sorry everyone that i've done that to.

losing a part of yourself

have you ever met the most perfect person in your life and the very idea of losing them makes you feel like you are losing a part of yourself? you know you will never recover from that wound. it will scab over but it will never fully heal. so you fight with every scrap, with every breath you have to keep that person in your life. you do everything you possibly can. everything. or there will be a gaping hole in your heart - that no matter what you do or where you go or how much time has gone by, it will never be filled again. so you fight. fight with everything you can. keep that person in your life.