Meltdown at the Icecapades

Okay, I saved the meltdown until I got to the privacy of my home (and my bewildered husband), and there were no icecapades unless you count the balletic flip I did when some kid blind-sided me.

Stick and puck #2 this morning was not quite the joyous, sweaty fun of stick and puck #1. What I'm learning is that "stick and puck" is universal code for "drop-in hockey" so if you're really there to just work on drills and you're the ONLY one there working on drills, then you feel like a newbie schmuck for causing 20 people to play half ice hockey while you literally just move back and forth and back and forth learning to control the puck.

If one of the hockey coaches hadn't been there to make them do half ice, I really would have been screwed and angry. As it was, I did actually get some good practice moving the puck (which is a lot harder to do correctly than it looks), but it's tearfully boring work and pretty lonely. But Coach said she had to do the same thing herself a few times and also felt like a schmuck, so I guess this is just a rite of passage of learning to play hockey as an adult.

We have the power skating clinic this evening and apparently we're wearing full gear, which I think is stupid, but I guess it's not up to me. Just seems like learning techniques for the first time would be easier if you're not loaded down, at least with the upper body gear. But whatever. I'm trying to work up a happy face but am not quite feeling it. These are growing pains, my friends... necessary but painful.