The rest of the trip: Snow and an avalanche of boos

Most of my trip was spent in Brattleboro, VT where my best friend from college lives. Our lives have gotten busy and we don't keep up like we did when we were younger, but we don't really miss a beat when we get back together.

I got to meet her twins, who are a year and a half old. I got them saying, "Hockey!" so I consider that a significant advancement in their development as youngsters living in a cold climate. They are SOOOO getting a toy hockey set for their birthday.

I'm pretty notorious for not being very fond of children, but these two are super cute and pretty easy to play with. They don't do that "suddenly bursting into tears for no apparent reason" thing that freaks me out about kids this age.

The boychild and I got along particularly well (I think that's just because he gets along with everybody but I'll take success where I can get it). I miss his smile. But I am happy to be back in my quiet house with a dog who demands much less attention and is far less impressed by Elmo. :)

We had a really nice snow on Friday and Saturday and took advantage of it by going sledding Saturday morning. I've never been sledding before, so that was pretty neat.

It's weird how bright it was out there but how dark pictures of it turned out. But anyway, there's the snowy hill we sledded on. It was fun though mostly I just wanted to sit in the snow and play with it. There was probably 5" of fluff out there and it was just beautiful and dry. I couldn't get enough of it.

What isn't cool is driving in it, scraping my windshield, worrying about ice on the road, etc. Also it prevented me from seeing Brusty play. Boo snow.

And speaking of booing.... On to my adventures in Wearing a Wild Jersey to a Bruins Game.

I figured I'd be okay wearing my Clutterbuck sweater to the Bruins game Thursday night. I mean, it's Minnesota. To most people in the league, we're as forgotten as the Thrashers but with the upside of actually deserving to have a team (that's not MY take, that's just what I figure the consensus is among most people). I didn't figure there was much cause for hate.

And all in all they were pretty decent to me and had a sense of humor. We had unbelievable seats 4 rows behind the Wild bench and it was, according to Russo, the best game of the season.

Our view

It was a pretty fun game and the boys played well. Clutter got a big game winning goal and assisted on the empty netter, so he made me proud. Here are pictures of the game from my friend Scott Slingsby, who shoots for InGoal Mag. And here's a shot of the save that might have made me a little bit of a Rask fan. It was a crazy save.

Anyway, as the night wore on, I thought I was gonna get off easy without getting harassed too badly.

And then they did the Fan of the Game bit on the Jumbotron. It consisted of showing 3 fans -- 2 Bruins fans, 1 Wild fan -- and the crowd cheering for the winner. Well, yours truly was the Wild fan. They caught me in a moment of sneering at something, so it was particularly unflattering. Thanks, Bruins. :)

So, since this was going on at a break, I'm busy Tweeting on my phone and whatnot. Not paying attention. And then Justin, who is Scott's cousin and sat with me (poor guy), says, "Hey, um, you know you're getting booed right?" I look up at myself on the Jumbotron. "Great."

I was so far behind in catching on to what was going on, that I basically just kept doing stuff on my phone because it was a recorded bit on the screen so it didn't matter what I was actually doing (presumably so I wasn't flipping the whole arena off or whatever I might have been inclined to do).

So yeah, the whole arena obviously booed me and some Bruins fan won fan of the game. But when we were on the concourse or walking around after, people kept coming up and recognizing me from the jumbotron. A bunch of them said they voted for me. I finally starting going, "Why? You shouldn't have! You're a Bruins fan!" Weirdos.

Then, when I figure that's done with, we walk into some pizza joint that's packed with Bruins fans. Oh boy. The boos just rained down. The place erupted. So I give 'em a big Rocky fist raise and yell, "SCOREBOARD!" Lucky I didn't get my ass kicked for that, but hey, the truth shall set you free, Boston.

Luckily Justin had a Bruins jersey on, so at least that "vouched" for me a little bit. But the razzing kept coming. They all assumed I was FROM Minnesota, so they're talking shit about the state and I'm thinking, "Yeah, so?"

One guy by our table was being exceedingly loud about it so I finally said something about being from Texas and that stopped him in his tracks and got him to quiet down and focus on something else. He couldn't understand how I could be from Texas and follow Minnesota, or how I could follow a farm team. Why am I not a Dallas Stars fan?

I explained that allegiances come from the heart and not necessarily geography, and he finally gave me a pass for that.

One drunk guy even stumbled over with a beer for me and loudly explained how he wanted to welcome me to Boston and whatnot. Ha. Right. Even if the foam on top didn't look suspicious, I wouldn't have put my mouth on that. But it DID look suspicious. Dunno if he spat in it or peed in it or what. I hope it wasn't pee because I spilled a little on me when I was putting it in the trash. Yuck.

Anyway, Scott and Justin took good care of me and were fantastic company for an unforgettable night of hockey and fandom. I owe the Wild a big debt of gratitude for winning so nicely and making it a lot easier to stomach the haterade. And I have to hand it to Bruins fans, they gave me just the right amount of shit to take them seriously. They're a good bunch of fans and I hope the team gets to playing like they deserve.