Vacation Report: Brusty Day

I'm baaaackkkkk....

Back from the land of quaint houses and 2-story-tall piles of parking lot snow. It was a good trip, but I ended up coming home a day early because I was flying stand-by and there's a blizzard coming to the East Coast today and Wednesday. I wanted to make sure I could get outta dodge before the planes started filling up.

Worked out well because I also managed to get myself sick. Woke up Sunday feeling some lungular distress, but it was Brusty Day, so I had adrenaline and lustiness and get me through it. But by the time we got home from Providence, I was done for. So, I'm spending my last vacation day in bed, writing. And coughing. No big deal.

And since it makes a nice segue, I'll go backwards and start with Brusty Day on Sunday.

Binghamton @ Providence

So, Brusty played (and won) Friday in Bingo, he backed up Brodeur in a win Saturday night in Bingo, and then was supposed to play Sunday. But the Ottawa Senators are a bunch of selfish bastards and sent Lehner down at the last minute to get him some playing time. They are forever on my shit list for that.

Since Binghamton is 4+ hours from where I was staying and Providence was 2.5 hours, plus Sunday was the only day with clear weather, I decided that was going to be the way to go. And since it didn't require an overnighter, I was able to bring my friend with me and have some company.

So anyway, I went to bed Saturday thinking I was going to see Brusty play Sunday. That's a really nice way to go to bed in my little world. Grin on my face. Brusty Brusty Brusty... :D

Then I wake up in the morning and read tweets from Joy that Lehner's back and he's playing. #heartsink #sad

But dammit, I'm going anyway. At least I'll get to SEE Brusty. And that's just going to have to be enough.

So we get there and I buy tickets with no idea about the layout of the arena, but they're on the blue line at the end where the P-Bruins shoot twice. Okay, if Lehner gets the hook or gets hurt and Brusty comes in, I'll have a great view.

Neither of those things happened, but as it turned out, the seats were on the second row and DIRECTLY across from the visitors tunnel where... the backup goalie sits. :) O HAI BRUSTY!

So, while I didn't get to watch him play... I got to watch him watch his team play. Yay? Okay, I watched the game, too, and in all honesty, was rooting HARD for the Bruins in the first half of the game. I was really hoping for some LehnerFail. Alas, he's a pretty good goalie and the Sens were playing pretty well.

What was sucktastic was that Schaefer was backing up for the Bruins and sitting in the same spot as Brusty, just on the other blue line. So here I am looking at the two goalies who basically inspired ME to be a goalie... sitting on their asses in the locker room tunnel. Maybe the hockey gods were saving me from the stroke I would have had watching them compete against each other, but I have to think they would have enjoyed that. Stupid Ottawa.

At least I did get to see Schaef play, as Dalton got run after 4 goals. His defense was absolutely horrific but I also didn't feel like he was seeing the puck very well. He looks like a goalie whose been playing behind a bad defensive team for too long. There's just something about that that wears a goalie down.

Anyway, final was 5-3. We got back and my friend's husband asked me if my team won. I wasn't sure how to answer that. I guess so? I don't really consider them "my team" unless B's in goal, right? They're just some Eastern team I don't really give a crap about otherwise. But it was nice to see Brusty smiling and happy for the win and relaxed and, naturally, as foxy as ever. Even my friend, who really doesn't care one way or another for hockey or players, approved of my taste in hockey boyfriends.

We also both very VERY much approved of Cody Bass. Very approved. #pantysoup

"If you've had a physical reaction to my handsomeness, you're welcome."

Apart from all that was just the fun of seeing a game in a different AHL barn. The Dunk is a nice building. Holds about 11k and it was pretty full Sunday, but it seemed like an inordinate number of kids. When they did that noisemeter thing on the jumbotron, it was ear-splitting.

Also, I'm not sure whether I approve or not, but they do all their patriotic choir kids at the beginning of the game. America the Beautiful, God Bless America, AND the National Anthem in one swoop before puck drop. And then you're free to enjoy the rest of the game without all that cringe-inducing warbling.

Anyway, that's enough on Brusty Day. Possibly more than enough. I'll hit the rest of the trip over the next couple of days.

Oh, and a quick shout out to Sarah Connors, who writes/shoots for Something's Bruin for coming down at intermission and saying Hi! Great to meet you Sarah!