Sens at Land's End

Much as Buckingham Palace flies the royal standard to indicate when the Queen is in residence, my place in Vancouver displays a giant Sens flag in the window when I am home. That flag is now up, and I start back to school tomorrow. This can only mean one thing: summer is finally almost over, and hockey season is nearly upon us! That sound I hear, it sounds like a gust of fresh ocean/mountain wind, but I think actually it’s the sound of hockey fans everywhere noting that today is September 1 and breathing a huge sigh of relief. At last, we are done with the horrors of August and of hockey blogs filled with non-hockey-related posts. Except this last one.

100 Things About Me – Episode III: The Good, the Bad, and the Random

63. I hate orange cheese. I accept that orange cheddar is fundamentally the same as yellow cheddar, but it disgusts me. As my friend Cocoa says, just because they haven’t proven that the dye is carcinogenic doesn’t mean it isn’t.

64. I am ridiculously afraid of sharks and I was even when I lived nowhere near the ocean. Are there sharks in the waters near Vancouver? I have no idea, and I have no intention of finding out. You will not see me swimming in the ocean anytime soon.

65. Last summer I travelled by road and rail from Ottawa to Vancouver and visited my friend the Doc in Winnipeg. It was the first time I’d been to Manitoba. Now that I’ve covered that one, I have been to every province of Canada except Newfoundland. (I’ve never been to the territories either though.)

66. I try to live an environmentally-responsible lifestyle. I do all the easy little things everyone should do, like turning off lights and using energy-efficient bulbs. I am fanatical about recycling and I compost. I also take public transit or walk everywhere. It’s easy for me to do that because I do not own a car, but still.

67. I have a subscription box at a comic book store in Ottawa, and when I moved to BC I got them to send my list to a store in Vancouver so I wouldn’t miss anything. In Ottawa, I always stay and visit for a while when I go pick up my comics, and I’ve become good friends with several people I’ve met through the comic book store.

68. Booster Juice is like crack to me. I was thrilled — thrilled — when I realized they were opening a loaction on UBC campus.

69. Sometime last year, I started seeing Al Pacino everywhere. I’d turn on the TV, and one of his movies would be on (one time when I woke up in the middle of the night and just randomly starting channel-surfing, there was Any Given Sunday on in French). I’d hear references to his movies. I’d go to the movies and there would be segments about him in the pre-movie slideshow. It was odd. I’m still pretty convinced that the universe (or maybe Pacino?) was trying to tell me something, and now if ever I see Pacino somewhere I pay attention. I even watched 88 Minutes, which was really lame, on the plane back to Vancouver the other day because I felt I couldn’t not.

70. Last year I fell while playing hockey and jammed my finger. When it was still sore after about a month and had developed a bump on the side I finally went to the doctor to have it checked out. Turns out I cracked the bone and the doctor says the bump may never go away. I managed to live my entire life without ever breaking a bone. Then I started playing hockey, and I was scarred for life within a month.

71. A few years ago I had a job at an unnamed government department. This job was so tedious and mind-numbing that I realized there was no way I could spend the rest of my life working at similar jobs and not want to kill myself every day. That is why I decided to go back to school.

72. I am known among my family members for the weirdness of my dreams. My grandfather also has really strange dreams, so perhaps it’s genetic. Speaking of my grandfather, I dreamed a few months ago that he and I were snowboarding. He’s almost 90 and has broken his leg three times. Pretty sure he shouldn’t be doing that. I often dream about losing my teeth. It’s horrible.

73. I haven’t travelled a whole lot outside Canada. I’ve been to the US states that are closest to Ontario as well as Tennessee. In terms of overseas travel, I’ve only been to Ireland, Wales, and England.

74. I used to work at Lush. It was a good job — I could sell that stuff because I knew it worked. Also, there were lots of freebies.

75. For a while I worked at a kiosk in a mall. Yep, I was one of the people working at those carts. My brother-in-law Coco (not to be confused with my friend Cocoa), whom I didn’t know at the time, worked at the same mall while I was there. He and his friend had nicknames for several of the other mall workers (I did too — like Gord Downie Guy, who worked at the grocery store). It was only after we’d known each other for a while that he realized he used to know me as Kiosk Girl.

76. I wouldn’t be offended if someone making romantic overtures to me couldn’t remember what colour my eyes were. I’m not too sure myself. Green? Maybe? I’ve tried looking in a mirror and it doesn’t help.

77. I don’t tan. I just burn. And my burn doesn’t fade to a tan; it just goes back to white. This is why I stay out of the sun.

78. I hate eating in restaurants or at other people’s houses.

79. When I’m listening to music, I compulsively tap my fingers along with the song (unless I’m doing something else).

80. I am not religious at all and never have been. I’d probably describe myself as an agnostic. The closest thing I’ve got to a spiritual philosophy is that I believe in the idea of “ripples” — that every action has many effects and we should observe what they are and be aware of them. So basically I got my philosophy from Joan of Arcadia.

81. I have never really considered myself superstitious but actually I’ve had to revise that as I’ve noticed that in fact I can be quite silly about certain things. I would never open an umbrella indoors, walk under a ladder, or scratch my right palm if it itched. The thing I’m most superstitious about is (of course) hockey: I always wear something red or something with the team logo on it on Sens gamedays and I try not to change anything I’m wearing during the way. If I notice that I’ve done something in particular on a day when they win, I’ll try to repeat that thing again.

82. Once, the Stanley Cup was on my front lawn. And I didn’t get downstairs in time to have my picture taken with it.

83. When I was a TA, I caught two of my students copying their assignments off the internet. Note to cheaters: it’s called Google, and your prof/TA is very capable of using it.

84. I have my DVDs arranged in an intricate system which only I can understand.

85. I generally don’t like people to see me cry. If I’m crying at a movie or something I’ll do my very best to cover it up. However, if I’m genuinely grieving, then I will cry wherever and whenever, no matter who happens to be around.

86. I’m not a vegetarian, but I also don’t eat a lot of meat. This is partly because I don’t know how to cook it (I am a sucky cook but I’m trying to get better), and partly because I prefer eating fruit and vegetables. They are delicious.

87. I have a fear of falling, I guess it is. It’s not a fear of heights — I don’t mind heights if I feel I’m secure. But I don’t like it when it seems as though there isn’t much between me and a horrendous fall. I really don’t like narrow, high places, or elevated things with transparent walls or low guardrails. For example, I hate crossing the locks on the Canal.

88. When I did my undergrad, I minored in Classics. I did three years of Ancient Greek and my class’ project in the third year was to translate Euripides’ Medea from Greek to English. It was really bloody difficult. I like using my Greek and Latin to figure out word origins. That’s pretty much all it’s good for.

89. I’m anal about spelling and grammar. I’m naturally good at both and I re-read my own writing several times because errors bother me.

90. When I went to Bath, I caught a cold. I drank some of the spa water and it cured me.

91. The first time I saw Radiohead play live was in Ottawa in 1997. The mosh pit was so bad at that show that I had to get out before Radiohead even came on stage. Ever since then I’ve had a fear of mosh pits.

92. I’m very picky about my clothes. They have to be comfortable and totally not itchy or I won’t wear them. I also hate having tight collars around my neck.

93. I’m fairly tall (5′8″) and have big feet. Most really nice women’s shoes either are heels or only come in small sizes. I therefore hate shoe shopping.

94. I recently started doing yoga. All that stuff about how yoga heals your mind, body, and spirit sounds so cheesy … but it’s actually true.

95. I’ve got a sweet tooth. This is another trait I seem to have inherited from my grandfather, who grew up in Smiths Falls. Whether growing up in a town with a chocolate factory contributed to his love of candy I do not know. But anyway, I love chocolate. I’m a chocolate hoarder: my mother gets me a big Toblerone for Christmas every year, and I usually still have some left at Easter.

96. I love making lists! I also love looking at lists of great movies and books and things and checking off the ones I’ve seen or read. Ta-da Lists and Lists of Bests are two websites I enjoy.

97. I talk to myself frequently. I also talk to my computer, the mountains, whatever. I especially talk to (or yell at) the Sens when I’m watching or listening to games. I’m sure my neighbours think I’m mental.

98. I daydream a lot. Sometimes my daydreams are like stories and they continue for days and days. Does everyone do this?

99. I’m a good researcher. I’ve had luck in the past at finding obscure information that I didn’t think I’d be able to come up with and I really enjoy hunting stuff like that down. I think I’d be a pretty good reference librarian or archivist.

100. My nose runs when I get overtired.

And with that scintillating bit of information, we are officially finished with the dog days of summer posting! Countdown to Sens pre-season game 1: 19 days.

I’ve spent much of the weekend trying to get myself ready to go back to school. I’ll be leaving the rainy climes of Ottawa next Saturday, heading back to the perhaps equally rainy city of Vancouver. Let me tell you, this packing stuff is a job of work, and I realized today that I’ll have to mail some of my stuff back to myself because it won’t all fit in my suitcases. And one of my suitcases is a hockey bag. Clearly, someone made too many trips to the Gap this summer.

Anyway, in the absence of any Sens news or hockey books to post about, here is part two of the 100 Things About Me thing I started about two weeks ago. Today, you will learn about raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, and a few of my other favourite things.

100 Things About Me – Episode II: Things I Love (Besides Hockey)

31. I am a huge, huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I firmly believe it to be The Greatest TV Show Ever Created. I often quote the show (in fact I did so above) and can name all the episodes in order. I once went all the way to Nashville, Tennessee to present a paper at an academic Buffy Studies conference, and I own a bag with the word “Buffyologist” printed on it. Buffy is one of my heroes.

32. I also love Buffy’s spinoff, Angel, and consider it to be The Second Greatest TV Show Ever Created. Such is my love of Angel the character that I started watching Bones solely because David Boreanaz is on it. Angel’s series finale, “Not Fade Away,” is, I’m pretty sure, the best series finale ever shot. Six Feet Under’s last episode, “Everyone’s Waiting,” is the only one that comes close to it, if you ask me.

33. Perhaps you could see this one coming: Joss Whedon is one of my favourite people, and I’m also a big Firefly and Serenity fan. I was ridiculously excited for about a whole week before Serenity opened. My good friend Cocoa and I went to see it on opening night. We own matching Jayne hats, knitted for us by our other friend and fellow Firefly geek, the awesome Sner.

34. I have watched all three Joss shows over and over, and love marathoning them. If there’s a Joss marathon on TV, I’m there. The aforementioned Sner and Cocoa and I, along with Doc and a few other friends, once voted on our favourite Buffy episodes and then sat down for a 12-episode marathon. I also participated in a group re-watch of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly — we watched an episode per day, and we alternated between Buffy and Angel during the seasons when both were on the air — with a few of my close online friends. I’ve also got my mother to watch all three shows. When she started Firefly, she kept saying, “I don’t know about this whole ’space western’ thing.” By the time we finished it was “I don’t understand why this show got cancelled!!” Neither do I, mom.

35. U2 has been my favourite band since I was about 14. I’ve seen them play live five times, and each time it’s been amazing. “Where the Streets Have No Name” is my favourite song and I’d have to say that some of my best ever experiences have been being in the crowd when they’ve played that song.

36. I once saw Bono on the street! Well, I didn’t just run into him. I went downtown specifically to see him, but still. He was in Ottawa for an announcement about aid for Africa. I didn’t meet him, but when he was getting into his car he made a peace sign, and I’m pretty sure he was looking at me. Oh yeah! After Bono went away, I saw George Stroumboulopoulos, so I went to ask him if MuchMusic was covering the press conference. He was talking on his cellphone when I approached him but he gestured for me to wait. I heard his end of the conversation and gradually realized he was actually talking to Bono. When George hung up, I said “You didn’t let me say hi!!” I was joking, but George apologized, even though, really, I was being very rude. I thought he was a very nice guy.

37. I saw Titanic in theatre 11 times. Yes, I was that girl. I still think it’s a great movie. Screw you!

38. When I was in high school, I loved the Smashing Pumpkins. I had one of those ZERO shirts and everything. They won my heart when I saw them play live at Scotiabank Place (then the Corel Centre) and they did “Thru the Eyes of Ruby,” which was my favourite song of theirs. I don’t listen to them as much anymore, but “Cherub Rock” is my favourite song to play on guitar in Rock Band. I kick ass at it!

39. I was a total grunge kid when that was popular. I had babydoll dresses like Courtney Love had, and flannel shirts and Doc Martens. I still remember how I found out that Kurt Cobain had died, and I think of it every year on the anniversary.

40. On a related note, I used to be able to calm myself down when I’d have an attack of nerves by listening to “Even Flow” by Pearl Jam on a loop. Yeah, I’m not really sure why that worked.

41. For a few years, I was totally obsessed with the Manic Street Preachers. My first major attempt at a website was a Manics fansite. I started wearing lots of eyeliner and even some leopard print.

42. Radiohead is my favourite band that isn’t U2. Thom Yorke’s voice is one of my very favourite sounds, and they rarely come up with a song I don’t like.

43. I love The Verve, and they are the only one of my favourite bands I’ve never seen play live. I was excited when they got back together because I thought I might get a chance to go to a show, but it hasn’t happened so far.

44. I am a Harry Potter fanatic. I took the Harry Potter course at Carleton when I was in fourth year and got to present my paper at the Children’s Literature Association conference. My final paper for my Master’s was a comparison of Buffy and Harry Potter (which, incidentally, now that both series are over, I think was pretty much dead on). Before the final book in the series came out, I counted how many chapters there were total in the first six books and planned it out so I cold re-read them one chapter per day and finish on the day Deathly Hallows was released. Did I mention I was a geek?

45. During the summer I spent writing that epic paper on Buffy and Harry, I nearly went mental. I will never try to write a thesis of any kind ever again! The only thing that kept me from losing my mind completely was taking frequent dance breaks every day, during which I would listen to and sing along with the first three tracks of Oasis’ album Heathen Chemistry. “Hung in a Bad Place” became my essay-writing theme song. That August, I went to see Oasis play in Montreal, rocked out, and felt totally reinvigorated afterwards. I can honestly say that Oasis saved my sanity.

46. I’m a huge Tori Amos fan. She is my most-listened artist on my Last.fm profile because I never get tired of her. She is a genius: very strange, but very brilliant.

47. Tori and Joss used their combined powers to get me into comics — Tori by making frequent references to Neil Gaiman and the Sandman series, and Joss by writing Fray, which was set in the Buffyverse. Neil Gaiman is now one of my favourite authors, and I highly recommend anything he’s written. I find that I sometimes have more interesting dreams when I’ve been hanging out with the Dream King.

48. I enjoy superhero comics, but only Marvel ones. The DC characters don’t do that much for me. I find that is true of both the comics and the movies, though sometimes I get in the mood for Batman and I continue to watch Smallville, even though I don’t really think it’s all that good (because Tom Welling is incredibly hot).

49. Spider-Man is so by far my favourite superhero. Spider-Man 2 is my favourite movie ever. I absolutely adore it, and I saw it 12 times in theatre. I will read just about any Spidey comic Marvel comes out with, no matter how lame it is, and I even saw Spider-Man 3 three times, even though it kinda sucked. Spidey, Buffy, and Harry Potter make up my holy trinity of heroic fictional characters.

50. Perhaps largely because he has done such a wonderful job playing one of my heroes, Tobey Maguire is my favourite actor. Aside from the first two Spidey films, Wonder Boys is my favourite of his movies. It and Tim Burton’s Ed Wood are two movies I’m always recommending to people because they’re both so good and so underwatched.

51. I’m also a big Keanu Reeves fan and I’ve got a stack of his movies on DVD. After all the Matrix movies came out, I decided to watch them all back to back in one day to see if the ending made any more sense if I did that. It kinda did … but not totally. The Matrix remains one of my favourite movies, though.

52. When I was a kid, I watched Grease and Dirty Dancing about a million times each. They’re still two of my favourite movies, and I think Grease in particular is a total classic. I never knew all the words to some of the songs when I was young, and the first time I saw the movie when I was old enough to realize what they were saying I was really shocked!

53. I love watching the Oscars every year, and I also love old movies. It’s a goal of mine to see every Best Picture nominee. The fact that I get Turner Classic Movies in Vancouver makes me very, very happy.

54. I am a dedicated TV watcher. When there’s a show I really like, I will make a point of setting aside the time to watch it every week. My current favourites are Lost, House, Battlestar Galactica, and Dexter, among others. My ritual every Sunday used to be to sit down and go through the TV Guide, making a note of when things I wanted to watch were on. However, I no longer get the paper so I don’t actually have a TV guide anymore.

55. Before the glorious advent of TV on DVD, I was really anal about taping my favourite shows. I had boxes of tapes in my closet with every episode of The X-Files, Buffy, Angel, and Party of Five. TV on DVD saves me a lot of shelf space.

56. I have massive love for Farscape, though I only discovered it after it had been cancelled. I tend to watch a whole bunch of episodes at once, and after a while I start thinking in Farscape terms like solar days, cycles, yotz, dren, and frell. I guess you could say it makes me slightly fahrbot.

57. I don’t participate in the Lost extended universe, but I do like looking for the literary and historical references in the show and trying to figure out what it all means. I always read Doc Jensen’s Lost column on Entertainment Weekly’s website.

58. I love to be shocked by TV and movies. I’m always trying to predict what’s going to happen, so when something genuinely surprises me, I’m really pleased. The season 1 finale of Battlestar Galactica and the ending of The Departed are two things that have managed to make me gasp out loud recently. Lost is constantly pulling of fantastic twists. Due to my love of the big surprise, I hate spoilers. I never read them, except sometimes for shows I don’t care about.

59. Arrested Development cracks me up. I sometimes randomly start saying “Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog” over and over. I find it very soothing. And also hilarious.

60. One of the best papers I ever wrote in university was on Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans. I re-read it once a couple of years after handing it in, and I actually could not believe I had written something so good.

60. Aside from Neil Gaiman and J.K. Rowling, my favourite writers are probably Jane Austen, Mordecai Richler, and Carol Shields. I am pretty much strictly a novel reader. I almost never touch non-fiction, unless it’s about hockey.

61. I grew up watching soap operas and have at various points in my life followed All My Children, Days of Our Lives, and Another World pretty closely. I was most dedicated to General Hospital, though: I watched it daily for several years. I loved Carly and Sonny. The fact that Sarah Brown is back on the show has me almost tempted to start watching again.

62. I have a small collection of action figures and fandom collectibles. I don’t buy a lot of stuff, and I try to get things that are unique in some way. In particular, I like silly action figures, such as Darth Tater. I’ve got bobbleheads of Angel and Spike, a plush Rygel from Farscape, and a Harry Potter Quidditch mobile as well as my very own Puppet Angel. I have about 20 or 25 Spider-Man figures, which might sound like a lot to the average person on the street, but trust me, I know people who have many more.

(100 Things About Me – Episode III: The Good, the Bad, and the Random coming soon to this space!)

And what kind of a shell has a nut like this? I’ve been reading Sherry’s 100 Things About Me posts and, despite my fears that I might not be able to come up with 100 things to say about myself, I’m going to give it a shot. I apologize in advance for my boringness.

100 Things About Me – Episode I: Origins

1. I was born in Ottawa, many years ago, very close to Christmas. The plus of having a near-Christmas birthday is that everyone who can remember when Christmas is can remember the date of your birthday. The big minus is that when you’re a kid and you want to have a birthday party, all your friends have gone away on their Christmas holidays, and you end up being alone and pathetic every year.

2. My mother loves Anne of Green Gables. She gave me the middle name Blythe, after Gilbert Blythe. I also enjoy Anne of Green Gables, so I think that’s a pretty cool person to be named after, really.

3. I am left-handed. The only scissors I own are a few pairs I … liberated from my elementary school.

4. My parents separated when I was about 6 and eventually divorced. My sister and I lived with my mom.

5. I have one full sibling — we’ll call her Mrs. Coco (because my brother-in-law is Coco, obviously) — as well as two half-sisters and a half-brother from my dad’s previous marriage. I’ve never lived in the same house with my half-siblings though, and they’re much older than I am.

6. My maternal grandparents have been very important in my life. They always lived in the same general area as we did when I was growing up and we saw them quite often. We called my grandmother Tutu because that’s Hawaiian for grandmother, and she was in Hawaii when my mom found out she was going to have me. I used to have a t-shirt that said “If mom says no, ask Tutu.”

7. When I was a kid, my family went to Prince Edward Island on vacation (see #2). While walking on a wooden bridge at Cavendish Beach, I got a splinter in the bottom of my right heel. My parents had to take me to the doctor to get it removed, and the doctor we went to basically just dug it out without any kind of anaesthetic or anything. My dad says he could hear me screaming from the waiting room and my mom eventually just carried me out of the place. I had a scar on my heel for many years afterwards, not to mention the mental scars — I wasn’t very old at the time, but I still remember screaming and crying. Trauma!

8. Until I moved to Vancouver last year, I had lived my entire life in the part of Ottawa that is bordered by the Canal on the north, Bank St. on the west, the Rideau River on the south, and Carleton University on the east. I lived in three houses during my youth, but they were all within that very small area. As a child, I spent a lot of time playing in Brewer Park, skating at Brewer Arena and on the speed skating oval in the park, and swimming in Brewer Pool.

9. I love to swim, but when I swim I’m not generally doing laps or any kind of organized fitness training or whatever. I really love being under water, and I pretty much just swim randomly around the pool. I developed this habit when I was a kid and my sister and my best friend and I would go swimming at Brewer on January weeknights. Most nights, we’d be the only people in the pool, so we could do whatever we wanted. Now when I go to adult swimming time I pretty much have to stay in the slow lane so my non-structured swimming won’t interfere with the serious swimmers. I end up chatting with senior citizens a lot.

10. I had a lot of toys when I was little. One of these was a stuffed Smurfette. Apparently, I was so attached to Smurfette that my kindergarten teacher told my mom she was worried about the possibility of me trying to go back inside to retrieve her if ever there was a fire at the school. I also had a large stuffed rabbit named Big Ears. Ironically, Big Ears’ ears eventually fell off. I never played with Barbie dolls; no, my sister and I had a huge Jem doll collection instead. Jem was way cooler than Barbie.

11. My parents put me in French immersion so I had all my classes (except an hour of English per day) in French starting when I was 5. I switched to English when I started high school and it was the first time I’d ever had Math class not in French. I remember I didn’t know the English word for a protractor. These days I can understand French extremely well and speak it at an acceptable level. I can also read okay (though very slowly), but don’t ask me to write anything.

12. I basically sucked at math in high school, until I got to grade 13 (yes, I’m old enough that I had to do grade 13). At that point I ended up doing two math courses at the same time, Finite and Calculus, and I was so afraid that I’d fail and not be able to graduate that I worked my butt off, especially in Calculus. I ended up getting 90 in Calculus and 95 in Finite. On the last day of school, my Finite teacher asked me in front of the teacher I’d had in grades 11 and 12 whether I was considering doing math in university, and my grade 11 and 12 teacher laughed. Despite my math suckiness, I enjoy trying to reduce numbers to their smallest factors in my head. I also really like multiples of 9.

13. When I was in grade 7 and 8, I was in the school band. I played the clarinet. I loved music class, and I tried out a bunch of the other instruments my school had, like the trumpet, flute, baritone, and trombone. I’d sign one of them out for the night and play them at home. I wasn’t good at any, but I figured out the basics of all of them. When I graduated from elementary school, I won the music award because of my enthusiasm. Then when I went to high school I kept on playing the clarinet and also picked up the cello. I tried out all the other stringed instruments too but I was never very good at anything beyond the simplest stuff.

14. I went through a phase as a tween where I was obsessed with Broadway musicals like Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera, but especially Les Mis. I saw it three times and I’m pretty sure I still remember the lyrics to most of the songs. When I was in grade 9, I conducted a small orchestra of my classmates playing some of the music from the play for a school project.

15. The first concert I ever remember going to was New Kids on the Block at Lansdowne Park in like 1989. (Shut up.) It rained really hard and we were completely soaked by the end, but it was awesome. (Shut up!) My favourite New Kid was Jordan and you know, I still think he’s pretty hot. (Seriously, shut up.)

16. I had several pets growing up. My parents had a cat named Marilla (see #2) before I was born and she lived until I was maybe 10 or so. After she died we got a new cat named Tibby. My sister and I had a series of hamsters, my favourite of which was named Fudge. We had a Japanese fighting fish named Sir Percy Blakeney, and later I got goldfish who were called Simon and Hecubus. When I was in high school, we got a dog: Daphne, a schnoodle. She was a wonderful dog and I was very attached to her. She died pretty suddenly when she was nine years old and I was absolutely devastated.

17. Like many people (I think), I wanted to be a marine biologist for a while. I loved killer whales and dolphins. My family went to Marineland in Niagara Falls on vacation once, and though I have absolutely no artistic talent whatsoever, killer whales are the one thing I’ve ever been able to draw well.

18. I’m not sure if this is connected to my desire to be a marine biologist, but the only time I’d visited Vancouver before moving there was when I was little, and the only thing I really remember is going to the aquarium in Stanley Park. I have a vivid memory of seeing an octopus in a tank and being completely grossed out by its tentacles.

19. Twice during my childhood I managed to knock out a loose baby tooth and swallow it. Twice.

20. I was the section head for the Arts and Entertainment section of the school newspaper when I was in high school. I then went to Journalism school when I started university, but dropped out after a year.

21. I had never seen the Star Wars trilogy until I was a teenager. People used to give me the weirdest looks when I’d tell them I hadn’t seen it. I had one friend in elementary school who was so shocked by my failure to see the movies that he made me a VHS copy of all three. I’ve now seen all six movies several times, and I still have that copy along with my DVDs.

22. My grandparents used to live in Almonte, near the Mississippi River. A few times, my grandfather took me canoeing out there, and my cousins and my sister and I would wade in the water and climb the rocks by the small waterfall near their building. It was really nice. I also learned to drive on the quiet highway between Almonte and Pakenham. (These are small towns outside Ottawa.)

23. I was not at all athletic when I was a kid or teenager. I was usually picked last or maybe second to last in gym class. Last year, I started playing hockey, and guess what? I’m still not athletic. However, it’s a lot of fun.

24. The first time I ever went to a hockey game, I was in high school (I developed my interest in the game kind of late, I’m afraid). My dad took me to a 67’s game. Before I left I told my mom I would catch a puck and bring it back to her. She said “Yeah, right.” During the warmup, a Belleville Bulls player shot a puck that hit the top of the glass, bounced up high, hit the railing in front of our seats, then deflected off my dad’s wrist and bounced off my head. We looked for the puck but couldn’t find it until I realized it was in my hood. My mom was amazed. My dog tried to eat the puck.

25. When I first discovered hockey, I was all about the 67’s. My feelings about the Sens were mostly resentment that they got so much attention and the 67’s got so little. I knew a lot about the CHL, not much about the NHL. It was really only after Wade Redden was traded to Ottawa that I started paying close attention to the Sens. I do remember the whole Dave Allison saga though. I also remember the Patrick Roy trade very well, because I became *dramatic music* a Montreal fan for a while afterwards, and the first jersey I ever bought was a Jocelyn Thibault Habs jersey. I am deeply shamed.

26. My first favourite Sens player was Radek Bonk. I loved him! For my 18th birthday, I received an autographed Bonk jersey. My dad once took me to a Sens game, possibly sometime near my 18th birthday but I’m not sure, against the Bruins. It happened to be Bonk’s first game back from an injury. We sat in the 100 level and I remember Bonk scored a goal right in front of me. It was great!

27. The first Sens game I ever went to, also with my dad, was an exhibition game against Montreal. I was one of those obnoxious people cheering for the Habs at a Sens homegame because of my Thibault love. Sorry. During the game, Darcy Tucker made a questionable hit on Bonk and I think gave him a bloody nose or at least took him out of the game somehow. I have hated Darcy Tucker ever since that day. I know everyone hates Darcy Tucker, but that is my specific reason. No one can say I don’t hold a grudge. Chris Pronger and Steve Downie, take note: I will likely violently hate both of you forever, too.

28. I actually met Radek Bonk once when I went to the Sens’ Charity Carnival one year. I got my picture taken with him! I’ve also got a great picture of me and my friend with Janne Laukkanen, and I met Alexei Yashin too. I didn’t think he was very nice (surprise, surprise). At the same event, they had Wade Redden in a dunk tank, dressed in a wetsuit. Nice. I met Wade three times during his career in Ottawa. The first time was at the Ex: he was there signing autographs just before he started his first season with the Sens. Now that he’s gone, there’s no one I’ve met on the team except Nick Foligno.

29. I took Latin in high school and one of our assignments was to write our own will in Latin and make three bequests. In my will, I appointed my gladiator, Radecus Boncus, to be my executor, and willed my 67’s season ticket (section 25, row A, seat 4) to one of my friends.

30. Brian Campbell was my favourite 67’s player. I still think he’s one of the most exciting players I’ve ever seen. I once ran into him in the hallway at the Civic Centre and I told him “I love watching you play!” He said, “Thank you.”

(100 Things About Me – Episode II: Things I Love (Besides Hockey) coming soon to this space!)

With Antoine Vermette’s arbitration hearing scheduled for tomorrow, things should become a bit clearer regarding the Sens’ future in the next few days. The arbitrator must announce his decision within 48 hours of the hearing, so Bryan Murray should have a better idea of his cap situation by Sunday, which will enable him to decide what to do with Andrej Meszaros. That is my fondest wish, at any rate.

I think many of us were hoping the team could come to an agreement with Vermette before the arbitrator had to get involved, but that is looking more and more unlikely as the hours pass by and still there’s no news of a deal. I’m no expert on the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement, but as I understand it, the arbitrator can only award a one- or two-year deal. There are rules governing this, and they have to do with whether or not Vermette is eligible to be a UFA next year, and that is another thing I’m not sure about. But whatever the case, we can be sure that Vermette will not come out of arbitration with a contract longer than two years. If he gets a one-year deal, then no discussions regarding an extension of that contract can take place until after January 1.

And so a one-year deal probably means another stressful trade deadline for Vermette — something I can only imagine he’d like to avoid if at all possible.

If the Sens don’t like what the arbitrator awards Vermette, they can walk away. By doing so, however, they allow Vermette to become a UFA and end up losing him for nothing — something I am very sure Murray would like to avoid.

The team’s other option, of course, is to sign Vermette and trade him. (I have heard that it’s not possible to trade a player before January 1 after he’s gone to arbitration, but I wasn’t able to confirm that during my whirlwind tour of the CBA, which by the way is online here if you ever feel the sudden need to bring on that head-spinning, eyes rolling up in your head type of confusion that can only be induced by reading the most twisted form of legalese.) There is no shortage of rumours, as usual, about Vermette leaving town, and Allen Panzeri listed a few of the potential destinations being named for our Hot French Guy in an article in the Citizen this morning. The Vancouver Province had already done a piece on the Vermette to Vancouver rumours last Thursday, which suggested that Vermette could be the Canucks’ “Plan B” should Mats Sundin decide not to sign with them. With the ever increasing timeframe for Sundin’s decision getting more and more vague — he’s now gone from “around August 1″ to “sometime in August,” according to his agent, J.P. Barry — you have to wonder what this means to Vermette’s future, or at least to the Sens’ list of options for what to do with Vermette. Can a team like the Canucks afford to sit around and wait for Mats? Will his delay make them more or less eager to talk to the Sens about a trade? Is Sundin’s wishy washy behaviour in some way a passive aggressive attempt to screw the Sens over? You can just never trust a Leaf.

In the future, though, I think there could be one exception to that rule, and that exception takes the form of one Luke Schenn, or High King Luke the Magnificent, as I’ve decided to call him from now on, due to his really startling resemblance to Peter from the Narnia movies, which I have now seen up close and in person, having attended two of the Red vs. White games at the Canadian National Junior Team Development Camp at Ottawa U this week. Schenn was one of the players I thought stood out the most in the games I saw, along with Drew Doughty, John Tavares, and Nazem Kadri. I admit there’s a distinct possibility that he stood out to me mostly because of the Narnia thing and because of his mesmerizing good looks (and yes, I know it’s inappropriate for me to be checking out 18-year-old boys — whatever); however, I’m sure I was also impressed by his play. He’s big, he’s got a steady presence on the blue line, and, though he’s billed as a defensive defenceman, he seems to have a pretty good shot. I don’t know why the Leafs had to draft him. It just doesn’t seem right.

Tavares really caught my eye during the World Junior tournament last year, and he is extremely impressive in person as well. Doughty showed some fantastic skill with the puck, and if I were a Kings fan I’d be very happy indeed to have him in the system. Kadri, meanwhile, is someone I had never heard of before, but he’s very exciting to watch. After one rush he made, the people behind me were yelling “Sick!!” and the entire crowd was pretty much oohing and aahing. I also kept my eyes open for Sens prospect Louie Caporusso, who was a last minute addition to the roster. He was playing on Team White’s top line with Tavares and Kyle Turris in the first game I saw and seemed to do well. In the other game I went to, I thought he looked feisty: I noticed him in a few scrums.

Also spotted at the development camp: me, missing a stair and totally taking out my right ankle/foot/lower leg as I tried to get down to my seat on Sunday evening. With the leg in pretty severe pain all day on Monday, I emailed my friend the radiologist for advice and she told me an x-ray is probably a good idea, so I will be paying my doctor a visit tomorrow. Man, these hockey-bystander injuries are the worst.

I know how to drive. Actually, I’ve known how to drive for a long time, having learned this important life skill when I was but a teenager. I have never owned my own car, however, because I’ve always had access to a family car: my mother’s or my grandfather’s. While I’m home in Ottawa for the summer, I am living with my father. Here too, I have access to a car. Unfortunately, the car in question is a standard shift and because I only ever learned to drive an automatic, having full access to said car and full permission to drive it does me exactly no good. And so, I am dependent on the good people at OC Transpo and Société de transport de l’Outaouais to carry me around the region.

Because of the fact that I work somewhere deep in the middle of Gatineau — I have no idea where it is; the bus takes me there and that’s all I know — and live near the Civic Centre, I ended up spending just about as much time in transit going to and from the Draft this weekend as I did watching people get drafted. This made for a long and tiring weekend: I left for work at 6:40am on Friday, went straight to Scotiabank Place from work, and didn’t get home until about 1:00am on Saturday; then I was out the door by 8:00am to get back to the Bank, and arrived home pretty much exhausted at about 4:45pm that afternoon.

Luckily for me, the Draft was a lot of fun, and it was totally worth getting tired! Luckily for you, I have composed an account of my two days spent in Kanata watching 18-year-old hockey players become Hockey Players. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

June 20, 2008: Draft Day I – The First Round

2:00pm: I leave my place of work in Gatineau to catch the bus back over to Ottawa, where I will catch another bus, which will take me to the place I can catch a third bus, which will drop me off somewhere vaguely near Scotiabank Place.

3:37pm (approximate): After what seems like an extremely long and complex bus ride, I get off the bus along with about five other hockey fans who are also headed to Scotiabank Place, though I don’t actually speak to any of these people. Together, but separately, we head off on the 15-20 minute walk down Palladium Drive to the arena. Scenery along this road includes … fields. And also, lampposts decorated with banners featuring Sens players. Really, there should be more places which feature Sens paraphernalia as their decorating motif.

Around 3:45pm: My iPod begins to play “Fireworks” by The Tragically Hip just as Scotiabank Place comes into view. Oh, iPod! You have such a sense of the occasion! I feel very happy when I see the building. It’s weird to say, especially considering the fact that I spent barely any time there in the last few years before I left Ottawa, but I was homesick for the place.

Around 3:50pm: I arrive in front of Scotiabank Place. There’s a carnival type thing going on out front, with games for kids (including a big inflatable slide with Spartacat on it) and a long line of people waiting to meet some of the top prospects. I stop to take a few pictures of the gigantic images of Dany Heatley, Chris Phillips, Daniel Alfredsson, Wade Redden, and Mike Fisher, all doing their best to look intimidating, which adorn the front of the building. These were put up after I moved, so this is the first time I’ve seen them up close. I have to say that they fascinate me. Can you imagine if the building you worked in had a massive image of you mounted above the front door? Freaky.

3:55pm: I go into Sensations to have a look around, but don’t buy anything. I do note that they have a red Spezza jersey in size small (my Heatley jersey, which I am wearing, is white, due to a Christmas shopping error by my father), and file this information away for possible later use.

4:00pm: The festivities upstairs are now open, so I go in. I’m handed a red Draft pom-pom to match the red playoff pom-pom I was given last May. I see Stanley sitting on a table, waiting to pose for photos with his admirers. I walk around a bit looking at the various NHL trophies, all of which are present in glass cases. The Prince of Wales Trophy, which is given to the NHL Eastern Conference Champion each year, attracts my interest due to one notable team which won it recently. At some point, I get in line to have my picture taken with Stanley. When it’s my turn, I go up and give him a big hug. It is awesome. The security guy says “You gave the Cup a big hug!” as I leave. Yes, I did.

4:44pm: My phone rings. It’s the guy to whom I’ve promised my extra draft pass. I go outside to meet him. I then check in with the three friends I’ll be watching the Draft with, who are in line to meet the top prospects. They are: Heata, a fellow Sens fan; Stajanna, a Leafs fan; and Carbonita, another Sens fan with a perhaps unhealthy Guy Carbonneau obsession. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent.) I quickly say hi to Heata and Stajanna, then head off for more wandering.

5:04pm: I decide to call my mom. You see, about six years ago, there was an incident involving Stanley showing up in our front yard and me not being able to get dressed in time to get out and have my picture taken with him. My mom, however, did get her picture taken with him, and never hesitates to rub it in. When I tell her I’ve now also had my picture taken with him, she sounds disappointed.

5:16pm: I go back outside and talk to Heata and Stajanna again. They tell me Carbonita is further back in the line so I decide to go say hello. Foolishly, I ask what she’s wearing: they tell me she’s in a Carbo shirt. Duh! When I get to the back of the line I have no trouble finding her and we chat for a while. The prospects are late for their autograph session (stuck in traffic).

5:30 or so: To avoid looking as though I’m trying to cut in the autograph line, I go find Stajanna and Heata, who’ve got their autographs and are now waiting for Carbonita. They also get autographs from a few other prospects who are randomly walking around, including Josh Bailey of the Windsor Spitfires — TSN’s mock draft had the Sens picking him with their 18th overall pick. Some guy comes up and offers us a pass to get priority seating. Heata takes it, and I go in to grab seats for the four of us. The 200 level is just about full, and I get us seats in section 306, row B. The draft floor reminds me of a stock market.

About 6:10pm: Possible legendary hockey person sighting! Is that Scotty Bowman I see on the floor? I think it is, but I’m not sure. I definitely see Gord Miller, Pierre McGuire, and Bob McKenzie from the TSN hockey panel in TSN’s broadcast area.

6:15pm or so: The man who has sat down next to me taps me on the shoulder and asks “So who do you cheer for, then?” I turn to show him the name Heatley on the back of my jersey. We start chatting, and it turns out this man is a relative of none other than Josh Bailey. Mr. Bailey is extremely nice, and I will continue chatting with him throughout the evening.

6:30pm: Heata, Stajanna, and Carbonita arrive.

6:40pm: Heata uses the super effective zoom lens on her camera to confirm that the man I spotted earlier is, in fact, Scotty Bowman. Nice!

6:45pm: Some dude tells everyone on the floor to sit down at their tables because it’s almost time to get with the drafting.

6:50pm: The same person — obviously an official with the NHL, but he never introduces himself so we have no idea who the heck he is — asks the teams to state the names of the peoeple who will be making their selections for them. He goes through the teams one by one in alphabetical order. The first team, Anaheim, gets a huge boo from the Scotiabank Place crowd, including me, because I hate them with the fire of thousand suns. Montreal, typically, gets about equal parts boo and cheer, while the Leafs get a very long boo. Ottawa, of course, gets the biggest cheer.

6:55pm: Sens owner Eugene Melnyk takes the stage to welcome us all to the Draft.

7:02pm: A TSN profile of certain #1 pick Steven Stamkos is shown on the big screen. This gets a huge cheer from the row behind us. I turn and ask them if they are Stamkoses. They say they are.

7:17pm: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman appears on stage to open the Draft. A rousing boo chorus from the crowd. Bettman, you suck, and you are really, really short. I long for a sniper rifle. (Disclaimer: I would never actually attempt to harm Mr. Bettman. I only fantasize about it.) In the midst of all the boos, Bettman thanks everyone in Ottawa for making the league feel so welcome. I grudgingly admit that this is pretty funny.

7:21pm: The Tampa Bay Lightning use the first pick in the Draft to take … suspense … wait for it … wait … you never know, they might do something unpredictable … nope, they take Steven Stamkos.

7:25pm: Stamkos is interviewed by James Duthie after being picked. Duthie says the player Stamkos is most often compared to is Steve Yzerman. After Duthie says this, I spot Yzerman himself sitting at the Red Wings’ table (so, so awesome) beside Mike Babcock. I have a knack for spotting famous Detroit Red Wings people on the floor. I can’t figure out who anyone else is, though.

7:28pm: Bettman announces that Los Angeles has one minute left to make their pick. I had no idea there was a time limit! What happens if they don’t make it? Do they forfeit the pick? Within a few seconds, LA has used its pick to take Drew Doughty, so we don’t find out the answer to that question.

7:33pm: The first trade of the evening is announced! Florida has traded Olli Jokinen to Phoenix for former Ottawa 67 Nick Boynton, Keith Ballard, and a pick. Excitement!

7:37pm: For the second time, Bettman utters what will become his mantra this evening — “I have a trade to announce” — and we find out that Los Angeles has sent Mike Cammalleri to Calgary for two picks. It had been rumoured that the Sens would send Spezza to LA for Cammalleri and a pick. That was a ridiculous rumour; still, I’m extremely relieved that it seems it definitely won’t happen. Anaheim and LA then trade a few more picks.

7:43pm: After Atlanta makes its selection, Bettman announces another trade. This time, the Flames have sent Alex Tanguay and a pick to Montreal for two picks! This must be why the Flames wanted Cammalleri. Tanguay is a pretty big salary for Montreal to take on, especially considering that we’ve heard the Leafs have given the Habs permission to negotiate with Mats Sundin.

7:55pm: Bettman tells the New York Islanders they have one minute to make their pick.

7:57pm: Clearly, Bettman is doing jack to enforce this one minute thing. Imagine — the NHL being lax with discipline.

7:58pm: Leafs’ GM Cliff Fletcher is shown on the big screen in the arena. This elicits a massive boo from the crowd. Fletcher looks up to see what’s making everyone boo, sees that it is actually himself, and smiles a little. I’m very amused. On an unrelated note, Fletcher appears to be about 100 years old.

8:00pm: Another trade, something involving the Islanders’ pick going to Toronto, and there are options and other picks, and it’s all very complicated. I have no idea what just happened, but the end result is that Toronto will pick 5th instead of the Islanders.

8:01pm: The Leafs’ crew comes up to make their pick. Mass booing ensues.

8:03pm: The Leafs take Luke Schenn. DAMMIT! I wanted the Sens to trade up and get Luke Schenn because of his resemblance to Peter from Narnia! Screw you, Leafs. The booing continues as Schenn comes up to put on his new Leafs jersey. Poor guy, being booed on his draft day. It doesn’t seem to faze him though. I will be charitable and assume the booing fans gave him this greeting to make him feel truly a part of the Leafs’ organization.

8:05pm: A Leafs fan shown on the big screen is booed. We really hate the Leafs.

8:06pm: We hear via text message from a friend of Stajanna’s that Philadelphia has sent R.J. Umberger and a pick to Columbus for two picks. I guess this means we won’t be hearing those Meszaros for Umberger rumours anymore. Lucky Umberger — he gets to go to Columbus and play with The Amazing Rick Nash! Interestingly, I’ve seen lots of people wandering around wearing Columbus jerseys today.

8:08pm: Bettman confirms the Philly-Columbus trade. At some point, we decide that Columbus is a team of the future, and we should start watching their games. My love of Rick Nash compels me to do so.

8:19pm: The Islanders trade the 7th overall pick, which they had just got about 20 minutes ago from Toronto for the 5th overall pick, to Nashville for the 9th overall pick.

8:26pm: It’s time for Phoenix to make its pick, and it’s Wayne Gretzky himself who will be doing the talking. Gretzky gets the kind of reaction Bettman doesn’t even get in his wildest dreams: a huge, long ovation, and a chant of “Gret-zky! Gret-zky!” It is always very cool to see Wayne, even if it is from a vast distance. I like his glasses.

8:28pm: Phoenix’s pick, a guy named Boedker, has a hilarious 80’s style mullet. Fantastic!

8:29pm: Now it’s the New York Islanders’ turn to pick, but as they’ve already traded their pick twice the crowd is highly dubious about the chances of them actually picking this time. I hear chants of “Trade! Trade!” As the perpetually mediocre Islanders mortgage their future, we all laugh and cheer.

8:33pm: But wait, they are actually picking this time, and they’ve picked Josh Bailey! The members of the Bailey family sitting near us give a huge cheer, as do we, since we’ve now befriended them. The man next to me looks extremely proud, and it’s a really nice moment to be part of. Josh was expected to be selected in the 15-20 range, so to see him go in the top ten is a pretty big deal. I take a picture of Josh putting on the Isles’ jersey to remember the occasion.

8:43pm: A couple of minutes after the Canucks use the tenth overall pick to select Cody Hodgson, we see a Canucks fan with Roberto Luongo’s exact haircut on the big screen. It’s uncanny.

8:53pm: Los Angeles trades the 12th overall pick to Buffalo for the 13th overall pick. Monumental.

9:05pm: We get to see another hockey legend, as Ron Francis shows up to make Carolina’s pick.

9:12pm: Bettman has another trade to announce and, he says, “you’re going to like this one.” Turns out the Sens have traded their pick, 18th overall, along with their third round pick in 2009 to Nashville for the 15th overall pick. Bettman is right: we do like that one. “Beautiful Day” begins to play and they show an Alfie montage on the big screen.

9:14pm: Time for the Sens to pick, and it’s Alfie who will be announcing the name of their selection. Alfie comes to the microphone to the biggest ovation of the night, and we get the “Al-fie! Al-fie! Al-fie!” chant going. He names Erik Karlsson, a fellow Swede, as our pick. Who? Turns out Karlsson is a defenceman — much needed in the Ottawa organization — but is a bit on the small side. I’m somewhat perplexed as to why we would draft a small player. Still, welcome to the Sens, tiny Swedish guy.

9:20pm: Bryan Murray is being interviewed by James Duthie on TSN, and they play the interview on the big screen for us. Duthie says something we don’t quite hear that draws a big cheer from the crowd. Heata is pretty sure he’s said the Sens have re-signed Chris Kelly. Duthie asks about whether Spezza will be traded. Murray says that Spezza’s no trade clause kicks in in July 09, and he will indeed still be a member of the team at that point. Another cheer from the crowd, with some jeers (no doubt from those crazy Spezza haters!) mixed in. I think I speak for Murray when I say — now, can the Spezza trade rumours please GO AWAY? Kthx.

9:23pm: Stajanna’s friend who is watching on TV has confirmed it for us: the Sens re-signed Chris Kelly to a four-year deal. Hooray!

9:28pm: Brian Burke takes the stage to make Anaheim’s pick. He is greeted with another large boo. “It’s great to be back in Ottawa,” he says. I laugh. I actually find Burke to be a pretty entertaining guy, but he works for the forces of pure evil so I can’t like him. The Ducks select Jake Gardiner. I hear later that Burke apparently wanted to take Karlsson, the Sens’ pick, and was frustrated when it didn’t happen. Nyah nyaaaaaah!

9:48pm: We get to see another hockey luminary: Glen Sather makes the New York Rangers’ pick.

9:52pm: New Jersey trades the 21st overall pick to Washington for the 23rd overall pick. Another blockbuster deal!

9:54pm: As the Caps go up to make their pick, some crazy Caps fans sitting two sections over from us start chanting “C.A.P.S. Caps! Caps! Caps!” These people are enthusiastic fans. I mean, really enthusiastic.

10:01pm: We see Bryan Murray come over to the media area in front of us to do a radio interview. What a busy day for him: waiving Emery, signing Kelly, trading picks, drafting a guy, doing interviews … he’s done a good job with it all. I’m feeling the love for BM the GM right now.

10:02pm: The Edmonton Oilers are on stage to make their pick, with Sam Gagner and His Mullet in tow.

10:06pm: The Devils are up next. This is, as Stajanna so beautifully put it, a team that has made boring an art form. Will their pick be boring, we wonder? Yes, actually: they trade pick 23 to Minnesota for pick 24 and a third rounder in 09. Woo hoo.

10:12pm: Minnesota thanks Ottawa for its hospitality, and then thanks Ottawa for helping it out with its pick, who is Tyler Cuma of the Ottawa 67’s! Yay!

10:17pm: The Devils finally actually make their pick. Huzzah!

10:25pm: The crazy Caps fans two sections over have been mysteriously replaced by crazy Buffalo Sabres fans, who go wild as the Sabres prepare to pick.

10:44pm: Phoenix has another pick so Gretzky is back. He uses the pick to take Viktor Tikhonov: not the famous Russian coach, but the famous Russian coach’s grandson. I imagine the famous Russian coach Viktor Tikhonov is a little old to play in the NHL at this point.

10:53pm: It’s time for the last pick of round 1, which belongs to the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings. Steve Yzerman will make Detroit’s pick. Yzerman gets a great ovation from the crowd, and seems really flattered by it. Yzerman is also, it must be said, quite the hottie. I love you, Stevie Y! Detroit takes a goalie named Thomas McCollum, and with that — four hours, 30 picks, and a billion trades later — the first round is over.

11:00pm-11:23pm: The four of us are all taking the same bus back into the city so we walk to the stop together. Unfortunately, the bus we’re taking only comes every half hour, and we end up having to wait 20 minutes.

11:41pm-12:25am: The bus arrives. We sit together at the back. Heata and Stajanna get off first, then Carbonita a few minutes later. Finally, the bus gets to my stop. Sadly, the bus I need to take to get home from the bus stop is no longer running and I have to walk.

12:46am: I get home, make myself a Neo Citran to try to knock myself out as soon as possible, upload my pictures to my computer, and go to bed.

June 21, 2008: Draft Day II — Draft at Super-Speed (Rounds 2-7)

(I didn’t take detailed notes today as I did on Friday because I was too tired/lazy — take your pick — so this will be a bit less organized.)

- While I’m eating breakfast, I watch some of the highlights from round 1 on TSN. The guy says that there were 13 trades total, which is as many as had been made on the last three draft days combined! We thought it seemed like more than usual.

- I leave home at 7:55am to get my first bus. I only have to take two buses to get out there today. When I get off the bus near the Bank, I start talking to a Habs fan who was also on the bus. We make the walk to the arena together, and it turns out Habs Guy used to work in the same building where I now work. Spooky!

- I get a text from Stajanna telling me she and Heata and Carbonita are in section 225, row B today, so I go join them. Sitting next to us today is a French Canadian Habs fan in a Bob Gainey t-shirt. Bob Gainey seems to be this guy’s idol, so we name him Serge-Bob Gainey.

- Our seats are nearest to the Red Wings table, so I will spend much of the day keeping an eye on Steve Yzerman and Scotty Bowman. (Mike Babcock doesn’t appear to be there today.) Bowman is constantly up mingling with various people, including having a long chat with Bob McKenzie at one point (is this where McKenzie gets his inside info, we wonder). I imagine a lot of people want to talk to him and he seems like a pretty friendly guy. Yzerman spends more time seated at the table, presumably talking to the scouts, but he also gets up and chats sometimes. At one point he comes over near the boards and a big group of kids flocks over to get his autograph. He signs for them. Did I mention that I love Steve Yzerman?

- “Uncle Ben” Hartsburg is seated at the Sens’ table today. Apparently he was there on Friday too, but we didn’t spot him. I also find out after I get home that Chris Kelly showed up to sign his contract at the Draft table, but again, we didn’t see him.

- Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock is sitting in a box on the 100 level below us. We can see him in there most of the day. Having decided that Columbus is a Team of the Future, we now decide we’ll all buy Blue Jackets t-shirts to wear. We don’t know where we could get some in Ottawa, though. At one point, Serge-Bob Gainey spots Actual Bob Gainey in the box talking to Hitchcock and borrows Heata’s Sharpie to go and try to get Gainey to sign his shirt. We all keep our eye on the box where Hitchcock and Gainey are to see what happens. Serge-Bob appears and manages to get Gainey’s attention. A few minutes later we see Gainey disappear — hopefully he’s with Serge-Bob! Gainey then re-appears in the box and proceeds to actually climb out of it, standing on the arm of a seat before reaching the ground again. He makes his way back to the Montreal table by acrobatically going over, rather than around, the Scotiabank Place seats and various other obstacles in his way. This is pretty impressive, and we christen him Indiana Jones Gainey for it. From now on, climbing over seats to get around people will now be known as going Gainey-style. Serge-Bob returns victorious: he has Gainey’s signature on the back of his shirt. We’re happy for him! He is very apologetic because he’s accidentally lost Heata’s Sharpie, and tries to give her a toonie to buy a new one.

- Every time it’s Phoenix’s turn to make a pick, there’s some kind of delay. We feel that the Coyotes are like that guy in line ahead of you who has to count out all his change before he can pay.

- Phoenix uses the second round pick it got from the Sens in the Oleg Saprykin trade to select Jared Staal, the fourth (and final) Staal brother. Sadly, the Staals are not in attendance. The Coyotes draft another player with NHL pedigree when they take Brett Hextall, son of Ron, in the sixth round. I wonder if the fact that Wayne’s brother Keith Gretzky is on the Coyotes’ staff has anything to do with this habit of selecting the relatives of famous hockey people. Meanwhile, David Toews, brother of Jonathan, is taken in the third round by the Islanders. The Toews family is also not in attendance.

- In the third round, Phoenix takes M. Brodeur. Okay, it’s Mathieu Brodeur and he’s a defenceman, but still — M. Brodeur! Carolina drafts Michal Jordan in the sixth round. This, of course, is an 18-year-old Czech defenceman, not a 45-year-old legendary American basketball player. That doesn’t stop us from joking that all he needs to do now is play football and he’ll have the complete set.

- Towards the end of the day, we see Julien Demers of the Ottawa 67’s, who’d been drafted by the Sharks in round 5 (yes, the Sharks drafted a 67’s player!! Imagine that!), wander in to the section of seats below us. He’s soon joined by Brian Kilrea and 67’s owner Jeff Hunt. Brian Kilrea is the man!

- After the Draft ends, we’re walking out to the exit when we stumble upon (not literally) Sens player Nick Foligno in the hallway. We say hello, and Stajanna, Leafs jersey and all, asks Foligno for a picture with him, telling him she and her mother are fans of his father. Nick points out that his father is in fact right over there, so Stajanna gets a picture with him too. Foligno was bigger than I thought he’d be, in terms of muscle. He looks absolutely nothing like his father.

- Other random interesting people we saw: Brett Hull, sitting at the Dallas table announcing the Stars’ picks with great enthusiasm and signing the back of a kid wearing a Red Wings jersey; Ted Nolan; Alain Vigneault, chatting with Pierre LeBrun — I figure Vigneault must get a bit lonely having not many people to speak French to in Vancouver; Nick Kypreos, who lent Serge-Bob his Sharpie after the loss of Heata’s; Ron Wilson, whose interview with one media person quickly turns into a large-ish media scrum — yes, Ron, this is what it’s going to be like for you from now on; and a guy from Hockey Night in Canada’s Hot Stove whose name we can’t remember.

- Interesting fact: Round 1 took four hours to complete. Rounds 2-7 also took four hours to complete.

Summary: The Overall Draft Experience

What I learned is that attending the Draft is not really about watching people get drafted. Oh no. It’s partly about that, sure, but what it’s really about is a more general kind of people watching. Some of the people there are getting drafted, and you are definitely watching them, but you are also watching the people who are doing the drafting, and the people watching the Draft, and probably those people are watching you, too. Know what I mean?

Basically, what I am trying to say is that going to the Draft turned out to be a great opportunity to meet and mingle with other hockey fans, to observe the people who run the NHL actually making the NHL run, and to be a part of what is probably the best day in some 18-year-old boys’ lives. I’m really glad I was able to go, because it’s not an opportunity that comes around that often.

Coming up in this space: a post which actually talks about the Sens’ various draft picks!