The following events took place on March 8th, 2009
I was finally caught up on my sleep when I woke up Sunday morning. The dark circles under my eyes were gone for the most part, and I didn’t feel quite so fatal anymore. I hadn’t watched a minute of television since my road trip started, and I had NO IDEA that the clocks had sprung forward. As soon as I discovered that the hotel clock and my lap top/cell phone were off by an hour, I just about had a heart attack thinking that I could have missed my game if I hadn’t noticed! I still hadn’t clued in that it was Day Light Savings, though; I just thought it was the crummy hotel staff.
I checked out in the afternoon as the Coyotes and Islanders were playing a matinee game. I decided I would brave the drive back to Toronto after the game and regroup at home before making a decision on whether or not to continue shadowing the Coyotes’ eastern road trip. I needed a sign – a clear sign that I was on the right path!
I walked around the rundown concourse of Nassau Coliseum trying to kill some time before heading down to my seats. Yes, I, once again, had two seats, but these tickets were only $60 each so it wasn’t a huge loss. I ducked into the ladies room to do a spot check, lip-stick application – you know the drill, ladies. As I walked in one of those terrible washroom ads stopped me in my tracks. You know those ads in the metal frames you never pay attention to because they always have some terrible self-help slogan on them like, “No Means No,” or “A moment of pleasure, a lifetime of responsibility.” This time I actually noticed the ad. It was an advertisement for immigration to Arizona. I felt like I was being physically held there, like a magnet was pulling me to the sign. Eureka! This was my sign…literally. I knew then that I had to go to Phoenix at some point before the season ended.
I went down to my seats. They were awful. I was in the front row, but the front row seats were low to the ground and you could hardly see over the boards. I met two nice Coyotes/Rangers fans before the warm up started. (Hi, guys!) Unfortunately, and despite cheering for the Islanders until the hideous blonde mule was out of my sight, the Coyotes lost their second game of the road trip.
I got back to the car, it was 5PM. “Wow, what a fast game,” I thought. It was actually 6PM – I still hadn’t clued in. I stole the wireless signal from the Burger King near the hotel. Checked my emails and hit the road. It was around Midnight somewhere far North on the I-81 when I realized that it was Day Light Savings. So, I wasn’t making good time after all.
I opted to go the long way home to avoid crossing in Buffalo after the incident Monday morning. The Canadian border guard kept looking at me strangely because my purpose for a week long stint in the States was four hockey games. Unlike the assholes in Buffalo, he didn’t find it suspicious so much as amusing. Gotta love, Canada!
I felt better being back in my home country. I was driving West on the 401 bound for Toronto, when my deck started overheating or something strange and my music kept skipping. Finally, I just turned the radio on, but there are so many barren stretches of nothing that far East on the 401 that I could only get the stations with the strongest signals. And you KNOW those stations are always classical, talk, and easy listening! One of the easy listening stations was actually playing a few gems – the type that you haven’t heard in years and you have forgotten that you love.
Blue Rodeo’s Try came on. I haven’t heard them since I was a wee thing. I remember my parents had the cassette (remember those?) and they would listen to it in the car. The song made me think about everything that had transpired in the last week. In similar lyrics I had tried to explain several times to my friends/family why I was AWOL, “if this happened to you, wouldn’t you try? Don’t you have to?” As the song says, you’ve got to try.
