Waiting for scores and other numbers

There's been a lot of activity with and around me the past week. Some of the busy has been positive and beneficial, some has been stressful and have given me guilt.

The latter is tough to write about, I'm neither ready nor comfortable telling it here - a story that may not be over. I've said it before and I'll say it again though - distance is hard.

In three nights we took in two hockey games. The first was to see the Blue Jackets play Chicago.



The Blue Jackets have been on a roll recently. They have earned a point in ten straight games, a franchise record. The game with the Black Hawks was number nine of that streak. It was a very tense, well played and entertaining game. Both teams played well and the game was tied at one at the end of regulation. A crazy overtime in which both teams played for the extra point was a thrill to watch and it was a shame the Blue Jackets lost in a shoot out. I hate the shoot out, win or lose.

Saturday night we headed to the olde Ohio State Ice Rink to see game two of a playoff series between Ohio State and Ferris State.



It's a small barn, the ice rink. The ceiling is low and play stops when the puck hits it, which happened at least twice on Saturday night. You're right next to the game and can hear everything that happens on the ice. You can also be heard if your lungs are in good shape. I went here a lot in the late 90's, during the team's frozen four run of 1998. A lot of memories, most of them pretty good.



My wife had never seen a game here. It's tough when you're used to seat backs and video replay, but the old experience came back and I rolled with the change and had a great time watching OSU force a third game, which is happening as I write this. (3-2 OSU in the third period)



The winner of the series goes to the CCHA tournament at the Joe Louis Arena next weekend, the last games the CCHA will have.

Edit: Ohio State wins and goes to the Joe!



Saturday also had the poetry auditions for the Columbus Arts Festival. The poets were excellent and represented such a diverse element of the talent Columbus and Ohio has. Announcements of who made it will be out soon. I've been working on the math and am very excited with who is going to be on the Word is Art Stage in June. You will not want to miss this!