Best Gift Ever

For Christmas, Corey and I agreed our gift to each other would be a romantic date-type event. Our original thought was an overnight at a bed and breakfast with some snow-shoeing, but copious weekend travel plans and awful weather made us rethink that option. We went with tickets to a Penguins game instead.

One day last week, the heavens opened up and my friend Laura decided she was not using her season tickets so we got awesome seats for face value! What a good friend indeed. We chose the Friday night game against the Anaheim Ducks. As luck would have it, Sid Crosby was injured and not playing, which made Corey very sulky that we did not choose the Wednesday game earlier in the week. This would turn out to be the only sour patch of the night.

We trudged in the 6 degree frost to Mellon Arena. Laura hooked us up with a secret parking space that was not only free, but away from the bottleneck of post game madness. Another victory.

Plus, the arena was well heated. We spent 3 glorious hours NOT wrapped in blankets or hats or gloves. It was worth it just for the warmth on that deathly cold night, which continued to get better.

Shortly into the first period, the jumbotron alerted us to the fact that Jeff Reed was sitting near us!!! You wouldn't know this from watching him on TV, but he has very tall, bleached blond hair shaped like Troll Doll hair--all spiked out and wildly pointy. I was slightly alarmed to see him with a beer, like 'hey Jeff Reed! Don't get wasted and dehydrated cuz you have important work to do on Sunday!'

When I went to the bathroom after the first period, I stumbled a bit upon leaving the lavatory and who should be walking past me in the hall, also tripping over his too-long pants? Jeff Reed!!! You would think I would take this opportunity to discourage him from refilling his beer, but I did not. I scampered back to my seat to report to Corey.

At this point, the night becomes a big, hazy smog of joy as the announcer informed us that our entire section won free potato chips. Free! Chips! Can you think of anything better to give out to a starving pregnant woman at a hockey game? I can't! I'll tell you what, those were the best damn chips of my entire life. Corey grabbed two bags from the box, so we each ate 1.5 bags and nearly died of joy.

I'm not even surprised the Pens won the game. How could they not, with the fates being so generous? After it was all over, we scuttled up the hill to our car and made it home in under 15 minutes. No traffic jams or honking like the suckers down the hill were dealing with. Not us. Filled with chips and Steelers sightings, we had enough energy to go home and watch TV before bed.

Truly a Friday to remember forever and the best gift I've ever gotten.