Musings at Altitude

I was deep in banter at a tradeshow today when I got a call from my 14 year old daughter.  I couldn’t take the call at the time so I finished my discussion and walked outside where I could hear to call her back.  I asked her how school was and she said good.  I asked how she did on her tests today, and she said she got an “A” on one and didn’t know about the other.  [Father’s note – not knowing about the other typically means something other than an “A”.]  As we finished the daily update on school, she said, “Dad! 1 day, 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 12 seconds.”  And me being the foolish Dad that I am asked her “what is that?”  She quickly responded, “that’s how long till they drop the puck!”

If you’ve read my blog before, you fully realize the insanity of my 14 year old’s fanaticism with the Colorado Avalanche.  It’s got to be unparalleled in the hockey universe.  In fact, it’s a total obsession.  She even counted her 2,000 or so hockey cards, divided them by teams, counted them by teams, sorted them by players…oh my gosh!

For opening night, we got her 2nd row seats, right in the corner near her favorite player, Avs goalie Peter Budaj.  She’s already taken the virtual tour from the Pepsi Center web site so she can see the exact look angles from her seat to her favorite players.  She’s already planning our trip to the game because it’s an 8:00 pm start and she’ll need at least a few hours of sleep before waking up at 5:45 am for school the next morning.  She’s already got the tickets in a folder to take with us, and she’s already scrutinizing the opening day roster and complaining about some of the roster moves that affected her favorite players.  OH MY GOSH!!!!

As a father of such a fanatic, it’s pretty easy to be a hero – buy that fan tickets 2 rows off the glass right where her favorite player stands.  As a father of such a fanatic, it’s pretty easy to talk…I mean listen…to your 14 year old fan as long as you want to talk about or listen to anything at all about hockey. 

I’m glad we have something to be mutually excited about.  But the show for me is watching her, and the joy of being at the game is the cheers and the smiles and the memories that will last a life time.