This was a hockey weekend for me! I love going to see live sports, especially hockey. So on Friday, when Jess L. invited me to go to the Colorado College hockey game on Saturday, I didn’t even hesitate. Of course, there was drama involving what I would wear. First, I was toing to wear a black shirt and orange sweater–the closest thing I could find to match the CC colors of gold and black. But as soon as I got changed, I realized that my hands were really dry, so put on some lotion and promptly squirted it all over my black shirt. Ugh!
But I didn’t know who CC was playing, so I didn’t know what color not to wear. I finally decided on a white shirt and purple sweater. But what if the other team’s color was purple? Then I’d get booed by the CC fans–who I don’t mind saying are more than a little bit intense.
When we got to the rink, I discovered that CC was playing Duluth, whose colors are gold and maroon. Whew. That purple was a little too close for comfort. But I survived, and the game was Awe-some. There were more fights than I’ve ever seen, and three players from Duluth were ejected from the game. It was so fun! And it put me in the mood for my favorite hockey movie of all time.
If you haven’t seen Disney’s film chronicling the true story of the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team, you’re missing out. This is a movie for everyone who needs to be uplifted.
In 1979 the United States needed something more than the gas shortage, hostages, and a failing economy to focus on. That’s when Herb Brooks (played brilliantly by Kurt Russell) was hired by the lead the men’s USA hockey team to the 1980 Olympics. Brooks put together a rag tag team of college kids to play the best that the world had to offer–including the Soviet Union, who hadn’t lost in 20 years.
This team of kids, who fought among themselves over past rivalries, couldn’t possibly win the gold. Could they?
Miracle is just that. The story of a miracle that no one ever expected and a country really needed. Enjoy it!
because I can imagine the faces of my loved ones as they open them up. Last year, when I traveled back to Arizona, my sister told me that she and her husband really needed new pots and pans, but they just didn’t have the money to buy them. It was so fun for me to wrap that huge box of Rachel Ray cookware. Even more funny was the terrible wrapping job I did on the 12-inch pan not in the box. It was such an awful wrapping job, I was sure that they’d figure it out. But the shock and joy on their faces was everything I’d hoped for.
MizB of Should Be Reading hosts the Teaser Tuesdays weekly event
deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the heroine. When the first scene from the book is replicated in real life in front of Cole and a woman is kidnapped, Cole believes he holds the clue to her survival in his hands. But will anyone listen to him? Or will he be too late to save her? The story is set mostly in Atlanta and includes some of the scenes from the thriller.
I’d say Adrian Monk, but I don’t think I’d have the patience to put up with him as one of my characters. lol. So I’m thinking Morgan from Kristen Heitzmann’s A Rush of Wings. He’s a secondary character in this book, not yet attached, with a past that’s left him wounded and somewhat mysterious. I love writing/reading about heroes like that.
If you’ve seen my twitter updates, you won’t be surprised by this weeks Friday Favorite. I’ve spent the better part of every evening the last week or so watching the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, which I borrowed from the library with the specific intent of watching it with my friends Jess Barnes and Jess Lacy. But Lacy’s grad school and Barnes’s family commitments kept us from actually getting to watch it together. So I had a decision to make: return it to the library and wait another 4-6 months to get to check it out again or watch it on my own?
learn about leadership, I learned from Dick Winters. Lt. Dick Winters (played by Damian Lewis, who I already loved as Charlie Crews in Life)(Seriosly I just spent 20 minutes going through my blog archives looking for a Friday Favorite about Life, but apparently I haven’t done one yet. That will be remedied.) is the man that all the others in Easy Company look up to. He’s the one that goes on training runs up the mountain with his men, even though he’s been assigned to an easier task for the moment. He’s the one who builds up the men, and as he’s swiftly promoted through the course of the war, he continues to be a leader with integrity and bravery. He leads his men into battle, never asking them to do anything he wouldn’t do. He’s fierce and kind, strong and compassionate. He never took leave, and wouldn’t stray from the side of his men. As he was promoted, I could tell that his heart broke as he moved further away from the men of Easy. If I could work for anyone, I’d want to work for him.
Each episode is told through the eyes of one of the men of Easy. One focusing on the replacements, one on the senior noncom (noncommissioned officer), one on one of the original soldiers who was injured and away from the company for 4 months. One of my favorites was from the medics perspective. My heart broke as we watched him try to save men and lose them. And it soared when he tried to save them and succeeded. Mostly I loved watching him run from fox hole to fox hole looking for supplies for the men, putting himself in danger every moment so that he’d be ready when they needed him.
They all played a role, some big. Others small. But it seemed every episode I was saying, Hey! I know that guy from something.