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Catching the Buzz...Without a Beer

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Tonight I took the 9-year old girl that I mentor to the Minnesota Swarm hockey game at the Xcel Energy Center. It was a blast...but what a night. And I'm exhausted. Here's a two-part analysis of the evening...game stuff first, hanging out with a 9-year old, second.

1) Da Game
This was my 3rd ever Minnesota Swarm game. The Swarm, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of attending, is a professional lacrosse team...a member of the National Lacrosse League. You know, the league created by the NHL during the lock-out to help teams fill in obligated dates in their arenas when their teams weren't playing. Fortunately, I have never had to pay for a Swarm game, otherwise my count would probably be at zero because I'm frankly not the biggest fan of indoor lacrosse. If you love the grand sport of outdoor lacrosse, played on a giant grass field (and is actually a lot of fun to watch)...be aware that this version is WAY different.

The NLL is where the NHL meets the NBA meets WWE meets NLS meets a giant flyswatter convention. You REALLY have to be paying attention to learn the rules (and due to my severe hatred of not understanding the sport in front of me, I learned the rules very quickly by hunting down an usher during my first game and commendeering a rules sheet). It's very fast-paced, which is cool. And very violent, which is also cool. But it seriously (and admits so) steals rules from about 4 different sports, and then uses the equipment from a 5th - lacrosse. And you can never tell who has the ball because it's white, hidden in a white netting on a stick. Nice planning, rule-maker.

The one other rule I would change is one that was not taken properly from hockey. In the last quarter (they play four 15-minute quarters...and despite the fast-pace of the game, it's possible for a game to last 87 hours. At the first game I went to, there may have been 447 penalties - and then a guy went a broke his leg so they had to stop the game, get a cart, pack him up and take him away. That took forever.), if a team is losing, they can pull their goalie and put a 6th guy on the field (which is really a giant carpet - it's not even like the field turf that looks like grass). In hockey, during the 1st and 3rd periods the goalie defends on the same end of the ice as his bench. That way if they pull the goalie at the end of the game to try to score when losing, he is close to the bench and can get on and off the ice quickly if need be. In the NLL, the goalie defends at the FAR goal during the 2nd and 4th quarters...making it hard to pull and replace him easily. That's a simple rule change. Gosh, I'm brilliant.

The score was 15-11, I think. That's almost as many goals as are scored in a game under the new NHL rules.

2) Da kid
The girl I mentor is a little 3rd grader. She's an extremely sweet girl, and is pretty well behaved. She had never been to the Xcel Energy Center before, let alone to a Swarm game...so this was a big deal for her. But this was also a learning experience for me tonight, too. I don't have kids of my own, and don't baby-sit much. And I have never taken a kid out into a social setting like this by myself. When I have my friends' kids with me, their parents are always with me. Or if I'm with school kids at an event, it's always a bunch of adults and the kids. I didn't think about that before embarking on my great adventure tonight! Don't get me wrong - I do love kids. They are a lot of fun, extremely amusing, and I really enjoy working with the kids that I mentor. But wow, tonight was exhausting...and educational. I think I realized it's a good idea I don't have kids of my own...and that I can return other people's kids to them at the end of the night :)

Here's what I realized tonight that exhausted me:

* You can't be very selfish with a 9 year old around - which is hard to do when you're used to just worrying about yourself! Especially at the concession stand. Because it's too much work. It's easier to just go to 1 stand and order something from there and accept it...because kids can't carry giant sodas or food...which means that you have to carry everything. Or drop it. Whichever works better. Fortunately we both wanted the same thing tonight, but if she had wanted pizza and I had wanted a hot dog...we both would have gotten pizza because it's too much work to get both.

* I was scared to death I was going to lose her! I'm used to being with my friends who are (sometimes) mature enough to make it to the bathroom on their own, walk to the car on their own, and get their own popcorn. And if we get seperated, we can call on our cells. Kids are too young to do that themselves. And most of them don't have cells. Well - they didn't used to. Now I think they all do. Except the girl I took to the game tonight.

* Kids want you to hold their hand when you cross the street - because they are still at that age where they have to hold an adult's hand to cross the street. That was more amusing and cute than exhausting...but still unusual. Most of my friends can cross the street on their own. Hahaha.

* Kids ask A LOT of questions. And you don't know how to answer about 95% of them truthfully. So most of the time you make something up or lie because they don't know the difference and will probably forget about 15 minutes later, anyway.

* You have to think twice about what you do...especially when you have someone else's kid with you that you are supposed to be a role model for. It was weird to know that I couldn't walk up to a concession stand and order an alcoholic beverage because I had her under my care...and I was her driver, too. It's not that I really even wanted a beer...I mean it's a huge part of going to a game, I usually just get one beer when I got to a pro sporting event (and would have made the game a little better maybe)...but I just was thinking that I had to be responsible. Responsible?!?!

I will say this though - kids are easily impressed. With a large lemonade instead of small, with popcorn, with the site of neon lights, by seeing someone they know and will wave back to them, and to my utmost dismay - the Minnesota Swarm Bud Light Performance Team aka dance team. She wanted to go to the glass after the game and say hi and wave to the cheerleaders...but left when the team ran around waving to the fans and acknowledging them. I guess my mentoring isn't taking effect yet.

Alright, it's way past my bedtime! Adios!

posted by Steph @ 8:19 PM