Dare I hope?

Long time readers may recall back in 2002 in Prague, M and I saved up our crowns and bought bikes. They were made by a Czech company called Author. Mine was red, white and black. M's was orange, of course. We didn't ride them every day, but we rode them a lot, touring the parks and streets of Prague.

I lugged both of them back with me on the flight from Prague to Toronto in 2003 (with a cat!) and rode it all the time while I lived in Kingston that summer. Like so many people that we've been reading about since the first raid, I had a connection with my bike.

So when it was stolen in the winter of 2004 I was upset. Yes, I got a new bike and it's a good bike, but it's not as special to me as that first bike was.

All this recent news of the raids on Igor Kenk's astounding ring of bicycle thievery is giving me mixed emotions about my old bike. When the first few raids were made I had a glimmer of hope. Sure the police told me the day the bikes were stolen that they were most likely already on a container in a boat on its way to a black market somewhere overseas, but imagine if they were still here in Toronto. I knew the chances were slim, but it was hard not to think that my bike could be in there.

Even more remarkable that more than 250 bikes were uncovered yesterday two blocks from my house. I know, I know. It's so unlikely that the bikes will be there. That hasn't stopped me from pulling out whatever documents I have that prove that my bike was mine. I even have photos of me on my old bike, but who knows what the police will require in terms of evidence of ownership.

Even if our bikes aren't in that huge warehouse this weekend, I hope that some people are reunited with what was stolen from them. And like the poem on the front door of Igor's house of stolen property says "Bike thieves rot in hell."

HRH

It's not Hockey Night In Canada without the theme song

The Globe & Mail reported today that the CBC has not renewed the license agreement for the use of the "Hockey Night In Canada" theme and are investigating other options for the show.

Now either this is an evil marketing scheme by the CBC to threaten a beloved national icon, get us all riled up and upset and then look like a hero when they capitulate and renew the license or someone has decided it's time to reband, rebuild and regrow the CBC and they've decided to start by changing one of the few things they have working for them. Either way there is someone epically stupid in charge at the CBC.

I didn't grow up with hockey. I had more of a football/basketball/Formula 1 kind upbringing, but I knew the "Hockey Night in Canada" theme song and I loved it. I didn't even know why. I used to play double bass with the youth orchestra and local symphony and when we would visit area schools to do some music education, we'd play the "Hockey Night In Canada" theme. The kids would go crazy. They loved it.

Now that M has gotten me into the practice of actually watching the sport, I like the theme song even more. I won't let him change the channel during the theme song (I also won't let him change the channel during O Canada) as hearing it makes me think about how my grandparents watched "Hockey Night In Canada" every Saturday (in fact the only reason they even got a TV was to watch Leafs games).

There's a part of me that thinks, that since the song was introduced in 1968 that this may be a desperate and superstitous ploy by MLSE to break the Stanley Cup curse. Is it a coincidence that the Leafs haven't won the cup since the "Hockey Night In Canada" theme was written? And I hope this isn't a tactic of the owner of the song trying to play the public to get the CBC to sort out her legal issues with them, though I suspect that it is.

I hope they wise up and don't change it. I'm not saying it's going to stop me from watching hockey, but it's going to diminsh my experience and that's not what entertainment should do.

Update: For anyone out there like me who looks forward to hearing "Hello Canada and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland"* lead into the HNIC theme on a cold winter Saturday, the venerable Graeme has started a petition on his blog. Go sign up now. I don't care if you're eating your lunch. Do it!

HRH

*starts at 1:45 in the video

Something's missing

C: Okay, what does "Here's the 1,2 pitch" mean?
M: It means the pitcher is throwing with one ball and two strikes.
C: Okay.

Two pitches ensue

C: Okay. So it's three balls and two strikes and that makes it a full count.
M: Yes.
C: See I'm starting to understand the game, it's just the caring about it that's my problem.

HRH

Such a girl

So for most of the hockey season I was a good Leafs fan and made disparaging comments about Chris Neil of the Senators. I called him a "thug" and other such unkind things. Suddenly this evening, after watching an interview with him before the game about how amazing it was for him to witness the birth of his first child, he's just the nicest guy.

I give up. I have no principles when men get emotional about being dads.

HRH

A big game

My small town roots enable me to be perpetually entertained by big city sporting events, so when M asked me to join him at an Argos game this week, I was ready to be amused. I watched a lot of football in highschool and watched a lot of on television with my father so I have a very good understanding of the game. Such a great understanding that I couldn't remember if Canadian football had four or five downs (turns out it's four). To be fair I think I've watched two full football games since I moved out of my parents house, but really, I should have known that one.

Football is a big game. Big teams, big players, big crowds, big opportunities to write something inappropriate that I won't take. I can only imagine what the spectacle of an American NFL game must be like. Even still I was impressed at the Canadian offering.

One thing that impressed me was how much the players interacted with the crowd. With most of the major sports I've seen played, the players, while fueled by the energy of the crowd, rarely acknowledged its existsence (note: this may be a symptom of watching most of these sports in Toronto where the crowd will turn on its team as quickly as I'll ****). At the Argos game the players were not only playing to the crowd but actually prompting the crowd directly to cheer them on.

Seeing another sporting event also provided me with an opportunity to find intentional connections between the action on the field and the music played during the action. An example from last night, a player from Calgary drops a pass and the song played during the break is Snoop Dogg's "Drop it like it's hot." I do this at every game and like the big sporting events it never ceases to amuse me.

Today I have a cold, so I'm experiencing a Chelsea-in-the-sky-with-diamonds kind of day from my beloved cold medication, so that's all I can type for today because my head is all spinny.

HRH

A new definition for child abuse

So M and I are watching the Home Run Derby for the All-Star game (proving that we will watch any sport on TV) and a baseball player is sitting in with the commentators offering erudite perspectives on the art of the home run. This is nothing strange, though the nicknames they all use for eachother sure are. This baseball player, no doubt reinforcing the marketing message that baseball is a family game, has his exceptionally well behaved infant daughter on his lap. She's cute. Very cute. She's somewhere between 6 and 10 months. And how do I know that she is, in fact, a she?

It's true that it can be hard to tell the gender of a baby just by looking at its face. I suppose that's why colour coding them in pink and blue saves everyone potential embarrassment. "Oh what a cute little boy! I mean girl!" Anyway, she's wearing a very cute little red dress and using a dash of deductive reasoning (this is baseball and it's still a "man's" sport, the baby would have been decked out in an infant baseball uniform had it been a boy) I know she's a girl.

But apparently that's not enough clues. Maybe I'm smarter than your average bear. So just in case someone doesn't get that this baby girl is, in fact, a baby girl, someone (I can only assume this child's mother) did the unthinkable. She put one of those ridiculous headbands on her.

You know the ones I'm talking about. All lacy and frilly, usually with a bow or flower that almost rivals the size of the infant's actual head. It just screams to me "I know my baby doesn't have enough hair for everyone to be positive she's a girl, so I'm going to put a headband with a satin flower bigger than the moon on her head just to be safe. Okay!"

I'm positive there are people out there who think the baby-girl headband is the most adorable thing in the world. I think it is cruel and unusual. It also looks terribble. I suspect that the headband loving crowd are the same people who have, and enjoy, wedding videos. Someone has to like these things because they keep getting made.

What people do as adults, it's really their own business and if it makes them happy, all good. But to inflict such a horrible thing upon an otherwise innocent and pure being... A darling baby girl. Oh the humanity. Quelle horreur!

HRH

Goooal!

OH the world cup is such fun. I enjoy watching sports. I'm a lot like my father in that respect, though neither of us watch golf, a true credit to our taste. And like almost everyone else in Toronto, I've gotten into soccer/football madness. And I have to say that I kind of enjoy it.

I work with and know a lot of people who are immigrants or first generation Canadians so the cup provides them with an opportunity to talk about where they're from. Maybe it's a holdover from living overseas, but I love hearing those stories. Also it's fascinating to see people all over the city crowd in front of TVs in store fronts and in bars and actually talk to eachother. That doesn't happen so much in Toronto. And not to sound all "Somewhere out there" but the idea that billions of people around the world are doing the same thing at the same time, it's really cool.

While there is no Canadian team for me to cheer for, I have opted to cheer for my future husband's native land. There isn't a Czech part of town, but you do see the flags every so often. I've tried to lobby Matej for a Czech flag for us, but apparently he has even more taste to his credit than I do. We settled on a smaller sticker of the Czech crest for the car.

Not that it helped them win today, but hopefully with Italy and the USA coming to a draw the door is still open to the next round.

HRH

Now truly part of the nation

"What are you doing tonight?" M asked me over the phone at work today.

"Well, I was going to go to the gym, do some laundry, watch 24.."

"No. You're not."

"I'm not?"

"Nope. I was just handed Leafs Tickets. And they're good."

Thus began my first ever Maple Leafs game, from seat 2, row 16, section 108.

I got into hockey when I got into M. It was something I was always aware of growing up, but I spent more time watching La play hockey in our local arenas than I did watching the NHL on TV. I'm also from a pretty dedicated basketball/auto racing home. Sure, hockey was the reason that my grandparents got a TV (so they could watch the Leafs of course), but Hockey Night in Canada was not a sacred thing in our home. Star Trek, yes. Hockey, no.

So I've spent the last seven years learning about hockey (teaching a lot about basketball too) and all of that culminated into my first Leafs game tonight. True I have been to an NHL game before in Ottawa, a fine and fun time, but we were so close that I couldn't do much other than scream every time someone hit the boards near where we were sitting. This time, we were at one of the blue lines and we could really see everything.

And hear everything too. Early in the game I could hear Pat Quinn swearing at the team from across the rink (I could even see him chewing his gum) and when the Leafs tied it 2-2 in the third, I heard the ACC explode (and this wasn't even a hugely exciting game). I can only imagine what that place must be like during the playoffs (kind of like how Leaf fans are going to have to imagine the playoffs in general). It's pretty amazing to be swept up in it all.

Even more fun was hearing thousands of people make the same noises that M makes while he's watching hockey at home, but all in unison. And one had to chuckle at how much the ladies love Darcy Tucker. It was just a bit silly. Less fun was how the game went to a shootout (man I cannot handle those) and how the Leafs lost.

Still, it was great to get to see a game. Great for M as well. I could happily give up doing the laundry any time in exchange for this kind of fun.

HRH

I am Sisyphus and doing the laundry is my rock

In which our heroine comes up from Olympics watching for a breath of air, gets "the dress", ponders if her insomnia is actually an existential crisis and wonders if it was having to dry socks that made Camus and Satre so jaded...

Okay, does anyone else get choked up when they watch an athlete who's won gold singing along to their national anthem or am I one step away from becoming a Hallmark-loving, minivan driving, sap? Perplexing.

Anyway, a few updates while I've turned away from the three stations showing Olympic coverage...

Last Saturday my mother and I purchased my wedding dress in under 20 minutes. Of course the two weeks of pondering the options didn't hurt my decision abilities one bit. We got out of the bridal salon just as a total princess bride (and I mean that in the pejorative way) walked in. You have to wonder who exactly agrees to marry people like that. But I digress. Pretty dress procured. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.

I'm still not sleeping anywhere close to enough. I did sleep on Saturday after having a very long and active day. And I napped the whole way through Sunday. Hopefully that will be enough to get me through this week.

I am trying to get out of this sleeping headgame. I now turn my alarm clock away from me so I can't count the minutes and hours I'm not sleeping as they pass by. The cat waking me up an hour before my alarm goes off is not a great deal of help either, but such is the life of a cat owner.

Friends and readers have given me a lot of good suggestions and have tried most of them (save John R's suggestion of turning off my alarm clock. MADNESS I tell you!) and they've only made me more awake so far.

The problem is that I simply cannot get my brain to stop and even when I've lulled it into relative quiet, I'm shaken out of sleep by noise or a cat. And the things I think of... so random and from all the time periods of my life. Things I'd totally forgotten, embarrassing moments I'd blocked out...I try to think of pleasant serial memories and I do and then I'm off on a series of mental tangents that get my brain whirring again.

I haven't gotten my hands on any relaxation CDs yet, mostly out of consideration for M. I tried to bring the owl with me to bed one night and M found the tone and melody creepy, citing that they use that kind of music in horror movies for a reason. The reading thing just gets my mind going even more (granted I'm not reading fiction as I haven't been able to read fiction in almost two-and-a-half years). I'm about to start a book on the history of Japan. At least this bout of insomnia has been educational.

As for the anonymous poster's suggestion, that's truly an avenue to being totally awake for me. Thanks though.

Because of the way I have to spread out the pills I take during the day, any calcium I take a bed time would counteract the iron supplements I seem to constantly have to take. Not that being off iron makes me sleepy, no, just listless. Also I just don't want to take anything like a supplement to sleep. It's taken me a long time to get my pills into working and effective balance and I don't want to throw that off with herbals that, generally speaking, are poorly regulated and not in truly predictable doses, at least here in Canada.

So what's left? Drying socks. I have been doing laundry in this dryer for more than two years now and I still have not figured out the right balance of clothes to get M's socks dry in a single dryer cycle. Like having to do laundry once a week isn't annoying enough, but to have this perpetual failure! I take laundry far too seriously.

Today's sing-a-long song: "As The Days Are Long" by Tory Cassis

HRH