Best of 2009 Series - Best Book and Best Trip

Today's your lucky day because you get TWO for the price of a blow job  of one. 

BEST BOOK

This one was kind of hard (that's what she said!).  And I guess I can't count my coloring books.  Don't judge me.  I'm a big fan of biographies, memoirs (especially those of any kind of personal struggle) and economics.  I'm just now starting to get back into reading fiction (I read a lot of fiction when I was younger, but then I hit college and transitioned to non-fiction).  I loved Angels and Demons and I'm currently reading The Lost Symbol and I think it's amazing.  Oh and I fell in love with The Time Traveler's Wife, but the best book I read this year was The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz.  It's an inspiring memoir of a woman who spent her life on a quest to understand global poverty and to find powerful ways of tackling it.  

I'm in the process of writing my own memoir so I'm always looking for any kind of inspiration and introspection.  This book did just that.  As I read it, I felt like I was walking right next to her through all of her journeys.  Everything is described with intricate detail and it makes you feel like you're there, experiencing it yourself.  It's not often that I read a book that captivates me this much.  I hope that one day, my memoir will have that same effect for someone else.

So why is a memoir about poverty titled The Blue Sweater?  Well, you'll just have to read it to find out.

BEST NIGHT OUT

This was another hard one (that's what she said!).  Of all of the nights out that I've had, how am I supposed to pick out the best one?  I've traveled to a lot of cities this past year and all of those trips involved some great nights out.  Like the road trip to Washington, D.C. where we pre-gamed in the hotel, went out to the bars till 3AM, almost went to a strip club, then went back to the hotel to play Kings until about 5AM.  Yeah, that was a good night.  Or any of the nights I spent in Vegas?  Yeah, more good ones.  But the best one?  

Saturday, October 25, 2009.  

Tampa, Flo-rida.

I travel around the U.S. to play in hockey tournaments about 4-5 times a year.  I had missed the June Sunshine Shootout and all of my friends who went, came back telling me how awesome of a trip it was.  I was a little jealous that I wasn't able to go, but when I heard they were hosting another Sunshine Shootout in October, I knew I had to be there.

Hockey, the beach, 80 degree weather and lots of drinking.  Who wouldn't want to do that?!


With any big tournament we travel to, there's always lots of drinking, laughing, pictures and debauchery.  Some of my favorite moments have been spent with my hockey mates, actually.  It's kind of awesome and scary at the same time.  

Anyway, so that Sunday was the last weekend of the tournament.  After all was said and done, we all had a "team night out" at a local bar.  We drank, we ate, we were merry.  When the bars closed, we all stood around outside trying to figure out who was the most sober to drive.  Turns out no one was really sober to drive (and we all ended up in cars we hadn't originally showed up in), but luckily we didn't have far to go.  The partying continued at a rental beach house with six cases of beer.  As we all drank into the wee hours of Monday morning, I found myself having a pants-off, dance-off with a Canadian.  We dared to see who would get naked.  He took off clothes, I took off clothes.  He took off jewelry, I took of jewelry.  Needless to say, I was standing in the kitchen with 20 of my hockey mates, stripping against a Canadian. 


The Canadian won the stripping contest and ran around the house naked.  Did I mention he was hairy and obese?  Yeah, it wasn't even close to hot.  

Of all the trouble I get myself into - especially during tournaments - I think this one goes down in the record books as my all-time low point.  


I can only imagine what the 2010 tournaments will bring me.

The Best of 2009 Series

Yesterday I decided I wouldn't blog for at least a week or two.  Then I found this and now my "no blogging for a week" idea is going down the drain.  While I most likely won't blog for all 31 days, I'll definitely recap MY "best of 2009" series.  Besides, it will be fun and I think we can all use a little "best of" in our lives right now with the winter weather ahead and the holiday shopping madness in session, yes?

YES!

So, here goes nothing...

BEST TRIP IN 2009

 I had to stop and think back to all of the places I visited in 2009: 

Boston, Vegas, Chicago, Washington, DC, Tampa, Atlantic City, Avalon, NJ, Pittsburgh, Detroit, NYC, Baltimore... and I think that's only half of the list.

While that may not seem like a lot of traveling to you, it was definitely a lot of traveling for me.  Especially since I managed to cross off some major cities I've never traveled to, like Vegas and Boston.

My best trip in 2009 was to:

Vegas, baby!

You can read the full re-cap of my trip here, but to sum it up - I went to Vegas for 5 days for a hockey tournament.  I drank four times my body weight, slept a total of 4 hours, won a hockey championship (and an MVP award), got proposition for a threesome, got mistaken for a prostitute, and spent five marvelous days with some of my closest friends.

Now I know why everyone says: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."  It definitely goes down in my record book as one of the best. trips. ever. and I'm planning on going back in 2010.

the time I had a "strip-off" with a Canadian

Things I learned in Tampa, Florida this weekend:

• Drinking on the beach, listening to the ocean waves is probably one of my favorite things to do.  There's nothing more relaxing than sipping on a corona, listening to the waves crash and watching people walk up and down the beach.  
• I have a love/hate relationship with Canada.  I met a couple new Canadian hockey friends over the weekend.  One lives in Seattle and is from Nova Scotia.  The other is from Ontario.  Or maybe Toronto?  Anyway, I love when Canadian's say "eh" after each sentence.  I hate how loud and obnoxious they are when intoxicated.  I also hate how awesome they are at playing hockey.  My women's team lost to the Canadian bitches women in the championship game yesterday.  
• Having a "strip-off" at 5AM this morning with a drunk Canadian man is never a good decision.  Even worse?  When the drunk Canadian is standing butt-naked in front of a room full of fellow hockey players.  While y'all were sleeping at 5AM, I was stripping against a Canadian.  New low.
  
• Certain friends will certainly throw you under the bus or stab you in the back at just the right time (usually when you are drinking and hanging out with close friends).  Then what do you do?  Walk away.  You don't ask questions, you don't look back.  You simply walk away knowing that real friends would never do something like that.
• Trying to teach a Canadian how to dance is a lot harder than it seems.  Especially when the Canadian bounces up and down, rather than swaying the hips.  Clearly his hips do lie.
• First impressions aren't everything and people can sweep you off your feet when you least expect it.  I'm trying to keep an open heart and an open mind.  The possibilities are endless and right now, things are good.
• Staying up 24 hours drinking, playing hockey, drinking more and catching a flight home isn't as fun as I thought it would be.  I'm completely and utterly exhausted.  I need sleep and lots of it.
• It's tempting to move down to Florida when the weather is sunny and in the 80's.  Coming home today to 50 degree weather was miserable.  I like things hot.  Phoenix, AZ can't come soon enough.
• New Port Richey (where our tournament was being played) is NOT ANYWHERE NEAR TAMPA.  The 15 minute drive we thought it was going to be turned out to be about 50 minutes.  And it really sucks when you have to make that drive about 5 times each day.
• Ybor City is not as awesome as I thought it would be.  We went to a Pirate Bar Saturday night and it turned out to be pretty lame.  I was hoping for pirates and wenches and all I got was a $45 bar tab.

All in all, it was definitely an exciting, event-filled weekend.  I haven't fucked partied like that since Vegas.  Good times, good times.