Italia

Aug 24

Sleeping on a plane, a bus, a ship, or anything moving always spells trouble for me. Unfortunately... NOT sleeping means, at the very least, I will be up for 28 hours straight... from wake up (4:30 AM 8/24) in Regina to drive in (8:30 AM 8/25) in Brunico... And seeing as how I'd try to stay up at least 10 more hours till 6 PM (or suffer true jet lag sleep patterns for the next month or so) it makes for grand total of 38 sleepless hours...
... Knowing this... and knowing I only got 2 hours of sleep the night before... I opt to force sleep with a concoction of drammamine, wine, advil, and Nyquil... ... zzzZZZ...
... We're flying over Amsterdam before I'm coherent again... the lights are off and everyone around is still asleep... ... ... there's something eerie, but cool, about the quiet of everyone sleeping... Not that cool though as I opt to settle back in for more sleep...
... Mid-adjustment the lady ahead of me turns around and whisper yells that she's trying to sleep so settle down back there... Wha!?... It was literally a scrape of my knee on her seat... and I tell her this... and then I tell her if that's what it's going to take to keep her up then she better get used to a long night... not in a mean way... in a 'my legs are too long for the seat, it's bound to happen' kinda way... Sorry I'm not sorry...
... Conversation to Brunico consisted of a prolonged name-game with me and 3 other players that all flew in around the same time... 'Ya, I've heard of him'... 'Oh ya, I played against him in Atom summer hockey'... 'No! I didn't know that... that's crazy'... and such...
... It was a long trip because the cab driver didn't go over 20 X 100 rpms the whole first half of our trip from Munich to Brunico... Easy sailing at about 50 km/h... espcially aggravating since no one was in front of us and we were on the German Audobahn with no speed limit... "gas is on the right"... "c'mon lead foot"... (he couldn't understand English... thus I was introduced to my first experience of talking about someone in the same room as you, in a loud enough voice that they can hear you, without caring... this happens all the time with waitresses...)
... Or maybe he did understand... cause when we hit Austria and got onto a two-lane, two-way traffic, narrowest of narrow, winding through mountains highway surrounded by cars on all sides... this guy turned into Michael Andretti... I feel like it was some sort of psychological little car syndrome this guy felt like he had to prove himself to other cars... cause the second one appeared this guy was compelled to speed up to a foot from its bumper... swear... blare the horn... flash his brights and all such nonsense until it moved over and he could pass it... shaking his fist as he blazed... then he'd speed up to the next car and do the same...
... Sleep became impossible in this part of the trip... Every car became a game of Russian Roullette... we could never have stopped in time for even the smallest trouble... and our bail outs were a cliff wall on one side and a thousand foot drop on the other... "where's the fire buddy!?".... I looked over at Danelle... was she scared too?... very much... her eyes are closed but she wasn't sleeping... her face is pale white... and chances are she's praying... and if she isn't... then she should be...
... At the apartment began the yearly game of trying to stay up for as long as possible in order to adjust to Italian time... The Taxi ride did the trick for the first 3 hours on account of the praying and the squeezing of the arm... but after that things get hard... 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7:30, 7:45, 7:46, ... 8 and done... lights out

Aug 25

Rise and shine campers, it's a pitch black 3 AM with nothing to do and nothing open till 8 AM... and just so you know... you'll be wide awake, fidgety, and in all other ways unable to get back to sleep so don't bother trying...
... So go for a walk around your place... see how beautiful the mountains are... and then sit outside the grocery store till it opens in 4 hours time... ... ...
... soooo thirsty... please water... "frizzante means no fizz right?"...
... I'm reading Dave King's book, 'King of Russia'... it's a seriously depressing book... hard-core... no fun... no smiles... long days... tough road trips... dark and dusty... and all hockey all the time... no family time... no offseason even... what kind of lifestyle is that I wonder... Maybe it's the price you gotta pay to earn the price their gonna pay...
... King himself seems to lead an excitingly boring life... if that makes sense... like... exciting seems to be happening everywhere around him... in his own life even... and either he doesn't see it... doesn't live it... or chances are just doesn't write it...

Aug 26

This morning is already Waaay better with the jet lag... I'm only up at 5 AM and only have to fidget 3 hours away... Two-a-days start today and what gets me through the long day is finding out mid-practice that Hobag (which has signs up all around our rink) is a major sponsor for the team...

Aug 27

Danelle found trails behind the rink that follow the river up into the mountains... She says I have to go with her some time... And we got a fan... finally! It was so hot in our place... and Danelle wouldn't allow open windows on account of a spider crawling into our room... onto her shirt... and in perfect sight of her eyes when she woke up from her nap... she screamed... ran out of the bedroom... and had to wait outside till I got home to take care of it... sometimes it feels good to be the man of the house... protecting... taking care of spiders... ya what's up...

Aug 28

We go check out the other guys apartments... One guys' in a huge house with a full-size fridge and I'm jealous.. one guys' staying in a walk-in closet and I laugh... We also went out to the lake... the guys have trunks and I don't... but it's soo hot... and thing is... I figure... my boxers were probably bigger than most Euro swim trunks anyways... so no worries...
... I'm reading a book called 'Why We're Not Emergent' and need to rant and rave about that book pretty soon... but not today... I need more time to do it justice... and hopefully find at least one good thing in there to make it well-rounded...