Sunday, February 22, 2009

Like good Canadians do

As good Canadians do, the Duke and I decided to show our wholehearted dedication to all things hockey by hosting a Hockey Day in Canada party.


For those of you not familiar with said tradition, one Saturday a year, all six Canadian teams play each other at times staggered throughout the day. It is an epic opportunity to revive old rivalries, drink before 5pm and engage in some serious trash talk.

A few things observed on this occasion:

Even when you give people a six hour window to show up, and trying for an open house format, the hosts will be sitting around for the first three hours surrounded by untouched serving plates full of appetizers. Then, as if by magic, your apartment buzzer will nearly short circuit itself by everyone showing up at the exact same time (1st intermission of the second game).

Everyone will bring chips to such a party. Everyone. 
Now my fridge has been emptied of veggies, dip, pitas, and other such foods, but my cupboard is full of twist-tied bags of chips.

A lot of people do not come to a hockey party to watch hockey. It is a dangerous thing when the hockey and anti-hockey people collide during overtime.

Flavoured vodka makes me happy.

I look cute in my hockey jersey.

It is awesome when your team wins. It is more awesome when there are opposing team fans trash talking you when their team was winning. It is infinitely more awesome when, due to his team's defeat, your six foot tall guy friend squeezes into your 5 foot 3 self's hockey jersey for punishment and ridicule.

It is awkward when one of your good friend's and her boyfriend finally have that knock-down argument about his lack of a Valentine's Day gift for her two years in a row in your entrance. It is more awkward when it moves to the only apartment bathroom for 45 minutes. It is infinitely more awkward when, after he leaves the bathroom, you try to go comfort your friend who is still in there, and a guy yells across the entire party "Princess, why are you harassing the poor person trying to pee?"

It is also awkward when a drunk lesbian tells my boyfriend she is going to go kiss me, and then just ends up getting a mouthful of my hair as I unknowingly am chatting away with someone else. (I didn't have any idea what her intentions were until later... I was just like "Uh, why did you just bite my hair?") It wasn't exactly the girl-on-girl scene anyone was looking for.

Cleaning up after "adult" parties is infinitely better than cleaning up after teenage and college parties. You just collect the bottles, which most people have kindly gathered in one or two locations, rinse of the plates, put the leftovers away, and you are off to bed. The messiest thing was a pile of damp cloths from when people cleaned up their spill themselves. It is a far cry from the cleaning up of mysteriously sticky liquids and garbage of the parties of my youth.

20 comments:

P said...

I'M the sort of person who would go to a hockey party without an interest in hockey. And proceed to annoy everyone with stupid questions about the game . . . when I wasn't getting annoyed with people not paying attention to me, that is.

Moral of the story? Never invite me to your hockey party . . .

Kylie said...

I love sports but, am sad to say have almost no knowledge of the NHL. I'm a loser...jk. But, I do have a feeling like I need to learn more about said NHL.

Great blog! I look forward to reading more of it! :)

Anonymous said...

I'm not a sports fan. But that being said, your hockey party sounds like something I would enjoy. :)

Caz said...

Ahh Hockey Day... I'm sad I missed it. While Aussie Rules Footy is starting up again, it's still no ice hockey. A replacement maybe, but I still miss my Canucks.

Crushed said...

Fascinating little snapshot into Canadian culture...

A lot of it was kind of similar to parties I go to- I guess we're all human all over the globe- but certain bits, Yeah, I guess were one hundred percent North american.

I've noticed that about cleaning up as well. These days, it really is just a case of collect empties.

Andhari said...

This sounds like real fun, ah I wanna have one. :P

Anonymous said...

I am not a hockey fan (sorry!) but it sounds like you had a great time... aside from the whole Valentine's Day argument thing, of course.

Living Dees Life said...

wish i was there. all that vodka would have killed this sickness before it could take over my body like an alien.

ps, sounds like the kind of party i wanna go to!

myself said...

I was telling someone it was Hockey Day in Canada and they looked at me like I had horns growing from the sides of my head.

And I live in Montreal...home o' the Habs....sigh.

Sounds like it was fun (without the V-day fight of course!)

Tash said...

Hockey? What's that? One of your weird Canadian rituals?

nicole antoinette said...

God, the horror of cleaning up after college parties. Once, our entire kitchen floor was *covered* in popcorn. And someone poured beer into the fish tank.

Anonymous said...

ahhh adult parties are infinitely better than the college counterparts - we can all take responsibility for our collective wastedness!

Anonymous said...

Your hockey party sounds like a lot of fun! I've acquired an appreciation for hockey having spent years watching my brother play and then dating a few guys who were also really into the sport. It's quite fun once you get into it!

Tonya said...

totally true about the people not showing up until the very least, one hour after scheduled event. It's like they all called each other and said, "we're leaving now!"

ablogofherown.wordpress.com said...

I'm not a hockey fan, but it sounded like an awesome party!

Anonymous said...

Sounds fun. I don't hate hockey like I do most other sports. I think it's the fights.

EF said...

the fact you were able to rinse the dishes as opposed to folding them up and throwing them away definitely makes this an adult party!

the frog princess said...

Adult parties *are* so much easier to clean up after.... no film of spilled jungle juice to be scoured from the coffee table, no overflowing ash trays, no keg in the shower...

(PS - you have an award waiting on my blog! Go and get it!)

Yoda said...

Adult parties are great to host.

College parties are great to be invited to :-)

Therapeutic Ramblings said...

I NEVER knew they did that...what a bad hockey fan I have become!!