the blues game

My brother and I had a great time tonight.  He got a hold of some Blues tickets (four to be exact) and invited me to go to the game with him.  I'm not really a sports fan but it's always fun to go to a game and so went along.  The game itself was great.  Really exciting.  The Blues were down 3 to 1 in the second period and tied it up in the third.  Ultimately they lost 5 to 3 but that wasn't the real excitement of the game.  The true excitement was the amount of anxiety I endured in our particular row of seats.

As I said before, we had four tickets.  This meant that we had two buffer seats on either side of us, an optimal situation.  At some point in the first period two younger kids, a boy and a girl, moved past us in the row to sit down.  It was pretty obvious that these were not their seats, but Ben and I could really care less.  The game continued.  During the second period a man walked past me to sit down in our row.  Upon closer inspection I realized that this man was my former boss from Fritz's Frozen Custard, Ray.  I immediately seized up.  I truly hate seeing people I know when I don't expect it.  I'm the type that avoids any and all confrontation, and that includes "friendly" confrontation.  So I resigned myself to the fact that I could not look to my left, down the row, for the rest of the night.  No big deal.

Then the Blues score a goal.  Awesome.  Applause.  Yelling.  Everyone on their feet.  Except for Ben.  Apparently the girl next to him is asking him a question.  I sit down and lean to the side in order to look past Ben, at the girl.  As I do this, she makes eye contact.  At that moment there is a psychic connection between us and I realize that I know this girl.  It just so happens that I know her from Fritz's Frozen Custard.  Her name is Christine or Christina or Chrissy or Whatever.  The name doesn't matter.  What matters is, I want to talk to her about as much as I want to talk to Ray.  A split second after realizing I know her, my thoughts are screaming "NOOOOOOOOOO!" and I wrench my head away and stare directly at the game going on in front of us.  She must not have recognized me and if she did made no mention of it at the time.

So there I am, eyes trained on the game, horribly aware of the fact that my former boss and a former coworker from the same establishment are mere feet away from me.  I should stress the fact that I don't dislike these people.  They are not bad people.  I just have nothing to say to them.  Any conversation would be pointless and I'd rather not get into that situation.  As I watch the game, paranoia floods my mind.  Who else is at the game?  What other familiar faces lie to the right of me, behind me, in front?  The possibilities are endless.

Luckily, the night ends rather unremarkably.  Eventually Chrissy (or whatever) and her boyfriend leave heading the opposite way of me.  And Ben and I manage to hightail it outta the place before Ray has a chance to recognize me.  All in all it was an extremely intense situation.  Oh, and even though the Blues lost, the game was freaking fantastic.

Posted by: drew on 1/18/2006 12:12:06 AM, 2 comments