Thanks For Lunch, Dave

On Saturday, I took Josh and his friend Nick to a St. Louis Blues hockey game. I knew a few months ago about the free food promotion and since the game time was at a family-friendly 1 o'clock on a Saturday (before "the regular crowd shuffles in"), I bought 3 tickets in advance just before they sold out.

At first Josh didn't want to go. I tried to convince him that hockey was like soccer on ice, but of course I got voted off that island. Then I bribed him with the free food line, like all the chicken fingers he could eat. Still no. I bluffed that I would sell the tickets - and that almost happened - but then I got wise and got one of his friends to go and make it cool.

Speaking of cool... it wasn't! It was a reported 18 degrees outside. And since Josh forgot his winter coat in his school locker on Friday, he chose to wear his 4th grade coat, considerably thinner and without a hood. We caught the Metrolink and braved the wind and the icy temps. The game barely started before we got there. Our seats were up at the top but the cool part was on our way we grabbed handfuls of chicken fingers, hot dogs, chips and soda. There was literally food everywhere in all the concession stands. Since there was no money exchange, the lines moved super fast. We somehow paid attention to the game while stuffing our faces. The stadium was jam packed with fans of all ages. We sat shoulder-to-shoulder, it was so tight. I told Josh to watch for the goals - most of them were for the other team - and any body crashes and fist fights. You don't get that in soccer! What caught our eye at first was this lady on the Jumbotron stuffing her face with hot dogs and soda and ignoring the action on the ice. They showed her face again 5 minutes later and she was still chomping away, oblivious to her 15 minutes of fame on the big screen. Finally, she picked up on it a third time and smiled at the camera and promptly slammed a Snickers bar in her mouth. Josh and his friend got a kick out of that. Later on, I actually heard Josh say "Let's Go Blues", probably because he felt sorry for their uncharacteristically poor play that day. We saw a fist fight - finally - and our guy got bodyslammed on the ice and ended up with his shirt pulled over his head. How embarrassing! When we left the game, I asked Josh how he liked it. He said it was okay but we lost the game and the fight. How right!

At the end of the game, Blues lost 5-2, we saw fans with signs saying, "Thanks for lunch, Dave." That would be new Blues owner, Dave Checketts. I like to call him Bro. Checketts because he is a member of our church. (Note: I am not really that big into hockey, but since it's the baseball offseason, the Blues have a fighting chance for the NHL playoffs and seem to be on the rise while the Rams and Cardinals are falling apart, I thought I'd give hockey a chance.)

To illustrate how cold it was, we were waiting for the Metro train to take us back home, I could feel my face go numb and the wind blow through my coat. I could only imagine it must've been worse for Josh with his tiny coat. (Note: he has since started wearing the warm hoodie we got him for Christmas.) Of course, while we were waiting for the train, the P.A. announced that our eastbound train was running late due to technical difficulties. Luckily Nick noticed 2 more of our church friends who were standing in the westbound line. I asked them if they knew where they were going. Good thing we showed them the way. It was a fun G.D.O. - Guys Day Out and we got to see a hockey game.