I met my best friend Stacy on the very first day of college at Montana State University. Our RA pushed her to our door, with an annoyingly cheery, "Introduce yourself, girls." Eye rolling, name grumbling, cities of origin were thusly imparted, and we all moved on with our day.
A few weeks later, Stacy's mother (in Denver) started sending her care packages. Always included was a pack of microwavable popcorn. She fully knew Stacy did not have a microwave. My roommate and I had a sweet microwave...and no snacks.
And so began a decades-long friendship. I guess I should thank Stacy's mother Teddy for that nudge. I should also thank her for teaching me how to play black jack in Vegas, but that is another story.
Stacy and I have many ties that connect us. We both love to read, we have been up and down together on the weight scale, we have leaned hard on each other through life's curve balls. We also both happen to love, love, love sports. I am fairly certain that every convo we have ever had contains at least one reference to sports.
I became a Lightning fan after moving to Tampa Bay. Stacy, born and raised in Colorado, is an ardent Avalanche fan. We swooned over the players and often watched All Star weekend together, via the phone, of course. We marveled at the athleticism, and questioned the appropriateness of crushing on Sid the Kid.
Our birthdays are just a few weeks apart. Last year we decided to celebrate our birthdays in Nashville with our kind of girls' weekend: a hockey game, a few drinks, and a chance to catch up on life.
This year, the World's Best Husband suggested that we go big.
I still can't believe we did it.
In Da Club
The 2020 NHL All Star game was held in St. Louis. I used to be a big Blues fan (I loved Chris Pronger way too much) so it was a perfect location. It is also close to being equidistant, so that was another perk. We bought tickets on line, as one does. We got to the stadium and we could not figure out how to get to our seats! We finally found an usher. That bearer of good news said, "Oh, girls. You are in the good seats." We ended up in the club with free food and drinks for both nights. The view was perfect, and the seats were crazy comfortable. It was a good time to have a 'Doh' moment; we laughed all weekend about how we didn't know we were in for the cush treatment.
Skills Competition
Friday night held many surprises. Up first, an intro by Mr. Wayne Gretzky. I was dying. I always love the skills night more that the actual game, and that still stands. The highlight of the evening was the new Shooting Stars event. It was like Top Golf, but with pucks. All three Tkachuks were present, and it was so much fun to watch. I also screamed myself silly pulling for 'my' goalie in the Save Streak competition. It was a magical evening.
The Game
This year, the point leading team from Friday night got to pick their opponent for the first 'game' on Saturday night (a 20 minute period of play). The remaining two teams played the second game, and the two winners faced off for the third. My team made it, but the bummer was that the team with the Blues players did not, so the crowd was pretty meh for the third period.
Another surprise? We had no idea that Green Day was going to play between the second and third game on Saturday night. This was a great treat, as I listened to Dookie an inordinate amount of times back in the day.
St. Louis
The Gateway to the West provided an excellent, albeit cold backdrop to our epic weekend. The Arch Museum was newly renovated and so impressive, the Art Museum contained a few new-to-my-eyes van Goghs, the streets are littered with art, and oh man that bbq.
Have you checked an item off of your Bucket List? Was it all that you dreamed it would be? I am still pinching myself a full week later.
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