Song of the day:
This one’s for you, James Reimer.
Weekend Wrap-up
This was the most normal weekend I’ve had since the COVID experience - that’s what I’m calling it now, just for the record. I got a lot of reading done, watched a lot of TV, and actually did things! YAY!
Reading
I finished a great book, the final story in a trilogy. If you like suspenseful stories that delve into family history and trauma, then the No More series by Kerry Lonsdale is for you. The final offering, No More Secrets, wrapped up the story well and left things open for a possible sequel or side story. I don’t believe there is a planned sequel but you never know. I have enjoyed all of Kerry’s books and can’t wait to see what comes next!
Music
I saw a great musical Sunday afternoon in San Francisco. SIX is about the six wives of Henry VIII, and it was fantastic! I love musical that have no intermission and a shorter run time, and this one was perfect. I saw the performance of the opening number on the Tony Awards (see the Video of the Day below) a year or so ago and knew I had to see this show! I almost went when I was in NYC last month but knew it was in my Broadway SF package so I waited. And it was most definitely worth the wait! If you like fun takes on history, this is the show for you! I definitely need to see it again.
March Madness
As I’m sure many of you are aware, the NCAA Men’s and Women’s basketball tournaments tipped off this weekend, and while I haven’t watched a single minute of college hoops this year, I had to get involved. My focus has only been on the men’s tournament so far, but I’ll check in on the women at some point this week. It’s equally good, but the men’s tourney has always been my favorite.
One of my alma maters was selected into the 64-team tournament and the other was selected to be in a play-in game. It started off well. ASU won their play-in game, handily, and got the chance to play TCU (my parents’ alma mater) Friday night. WVU got beat in their first game and ASU ended up losing to TCU, who ended up losing on Sunday to Gonzaga. So the tournament is kinda meh for me right now. But, as always I completed a bracket and my final four teams are still alive so there’s that. And there have been some fantastic upsets (Thank you, Princeton!!), which is what makes this tournament so fun. I’ve got Texas picked as the winner so we’ll see how that goes. Hook ‘em Horns!
Hockey
I finally made it back to The Tank Thursday night and went again Saturday. Even though the Sharks lost both games, it was still fun to be back. Thursday night was my first game since January 18 - I repeat again, STUPID COVID - and it was a lot of fun. At least we got to OT in that game; Saturday’s game? Not so much. But my friend Stephanie joined me, and it was nice to catch up.
Saturday’s game was the Sharks’ annual Pride Night, which I always enjoy, but this year was tainted by news earlier in the day that one of our players decided not to wear the special pride jersey due to his Christian faith.
James Reimer has been one of my favorite Sharks since he was with the team the first time a few years ago, but that all changed after this news broke hours before the game on Saturday.
I have been a Christian most of my life and am honestly offended by him using his faith to discount an entire group of people. People who he claims in his statement have value and worth, but apparently not enough for him to wear a jersey in warmups. Which last about 15 minutes. A JERSEY. Someone pointed out on Twitter that he signed the Sharks Pride Night mystery pucks a couple of years ago, so how is that different than a jersey? And how is not wearing a jersey showing the love of Jesus to the LGBTQIA+ community? I just can’t connect all those dots.
To say I’m disappointed in Reimer would be an understatement. I didn’t even care that much that we lost on Saturday. I was happy our other goalie stayed in the net the entire game and Reimer didn’t come in at any point to relieve him - not even sure he was on the bench to be honest.
I’m somewhat disappointed in the Sharks who issued a statement that sort of addressed this but mostly didn’t. And of course I agree that everyone has the right to their opinions and to believe what they want to believe and express themselves how they choose, but when that choice alienates an entire group of people, that isn’t okay for me.
I feel like all of this was a huge distraction for the team. They weren’t together all game and looked like a different team from Thursday’s OT loss. There was effort, sure, but it seemed rather lackluster overall. Meanwhile, the Pride Night logo and the warm up jerseys were exceptional! I do applaud the Sharks for using their Twitter account throughout the game to educate people about the LGBTQIA+ community. That was great. Maybe James Reimer learned something…
So that was the weekend, a pretty good one overall. I even got laundry done AND put away - what?! Absolutely crazy. There are 8 million other things I should have done in my house this weekend, but my couch is incredibly comfortable and my DVR demanded attention.
How ‘bout you? Do anything fun?
Video of the day: