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A single wishful snow flake landed on my head yesterday when I stopped running to remove my jacket. A few degrees colder and maybe the misty air might’ve turned to gentle powdery snow, but nope. We have our 5 degree days and 30 mph winds, but nothing to play in. No snow yet here in Brooklyn and I’m moping.

Two weeks into the year and I’ve run every day but one. This isn’t by design, I just feel like running. Scratch that.  I feel like running in SNOW, but I can’t do it alone, people. Maybe if a wallflower snowstorm looks down and sees all of us colorful neon runners, it’ll get dizzy and finally fall. The neighborhood looks best under a thick white blanket. I even miss the gross grey slush that follows.

Until there’s finally something worth breaking out our sleds for, I’m trying to do some wintery things. Yesterday was my first first of the year. I went to a hockey game.

Boyfriend surprised me with Groupon tickets to an Islanders game. My reaction was similar to his when I surprised him with ballet tickets. Thanks? But it was fun. This was only my second time going to the Barclays stadium since they plopped it downtown a few years ago. We saw Rush play shortly after the place opened when it was all new and shiny. It’s still all shiny but has a completely different feel for hockey games. No sea of Rush t-shirts. No fire. No lasers. And the man next to me kept grunting whereas last time we sat by super fans who belted every lyric to every song.

Drinks at the Barclays are $13.50. Margaritas on 5th Ave during happy hour are 2-for-1. To my horror, telltale hiccups struck as we arrived at the stadium. I tried to hide them because they make me feel like a lush, but when you try to hide hiccups you just look like a lush. The only effective way I know to get rid of them is to hold my ears closed and take a few deep swallows from a drink to equalize the pressure.

Once we were in, with our complimentary hockey player bobbleheads for some reason, we searched for a water fountain. They must have them, but short-term-marg memory made us forget what we were looking for. Guess I held my breath during the steep climb up to our seats because they were gone by the time we sat down.

The Islanders beat Ohio. By the fifth goal I finally memorized the words to the goal cheer. I think it’s 2 call and response Wooos followed by a honking of something and then everyone punches the air and shouts Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! give or take a Yes! or two. 

The players skate way more gracefully than expected and I’m amazed we could see the tiny black puck from as high as we were. I accidentally cheered for Ohio a bunch of times because their colors are red, white and blue and Islanders fans were all wearing blue, orange and white. Our section was probably all Groupon peeps because nobody cared. Maybe they think Ohio’s nice, too. There was a gross lack of Motorhead played, but the few Bowie clips were welcome. Overall it was a good time and now I get to surprise him with opera tickets.