From the Slot: Wings 6 - Sabres 3

Wings finally pull their heads out of their asses, and snap their 6 game losing streak to a surprisingly hot, yet terrible Sabres team. I think it's safe to say now that they aren't trying to tank the season to get McDavid.

Kindl spontaneously combusts twice to allow the first two Buffalo goals. The second occurring on a Red Wings power play, in his first shift after being benched for sucking. Only reason he saw ice at all is because Kronwall got waxed, and now is said to have an "upper body injury." The third goal happened, and I wasn't happy about it.

Weiss scores on the PP for DET's first goal, then gets hurt on a legal, but lethal, check from that one guy. DeKeyser nets one in the second to keep the Wings in it until the third where Datsyuk makes me incredibly happy with a beauty of a pass to Z for the first goal in the third.  Which kicks off a streak of four unanswered goals where Franzen scores on his birthday (in more ways than one) and Tatar gets two for the frosting on the cake.

Merry Christmas, the Wings stopped sucking in the third, let's see what happens when they come back from break.

Jesus, this team is killing me.

Worst Thing I Could Do

"I could flirt with all the guys"

A recent road trip found me listening to the Grease soundtrack on I-69. It's been awhile since I listened to it, and despite being immersed in nostalgia, I found myself thinking, "Wow, there are some terrible messages in these lyrics!" Go back and listen if you haven't in a while. Wow.

Even with that thought in my head, I found myself identifying with a character I hadn't before. Rizzo.

"Smile at them and bat my eyes"

Not because she's mean to the ingénue of the story, not because she thinks she's pregnant, but because of some of the lyrics in her big number, "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" She is the only character in the whole musical that actually gives advice to apply to real life. Because, seriously? Saran wrap instead of condoms? No. Just, no.

I cherry pick a little bit when I think about this, but a few things resonate with me.

"I could stay home, every night."

Fuck that.

Sure, sometimes, staying at home is fun, and necessary to recharge, but I'm a single twenty something and the last thing I want to do is not go anywhere or not see anyone. It would drive me nuts!

If I want to go to a Wings game, or a show that's in town and no one can go with me, I'm going alone. You get to spend some time doing something you enjoy, with the most amazing person you know -- yourself!

I don't want to miss out on amazing life experiences because I didn't want to go alone, and neither should you.

Life is meant to be lived, and I plan to live the hell out of mine.

"Take cold showers every day"

Have you ever taken a cold shower? They suck. And they don't help.

This part is going to be sticky, so please bear with me. (Dad, you might want to stop reading here.)

Sex is the best part about being an adult. It makes up for a lot of the really shitty parts of being an adult. I make no secret of the fact that I enjoy it. With the right person, in the right situation, it is an amazing experience. It's fun, messy, and exhilarating.

I tried the whole waiting for marriage thing, and it wasn't for me. To each their own, and mine turns out to not be one person forever and ever. Since I'm fairly recently single, this is a tough one for me to adjust to.

I think this is where my personal philosophy is strongest. To each their own, as long as you are safe, not hurting anyone else, and are happy, live your life how you want to.

"... Throw my life away... That's the worst thing I could do"

I do the worst of my cherry picking of the lyrics on this one.

These lines are how I want to define my life. I don't want to live my life with regrets. I know that some parts of society will judge me for the choices I make, but, really, who cares what they think?

I know my limits, I am starting to learn what will make me happy. As a friend of mine says, "Can't stop, won't stop." Because I can't stop living life out of fear, and I won't stop living life and learning what makes me happy. I plan to find my boundaries and push them until I find the lines I know I can't cross.

I was not expecting to have all these revelations listening to a soundtrack from my childhood, but I'm glad I did. It's incredibly freeing to fully embrace who you are and want to be in the future, society be damned.

Because I Don't Shy Away from Tough Topics

As a woman in tech, I see news every day from woman after woman who has been verbally or physically harassed or assaulted at her job, conferences, walking down the street. I have many things I do to cope with that, and escape, but my favorite escape is watching sports. Hockey (Red Wings), Football (Lions), and Baseball (Tigers), in that order.

I love the Red Wings with my whole heart and soul, and the community that I have surrounded myself with on the internet related to hockey and the Red Wings is amazing. I have been especially fortunate in the last few months to find some really incredible people on Twitter, and some of those interactions have led to exchanged emails and other forms of contact outside of the world of Twitter.

You see, the group of people I follow on Twitter in my hockey list give me all the warm fuzzies. They're funny, poignant, and honest. I always have Twitter open when the Wings are playing, because I love watching the list explode with celebrations, thoughts, opinions, aptly timed photoshop jobs, and gripings about the Wings and the NHL scrolling across my screen. A friend of mine said it perfectly, "It's like watching a game with your best friends, every time." He's right, that's exactly what it feels like.

Despite this, it doesn't insulate me from stories like this, this, or this. And it's stories like these that feel like a punch to the gut, like I tweeted earlier.

Thinking on it, it makes me feel like I'm the biggest idiot in the world. Because sexism is everywhere. Though I try with hockey, I can't escape it. Especially because I'm a woman. I am immediately identified as a target simply because I have two X chromosomes. Even before the events that I linked to above came to light, I knew that sexism in sports was there, I knew. But just how bad it really is didn't hit me until today. It shouldn't have been a shock, because I've argued with men over the rules of hockey when they're wrong, and they don't believe me, because I have boobs. We look it up, and shocker! I'm right, but am I given credit for that? No.

I've had a cousin who doesn't watch hockey at all, asks me if I know who Patrick Kane is while I'm watching the Blackhawks play the Wings.

I've answered questions at the rink, and gotten looks of stunned disbelief that the chick in heeled boots knows what's going on.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I actually hesitated at the thought of writing this post, because I am afraid of the backlash. Terrified, actually. But am I any better than the author of the Jian Ghomeshi article if I don't speak up?

I also frequently will write up a tweet or forum post, or whatever, and pause before clicking send/publish/submit. Because a) I don't want to make an idiot of myself and b) if this is shared by someone to the wrong person, am I in danger?

The fact that I have to think about part b in 2014 is depressing. Everywhere should be safe. I should be able to rant about how terrible the reffing has been this season without wondering if I'm going to be told that I don't know what I'm talking about, no matter how right I am. I should be able to profess my undying love for Pavel Datsyuk and his incredible talent on the ice without wondering if I will be taken less seriously if I do.

That's not the reality that we live in. The reality is that I can shout back, all women can shout back, but shouting back can make it worse. Every morning we wake up, shake off the dust of yesterday's awfulness and hope that more allies come out to support us, that more people will realize how wrong they are in their misogynistic views. We tell ourselves it's going to get worse before it gets better, and at the moment, the outlook is feeling pretty dim.

Better days need to be coming, because right now, the weight of the world is on our shoulders, and we can bend.

Please don't make us snap.