#10 - Go to any hockey game

Wellllll.. okay, I have to admit, I didn't give the Fire Antz a fighting chance. We loved the Charleston Stingrays, and I really didn't believe that the Fayetteville Fire Antz could live up to our standards. Of course, we knew all the Stingrays chants ("Charrrrrrge!" "We're gonna kick the hell outta you... and you, and you and you and you!!") Well, it sounds cooler with 5000 other people chanting it as well. And we had plenty of people to go with us in Charleston (one friend was a season ticket holder, which worked out in our favor occasionally), oh, and the fact that the coliseum was less than 10 miles from our apartment really helped.

But I really wanted to go back to another hockey game, and hockey tickets are so dirt cheap, that we really couldn't go wrong. So, Saturday night, we ventured out with Steve and Aaron to take our places in the second row from the ice, right smack next to the penalty box. Right where we like to be - as close to the action as possible. You know, so you don't miss any fights! And it was actually a really great game! There were about 5000+ people there, so it was as big a deal as in Charleston, and we learned the new chants ("He shoots.. he scores.. hey goalie.. you suck!") and soon found we were sucked into it just as much as everyone else there.

Well, not everyone. That's the one thing I dislike about hockey - the other fans. Sometimes I think people have just simply been knocked on the head one too many times. The group sitting in front of us probably had season tickets. I think this because it seemed that everyone knew them, from the other people in our section, to the penalty box "guard", to the referees, to the mascot. And did not like them. They were hecklers in every sense of the word! Very irritating. Even more irritating that it was two adults with four kids, and the adults were actually enouraging the kids to yell at the players being sent to the penalty box and the refs. If I heard "Hey Zaske (the referee) GO ON A DIET!" one more time, I was about to club them upside the head with my camera case. What an awful example for the kids. But anyway, all in all we had an awesome time, and it's just too bad the season's almost over or I'd go back. Plus it's so far away for us to go, it's not really worth it except for a couple of games a year I'd say.

Proof that we were there:

We won!! If the Fire Antz get 5 goals in a game, everyone gets a free taco from Taco Bell! Alas, they got four goals. It was still a great game, especially when they got two goals in about 3 minutes in the last period. Awesome!!