I can so not concentrate on this paper I'm writing. Good thing it's almost done.

It's that time of year again. Already.
Mom: Say, you have a birthday coming up soon. Start thinking about what you want.
Me: Money. For hockey. Last year you covered my whole season.
Mom: Start thinking about what you want.
Me: Um, I just said. Money. For hockey.
Mom: I can't cover the whole season, start thinking about what you want.
Me: Still money. For hockey. If you can spare $5, give me $5. I'll put it towards hockey. (getting frustrated) I have to go now.
Mom: Okay, but be thinking about what you want.

And so it begins again.

To you three readers, my offer still stands. Get me nothing. If I get my shit together enough to have a party, come. If not, do nothing. Thank you.

I'll be off, thinking about what I want.

At Sunday's A-Team game, we had a couple of no-shows (hey folks, next time you back out on the day of the game, could you CALL ME???) so we wound up with 5 defensemen. Normally, we go out in pairs so this makes things a little more challenging. We handle this situation by rotating through, the next guy in line goes out next, etc. Sometimes that means you don't get as much of a rest as you'd like. I was already tired from my maroon game earlier in the day so I turned to the guy next to me and said 'you go next, I'm totally tired.'

His reply? 'Me, too. And I'm still a bit queasy from the chemo on Friday.'

I'm an ass.

Here's a brief summary of what's been going on around here.

• My too-good-to-be-true laptop is, in fact, too good to be true. It inexplicably has decided to not work. At all.
• I'm grading a ton of papers (perhaps a metric ton) for two different instructors, each with varying degrees of instruction on how to grade. It's a big job that sucks up a lot of my time, though I am grateful for the experience and the meager pay that one of them provides.
• The A-Team had a fantastic win on Sunday, with two of our lesser-known stars scoring two beautiful goals. I was the proud parent, beaming as Paul roofed it and Ryan's wrist shot from the top of the circle both sailed into the net.
• Heed will not sit still. He is driving me crazy, yet I feel bad that he doesn't get that much attention so he's still in here, foraging under the couch for things that only he considers toys.
• I've stopped speaking to a friend of mine. The silent treatment is not something I wanted to resort to, but I cannot tolerate being spoken to the way she spoke to me. It's simply not an okay way to treat someone (me) that she allegedly cared for, the shouting and the disrespect. The day after the incident, I was ready for a discussion, if not an apology, but none came. And I suspect none will. I can no longer sweep it under the rug. What good is my self-respect if I allow anyone to speak to me that way without at least some acknowledgment that the tone (if not the content) was inappropriate? Not much.

  So we're not talking and I just don't know where to go from here. I guess I will wait for her to make some sort of overature, to do something more substantial than trying to act as if nothing happened. Because it did.

• I dropped out of the symphonic band at school after the conductor asked me to audition for the chair I was already sitting in. I spent enough of my life being competitive about music and I just don't need to start that up again. So I unceremoniously slid my music under her door and have my Tuesday afternoons free.

I guess that's everything. Sorta seems like enough, doesn't it?