Deaflympics 2007: Saturday: 2/10/07

 

I wake up bright and early Saturday morning, the last day. I need a few more hours of sleep but I'm already late from being paged by work. I get to the Steiner Ice Area a bit after 8am and I see the hockey players already on the ice practicing. It's Canada vs Finland and I am the official door opener, from the ice. I have to let them on and off for the game and practice. How cool is that? I guess any time I get to be close enough to the players that I can smell them makes me happy. I brought some blue hair coloring and have streaked my hair. I wasn't planning on supporting Finland but I only had the blue and wanted something crazy for the last day. Though not too crazy compared to what I would have done if I'd have enough time and sleep. I've also been eating way too much junk food but I seem to have lost about 5 pounds, probably from not eating enough and running around a lot.

 

I let all the players on the ice and go sit down to watch the game. There are a lot of Canada fans and some are insane. One guy yells at the players and gives a yelling running commentary during the entire game. Anytime a goal is attempted, a player rammed into the walls or a guy changes directions, he's yelling and cheering Canada on. It's hilarious. If a Finland Fan as crazy as him had been there I bet they would have fought. The players, however, are beating the crap out of each other. There's been a couple penalties by the end of the first period and I go let the Canada team out whilst making love to them with my sexy, sexy eyes. Afterwards I go sit in the Volunteer Room for a few minutes before letting them back out. My smile says 'good luck' but my heart says 'you guys are hot'.... I pull my hair back into a pony tail so they can't see the blue streaks.

Second period and these guys are fighting more and more. The refs have to pull the players apart and again after the whistle. Finland is playing hard but Canada is just too good so the fighting increases. The Canada Fan has an impossible amount of energy and continues cheering on the players. I've seen the Finland goalie get hit in the face mask twice and the crotch once with the puck. Holy crap this is a good game. There's some local guy, ex pat from Canada who comes and sits by me and another girl and explains stuff that is happening in the game. I am still pretty clueless but I'm starting to understand more. I'm pretty awake at this point so I practice some Irish Dance for the players and other random people backstage.

 

Third Period: I am pretty sure at this point that this period will never end. Both teams keep getting an ever increasing amount of penalties. It's like Finland has given up winning and has just decided to beat the hell out of Canada in exchange. Little do they realize that the fighting during the game was invented in Canada. Heh. Finland gets in a few more fightsl and mercifully, the game ends. Time to let the players out.... but no, they gotta take some pictures on the ice. I know this is the last game for both teams but I don't realize that with this game, Canada has won the silver medal. Very cool. They stay out for a while taking pictures and celebrating.

 

My new assignment in between games is to give a burlap bag to the Canadian team and have them put their dirty towels in it. Oh baby. Too bad they won't let me into the locker room. Oh well. I stand outside talking to people and wait. I meet a few of the Finnish Players and they seem nice, young and oh so hot. I showed a few of them the blue streaks in my hair and wait for the Canadian team to hurry up with the towels. The next game has already started and I don't really have a job because of the waiting so I wander around watching and talking to people. At the start of the second period, I open the door for the Swedish Team. These were the guys I was in the penalty box with on thursday. I wish them all luck whilst secretly thinking to myself 'hey! that guy was a real tool the other night', the ones I sat with don't smile but the rest do. Pricks. The Russian fans are almost as insane as the Canadian ones and have just about filled their side of the arena. This game is going to be good. I give up on the towels and find out the main computer room is unlocked with no one guarding it so I wait inside reading Discover Magazine.

They have a whiteboard and I write "we cannot get out. The end comes soon. We hear drums, drums in the deep. They are coming." I am a smartass. 

Partway through the last period Kelly, my boss comes into the room and tells me that a player has been seriously hurt and they are taking him to the emergency room. Holy crap, another first for me. I walk out to the arena and check it out, sure enough, players and medics are surrounding a player laying down on the ice. It's a guy from Sweden. The game just went from cool to sad. I see some of the kids from the opening celebrations and go say hi. They remember me! I also see a few people I met while working at the Deaflympics Store. The game is delayed about 40 minutes while they get the guy on a stretcher and into an ambulance. I didn't see what happened but he hit the wall pretty hard from what I'm told. At exactly 15:00, the buzzer goes off and the game stops. It's broken again and I tell everyone around me what happened the night before and what's going on. Lame. Russia wins 9-0 and I watch the Swedish Team walk off the ice, they take their helmets off and I see that some of them look about 15-16. Wow, very young players.

 It's now the final medal ceremony. I'm taking down all of the signs and helping to clean the place up. The Russians have left the locker room a complete mess and I don't want to touch anything without gloves. Gross! I do get to see the US get the gold for hockey and I have a few pictures. I'm taking down signs and flags and moving all of the crap onto the trucks/cars. There's a lot of stuff. At about 5:30pm they let me go and I drive straight to my apartment. I take a shower and lay down for about 30 minutes before getting up and ready for the closing ceremony. I was supposed to be there at 6:30pm if I was free but I am so tired that I need the rest. I meet a couple of ladies on Trax and a drunk guy I'm trying to ignore. Sitting across from me is a girl taking high school ASL and her mom. I talk to them for a minute and then get off at the Salt Palace. I should have taught her something for her class. Oh well.

 

I get to the closing ceremony just barely before it starts. At some point earlier I had stopped caring about being late so it's ok. I talk to a few people inside and am assigned to stand up by the path the athletes will be taking as they get to their seats. I am quickly crowded out by people taking picture. Good, I get to go sit down but I do say hi to a few people. The lady I met at the store from Russia, she's really nice and asks how I'm doing. I don't think Russian SL has the same sign for tired but she definitely understands me. I also see the cross country skier from Italy. I like her too. I eventually get to sit and eat and the food is delicious, though I'm starving and have been living out of vending machines all week. I hang out talking to friends and other volunteers and then head home.

 

At the trax stop where I wait, I see a car pull over to the side of the street and a bunch of people run over to it. I'm reading a magazine so I have no idea what's going on but apparently, two girls are fighting in the car, Jerry Springer style. What the hell? The onlookers pull one of the girls out who immediately starts freaking out and gets on the same trax train as me. She was fist fighting with her sister over a boy. I guessed correctly. I eventually make it home and go to bed. It was a fun experience, exhausting but worth it and now I want to be a Deaflympic Volunteer Groupie, following them around and helping just to keep doing it. I'm going to miss everyone. I also got picked up on by 4 guys at the farewell party. I'm going to miss that too....