Change of Plans

Life, is like baseball.
Life throws you a fastball, you swing, but you can't catch up to it cuz it was too fast.
Life throws you a curveball, you swing, but you were thought the pitch was going to be straight, but it wasn't.
Life throws you a change-up, you swing, but you were too early cuz you thought it was going to be a fastball.
Life throws you a slider, you swing, but you just couldn't reach it.
Life throws you a knuckleball, you swing, but you didn't think the ball would be out of control due to the wind.
Life throws you a gyroball and an oky-doky, you swing, but you didn't know you were up against Boston's Dice-K and Okajima.

Stolen from a certain person's blog.

Anyways, reason for this blog, is because of something really unexpected, yet not necessarily a bad opportunity came up recently. As a avid sports fanatic, its pretty much a dream for me to one day be working within a professional sports organization. However, it is also a very small industry, and also very hard to get in. My whole plan was to graduate with my Economics degree with Human Resources Management as my specialization, continue on and get a job while completing my Canadian Human Resources Professional designation, and see where it leads me. However, I've been approached with an opportunity to "kick off" my sports management "career" through the Department of Athletics and Recreational Services at the University of Waterloo. No, its not some big deal with Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, but its a start somewhere. This is not a co-op job, but rather just a job placement for a term. Which means - I won't graduate on schedule like I plan to, but this is also a great opportunity for me to get started within the sports management industry, gaining valuable experience for the future.

Nothing is really set in stone yet as I haven't been offered the job, but I am pretty confident that my involvement with the Department of Athletics will have be ranked pretty high as a candidate - I guess we'll wait and see.


On another note - Chicago in 3 days!

NHL Awards

So I was bored tonight, and needing something to do to procrastinate, I decided to watch clips of NHL Awards again. Part of me was just curious how many seconds of mistake the producer made by getting my famous head into the shot, and the answer was approximately 5 seconds.

Yes...I was THIS bored.

Chicago

I was sitting at work (I work as a front desk staff for the athletics office) today and saw a post on RFD - half price for flights out of Buffalo. As...2 of you know, I was looking for a short trip to Chicago to visit Carrie, and to watch some sports. Been targetting Nov 8/9 since the Bulls, Blackhawks AND Bears have a home game all within the same weekend. When I was checking this out earlier...the price of $160 USD was tempting already, and now it sonly $80 for both ways! How gross is that! If Carrie is free...I think I am 100% a go.

Leafs Game

So yeah, finally something to post about. This past Thanksgiving weekend, I ended up going to the Raptors preseason game, as well as the hockey game between the Leafs and the Blues. First time I've ever sat in the lower bowl for a hockey game, and I won't lie, being in the lower bowl makes a huge difference. Definitely doesn't compare to being rinkside, but the perspective of being slightly higher up is does provide a much better line of sight.

[BRAG] First time being in the lower bowl - a puck was deflected right to me
[BEAT] The guy sitting directly in front of me decided to move his shoulder at the last minute and tipped it away from me
[BEAT[ Could've caught a puck, but it ended up deflecting off my thigh and hitting the armrest and bouncing to the next section over
[VARIANCE] Watching the Leafs cough up a 3-0 goal lead, AND sitting through Antropov and Kubina attempting a shootout shot.

Will try to get some pictures up at a later date.

NYC - Part II

Holy crap, its been like 6 weeks since my last post. I'll blame this inactivity on..summer. With work, and then softball, I hardly get around to really sit down and blog. Not much really happening for awhile between my Vegas trip and now, as it was all pretty routine with work, softball, sleep and so forth, until this past week.

Finishing work on the 22nd, I made my second trip down to New York this summer, this time strictly a "sports pilgrimage". With this being the last year at the historic Yankees Stadium, it was a promise I made to myself that I had to watch a game there at least once before it closes down. With that said, I planned a trip with one of my friends down to New York from Aug 24 to Aug 27. An extended trip report will come later, but this trip was definitely a memorable one.

Here are a few pictures for now...