2007 Is Gonna Be My Year

It was November 18, 2005, that I moved away from my marriage, and out on my own. Or, as much as one can be on one's own while shacking up with one's folks. But anyway, I was thinking today...

2007 is going to be my year. See, the rest of '05 was spent still reeling from the transition, as was most of the first half of '06. Now, I'm solidifying my roots in society, but also in myself. I'm my own person now. I have a career, and seniority at school. In a nutshell, 2006 was spent reactively arranging my chess pieces on the board of life from utter chaos to a position in which they're proactively ready to pounce. And pounce I will. I have the confidence now. I am totally my own man now. I am no longer the squeamish little boy I once was, even just recently.

But more on that on the 18th... the one year anniversary of my transition.

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Guess what? I'm going to play HOCKEY. You heard me right... mild mannered angelic little Andy Hutchinson is going to don his skates and gear, and leave a wake blood in his trail at the Hobart Arena.

Ok, so that's pushing it a little, but I did get an invitation to join the adult hockey league. See, there's always a coach in the penalty box from where I shoot the peewee hockey games. One invited me to join the "Old Man's" hockey league, and he just happened to be league brass. Me, shmooze? Naaaahhhhh! So I went to the used sporting goods store, Play It Again Sports, and started buying up hockey gear. I've already amassed $6 gloves, $8 shin and knee pads, and $5 elbow pads. Old school readers, remember the Ontario skates I bought last december? Totally applicable.

So tonight I bought a street hockey ball, and put on my Roces inlines, big padded gloves, and elbow pads. I already had a street hockey stick in the garage from when I was a teen in the 90's. (picture the following visual as a scene from a movie, shot in slow motion with "Chariots of Fire" playing in the background) I grabbed my 14 or so year old hockey stick, swiped the dust and cobwebs off of it, and proceeded to tear up the pavement in front of my house. Darting and batting the hockey ball to and fro, I realized I wasn't half bad.

That is, until I was going backward and wiped out most heinously. But I got back up and said aloud to myself: "Well, the new elbow pads work!" Smarted a little, but I'll just have to toughen up a bit. grrr.

I'm gonna kick ass once I buy the helmet, padded trousers, shoulder pads, and most importantly of all... the jock cup.

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I'm doing this for a number of reasons:

1) A diversion so I don't burn out on photography.
2) To impress women. My inner adolescent is alive and well.
3) To drop weight. Sick of weighing 280lbs.
4) To add a desperately needed splash of "badboy" into the mix

Regarding 4, I'm sick of being so one-sided... all yang without a little ying to balance it out. I can't be Clark Kent all the time... there needs to be a little testosterone-laden Superman poking through every now and again. Time to acknowledge that I am, in actuality, male.

No, mild mannered silly dorky nerdy goofball Andy isn't going away... he'll always be my base personality. He's just getting an extra dimension; he's becoming a little more colorful. :-)