Nightmare on Nathan Lane

I really, really must be hockey-deprived. This is probably a reaction to not winning the drawing for Wild tickets at my work the other night. The person who won the tickets left early! And he didn't know who anyone on the ice was! I mean, really! I feel there should have been a test. Possibly a written test, or maybe feats of strength. I would have won either way. You know that freakish strength that causes ordinary people to do extraordinary things in the right circumstances? For example, mothers lifting cars off of children, sawing off your own arm to save your life, etc. Well, a word of warning. Don't get between me and hockey tickets. I will cut you.

Anyway, I had a dream last night about hockey. No, not that kind of dream, you freaks. It was about the Minnesota Hockey Showcase, or whatever it's called. I'm not interested in paying TicketBastard fees if I don't have to, so I mailed in an order form to the UMD ticket office. (This is not part of the dream, this is real. I'll tell you when we're at the dream part.) My lower bowl tickets have been paid for, I'm certain of that, but I have no confirmation I am actually going to get them. I've been a little concerned about this lately, and I guess my dreams are now reflecting this fear.

In the dream, I was at the games at the Xcel, but it wasn't the Xcel in its normal form. It had two rinks, which is weird. One was lower than the other, and in between, there was a section of seating that had an ok view of the lower rink and a crappy view of the upper rink, as the seats were facing a wall with the rinks to either side. I know, it doesn't make sense, and it's hard to picture, but whatever. I was confused that those were the best seats I could get, but I figured, well, they had to give the season ticket holders first priority (which is true in real life), I guess this is the best I can get. And DHG and Stacy were in my section so I figured ok, I'm still with the Bulldogs fans. Well, FALSE. Because who shows up to sit next to me? The three most annoying fans in St. Cloud, which is a true accomplishment, as everyone from St. Cloud except for the hottie I work with who is Robby Nolan's doppelganger and hot RJ are totally obnoxious. I think we all know who I'm talking about. Donald certainly does. Do you all understand what a true nightmare it was for those people to show up in my dream? God. I digress. I'm thinking WTF, why are these people here? And then I realize I can't really see unless I peek over the side. And we were losing, too, which was distressing enough, without having to sit next to the stupid people. The score was 2-0, and really, the only thing I remember seeing of the game was some shot that one of our guys took that missed, but the rebound came out to the faceoff circles in the zone and Michael Gergen came flying in and I was really excited but then he missed. (Sorry, honey, but it's really been a long time since I remember you actually scoring a goal. So please, get right on that and don't ever let me forget again.) Somehow we did end up tying and we won 4-3 in OT, but I didn't get to see any of the game. And I was crying. I mean, sobbing. I was so angry that I had gotten crappy tickets, and I was trying to find an usher to complain to (which makes no sense, because what are they going to do) and no one seemed to care. And then some things I'm vague on happened, and I appeared to be whining at Wrigley Field, and then I woke up. At 6 a.m. On my day off.

(I did call the Xcel box office today and was reassured. Tickets are being mailed next week.)