Enjoying Time with a Friend, Books, a Handwritten Note, Hockey, and Cats
A few weeks ago, I felt thrilled to receive some books in the mail that my friend Andrew sent me. He had offered to mail me his extra copies of the last two Percy Jackson books. (I already had the first three and have read the first two.) Then he also generously added in the three books in The Kane Chronicles. I’m always very grateful to receive books, so I was ecstatic about being given those, too.
Besides the books, he also placed a handwritten note in the box — which reminds me that writing those for people is something that I aspire to do more frequently myself. It always lifts my spirits to receive something that a friend has taken the time to write, and I believe we would all benefit from sending handwritten notes to our friends. In this letter, Andrew mentioned his excitement about the hockey game we would be going to in a few days.
Initially, he had paid for us to go to a hockey game in 2020, but then, of course, COVID happened by March when we would have been going. Prior to COVID even being something we all knew about, he had bought resale tickets because we really wanted to go to the game, but all the standard tickets were sold out. As a result, they seemed expensive to me. It was, therefore, very kind of him to purchase them. Generosity is something I believe everyone should engage in, and it is one of his best qualities.
This time, now that hockey was finally in session again, I decided that I would pay for tickets.
Neither of us has a driver’s license. I live in an area with lots of public transit, but he doesn’t. We were able to meet about halfway, which I think was about forty-five minutes away for me and half an hour for him — close enough for us to both use ride-sharing apps to meet at the arena.
We both showed up early, which was great and meant that we had more time to interact, which was fantastic, especially since we can both be very chatty people. There had been another hockey game the night before, so the space in the arena was less filled up than I had anticipated. We had good seating in the middle.
A hockey game also works excellently for tuning in to the most exciting parts of the game and then talking during less intense moments in the competition. Basically, it leaves the opportunity to turn to look during the goal-scoring moments or any other moments during the game when there’s a lot of action happening. There are also frequent breaks with the game being split into four segments.
Generally, it’s fun to watch except for one time when I was twelve, when one of the hockey players got beaten up so badly in one of their fights that he had to go to the hospital.
Andrew spotted action faster than me, so I felt confident that I wouldn’t miss any of the best parts of the game even while we were talking.
I spent some money after watching hockey by getting a hat and a shirt at the arena. I’m usually frugal, but it was fun to have an opportunity to splurge.
After the game, Andrew and I both split the money on an Uber to a nearby mall after the game. He bought me a blue t-shirt with cute animals on it which I really appreciated. I also hadn’t been in that mall in a long time either, and I enjoyed briefly perusing some of the stores.
We ordered an Uber with two stops instead of getting separate ones on the way home so that we could talk longer. The plan was for it to go by his house first, since he works early shifts.
We had fun talking on the way, but the driver kicked me out after we got to Andrew’s house. He waited, until Andrew got out and went inside his house, to tell me that he didn’t want to drive any further. Andrew invited me inside his house, where some of his family lived also. He has multiple cats, and his family’s calico cat seemed to like me. She was so sweet and gorgeous.
I appreciated spending a large chunk of that Sunday with my friend and seeing a long-awaited hockey game.
I recommend reading this lovely article by B.R. Shenoy if you appreciate nature:
