Whew. What a Friday.

I heard from Joe M. Aunt Phyllis, who's been in a regular hospital room for the past few days, started to have problems with blood pressure and heart rate again this afternoon... and the bleeding, which was the original reason she went to the ER in the first place, also started again after having been gone for several days. So she's back in the cardiac care unit.

They originally thought that the bleeding had been caused by one of her prescriptions, which has since been stopped. But she's been off that med for a week, so if the bleeding has begun again anyway, they might want to double-check as to whether the medication was the real source of the problem. The trouble is, there were some tests that they were planning to do once they were sure that the bleeding had stopped and everything was stabilized. Needless to say, the tests have been put on hold now that the bleeding and heart-related symptoms are back. What a crummy turn of events.

Obviously, my personal favorite distraction-from-reality can't completely counterbalance serious things that are going on in Real Life. However, shortly after the pretty significant disappointment of that phone call from Joe M., I headed up to Trenton to see the person who's arguably my favorite active player now that Neil Little has retired. This is significant to me because, though I see a lot of hockey games in person and on TV, I haven't seen this particular player in a game since December 2005. The only games he's played in the past two seasons, prior to joining Trenton's team in late February, were in Europe and since he was a backup goalie in Germany and Austria, he wasn't in a lot of games, period.

In any event, I've had Friday's and Saturday's dates marked on my calendar for weeks. The second Max was sent to Trenton, I pounced on Trenton's remaining schedule and marked off the few home games they had that didn't conflict with Phantoms home games. It turned out that I could attend two games in early March, and two games on April 4 and 5. I went up for both games in March (Mark went with me for one of them), and I even saw Max and chatted with him after both games, but he was injured at the time and didn't play. :o( Trenton hasn't actually had all that many home games in the past month, at least not compared to the number of games they've played on the road, but the way things have worked out, prior to Friday night, Max had only played in road games anyway. So I didn't miss any opportunities to see him during the games in Trenton that I didn't attend.

Along comes Friday night, and I can say that my spirits got a huge lift when I saw Max lead the team onto the ice for the pregame skate. (Tradition holds that the starting goaltender is at the head of the line when the team comes out of the locker room.) My spirits got an even bigger lift when he WON the game. A player whom I like tremendously, and whom I've missed watching for what feels like forever, earned his first home win with his new team and I was there to see it. OK, it's only a game, but I'll take my Happy Events anywhere and everywhere I can find them, and that made me happy.

I was also happy to be able to congratulate him post-game, and hand over a note from a fellow longtime Max fan who'd been planning for weeks to drive up from the DC area for this game. Unfortunately, she had a work-related crisis at the last minute, and couldn't leave the office until 6 PM. Given that she'd have had to drive from DC to Trenton, the game would have been over by the time she arrived, so she wound up listening on the internet rather than attending. But since she couldn't be on hand in person, the next best thing was to send a note, so she emailed it to me, I printed it, and I delivered it after the game tonight.

Anyway, I now have something Really Nice to think about, in the midst of the not-always-so-nice things that comprise Real Life. Like I said, I'll take my Happy Events wherever and whenever I can find them. Here's hoping that I can add another item to the Happy Event list on Saturday evening, when I head up to Trenton for their last game of the season.

Boy, how'd it get to be nearly 2 AM? Sheesh. No wonder I'm ready to keel over. Good night!