a big win & a nice relaxing weekend

Well, the guys did it!  They won 4-1 Thursday night, finishing the league in 6th place out of 14 teams and securing their spot in the playoffs.  That gave them a week off before their first playoff game on Friday the 18th.  It's a best of 7 series, and the way that the standings work out they play their big rival team (same team they played in the Winter Classic game) which will make for some very interesting and exciting games, and hopefully some great crowds.  With both teams being located in Helsinki and their arenas being 5 minutes from one another, the travel isn't too bad either! ;)  Nothing like sleeping in your own bed every night (well, in our case, I use the term "own" very loosely). 

After securing the playoff spot, the guys were given 3 full days off to rest.  Friday they all went bowling and to "sauna together" (yes, that is acutally a proper term here)  along with some other team activities.   I went to see the movie Burlesque with one of the girls.  It was cute, and left us wondering exactly how old Cher is.  We knew she definitely doesn't look as old as she actually is (thank you plastic surgery) but she can definitely still sing!  (She's 64, for the record)

The rest of our weekend has just been relaxing.  Yesterday, we went to the Sokos Flamingo hotel & entertainment complex.  They have a Spa & Wellness center, indoor waterpark, bowling alley, movie theatre, mini golf, lots of restaurants & shops (it's attached to a mall) among other things.  We thought a nice relaxing day at the spa sounded good.... you can buy a 4 hour pass and use all of their warm water pools, saunas, etc.  There are restaurants and bars inside the waterpark area & spa area and it's a nice place to hang out, kick back & relieve some stress.

    

Flamingo Spa

Today includes grocery shopping & some other errands.  Nothing too exciting going on here (as you can tell) and just wanted to write a quick update about the game, but I promise to post something exciting soon!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

"uh, I think our building is on fire"

Well, first off, thank you to everyone for their sweet messages yesterday!  It makes me feel a little less crazy in this world knowing that I'm not the only one that has times like this (wait, does that make me... normal?!)  My time at the spa was a-maz-ing, it really helped me relax and get rid of the extra tension and stress in my body.  A couple of glasses of wine and some time spent with girlfriends later and I'm feeling much better!  All I needed to top it off was a good nights sleep, which looked to be promising.

That is, until 1:30 a.m....

When we were woken up by Maddie who would not quit barking.  I was half asleep, but J eventually got up because she wouldn't stop. He said he smelled something right away, and we could see the flashing lights through the blinds. He sleepishly stumbled over and opened the blinds to look out, and his reaction? "uhhh, babe, I think our building is on fire.  Theres like 5 fire trucks, police cars and ambulances outside and all the firemen are looking up at our building." WTF?!



the lovely circus outside of our building


So, I jump out of bed... He was going to go check it out and turned on the light. I could immediately see all the smoke in the air (of OUR apartment!) and then I was really freaking out.  WHY aren't the firemen getting us out?  WHY hasn't anyone come knock on our door?  WHY is there no fire alarm going off?  ARE we going to have to go to a hotel?  WHAT is going to happen to all our stuff?!  WHY are they just standing there looking up at us, freakin pull your ladder out come rescue us already!  WTF!  As I'm having my mini freak-out, J peeks out to the hallway... and one of the neighbors was doing the same. "I think the building is on fire, better get outside" was their conclusion (gee, ya think?... men!) so I'm grabbing wallet, keys, passports, MADDIE, I even stuffed some stuff in a bag cause if we couldn't get back in that night there was no chance in hell I was walking around anywhere in my pink penguin jammies and no makeup today.  (A lovely habit I've always possesed, like when I was little and I would quickly pack up all of my most important belongings [dolls and hockey trophys] and bring them to the basement in a tornado warning)
We bundled up and headed down the stairs.  We saw a fireman on the way and tried to ask him what was going on and if we needed to go outside. Guy didn't speak English. Figures. You'd think a firefighter in a big city would at least understand the word "OUT!?"

So... we leave, find out that there was a fire in one of the apartments on the first floor (in the door and to the left, thank goodness we're up one floor and to the right or we probably would have gotten a lot more smoke in our place!) The fire was out but we had to wait for the smoke to clear out. (now is when I was feeling like an idiot for carrying around my bag of goodies.... ha!)

We finally got to go back in, most of the smoke was gone but it still SMELLS, even this morning. I was convinced I was going to suffer from smoke inhalation (dramatic? haha) and thought we needed to go to the nearest hotel.  All J wanted to do at that point was go back to bed, he had practice in 7 hours.

So now I'm sitting here with our windows open (it's -16 out, yipee) and the stove fan on, hoping to clear the rest of the nasty smell out :(   I looked the story up online to read about it since there were several reporters out last night.  They think the cause was electrical, still invesigating.  The people obviously got out but they had 2 cats that both died.  I'm no cat lover, but that alone could make me cry.  I'm the one that cries freaking bawls every time that Sara Evans ASPCA commercial comes on. RIP, kitties :(

Freaks me out a little that there are clearly no fire alarms in the building.  Is that even legal?  Surely wouldn't be in the U.S.!  Good thing we have such a good guard dog with her keen ears and nose!!  Extra treats for her today.

Maybe I can make another attempt at a good nights sleep tonight...

that's it.

...I'm going to the spa.  I need some severe de-stressing and relaxation.  I've been in a terrible funk for over a week now and can't seem to shake it. 

I was hesitant to make any sort of blog posts about my little self-pity party, in fear that friends, family, and anyone else reading would think that I had gone off the deep end and put me in a psych ward.  But if it's any consolation, over the past couple weeks, I have found that I'm not alone.  Fellow hockey wife bloggers KY , Hockey Wife and Life of a Hockey Widow have recently blogged about similar feelings.  KY has dubbed it "hockey season-al depression", and it is just that. 

It's January.  It's cold.  It's dark.  The new-ness of the hockey season and excitement of being in a new place is totally gone.  It's the second half of the season, yet the off-season seems so far away.   The holidays have come and gone.  It's been almost 5 months since I've seen friends or family back home.  The day-to-day struggles of living in a foreign country, though a little easier now, are still very present and real.  (this is where I could go on and on forever... but I'll spare us both)

I think know J has come scar-ily close to booking me on the next flight home the past few days.  I haven't been able to shake things, even with all of his love and support.  I've realized this is something that no one is going to be able to fix but me. 

As a friend (and fellow hockey wife in Europe)'s facebook status said today: 

"We may not be able to control events, but we can control our attitude toward them."

It is so right.  I need an attitude adjustment. 

So today I called J while he was on the bus to an away game.  Short and sweet, "I'm going to the spa.  I need a massage.  I love you, I'm sorry.  Bye"

Time to shift the negativity into positivity.  What better way to start than with a trip to the spa, follwed by a girls night while the guys are gone?  Ahhhhh, I can feel the stress shedding from my body already....