PPG Weekend o' Fun

I apologize for our delayed absence. I blame the fact that the Blue Jackets are sucking so much this season that it's hard for me to care about them. Because they make me so mad. Case in point: Steve and I went to the game on Thursday at Nationwide versus Nashville. The Blue Jackets dominated in that game and played well...until the last two minutes of the game. They blew a two-goal lead and then lost in overtime. I have tickets for three more home games this season. They're about as cheap as they come ($10 tickets...for lower-bowl seats. See what happens when your team sucks?), so I don't feel bad about going. We're also going to the game they play in Pittsburgh in February. I, however, will be rooting for the Penguins. Since they're way better than the stupid CBJ.

But enough about that! I know that what you really want to hear about is the weekend that Sarah and I spent in Columbus!* For those of you who don't know, I had never met Sarah in real life before. Sure, we email and text all the time, but since she lives across the continent, it's not exactly convenient to meet up for a hockey game. Or anything, for that matter. But, she graciously decided to come to good ol' Columbus to see the sights...and the Flames (more on that later). She landed Friday night, and I met her at the airport with an awesome sign. My friends were joking that she could be an axe murderer and I should take someone with me to meet her. Never fear; she's totally normal. Well, as normal as someone who claims to be my friend can be. Friday night we chatted for a bit before bed, since it was already waaaay past my bedtime when she arrived.

On Saturday, we went to the Columbus Zoo. That's one of my favorite places in the whole entire world. We also went to the mall, then got ready for our girls' night out. We went to Betty's (a local establishment in the Short North), then over to the R Bar in the Arena District to watch the Blue Jackets game. The R Bar is the only hockey bar in Columbus, so of course we had to go there! Surprisingly, the Blue Jackets won. In Nashville. For the first time since April of 2006. TWO THOUSAND SIX. To put that into perspective, that was about two months after I started dating Steve...and we've been together for awhile now :) We had fun; one of us might have had more to drink than the other that night. But that's the point of a girls' night, right?

Sunday was a lower-key day. We got some breakfast, wandered around the campus of Ohio State, then chilled at my house. Monday was also a relaxing day. It was also Game Day! I took Sarah to Chipotle for dinner, since she had never been there. Then we walked over to Nationwide for the game. We got there about an hour before the face-off, so we had time to wander around. We posed for a picture with the cannon, because we're just that awesome. We watched the pre-game skate. Then we sat in our kick-ass Stub Hub seats--6 rows from the ice for $25 each. See what happens when your team sucks? :)

The Blue Jackets went on to *gasp* actually win a game. Sarah wasn't truly mad, though she might profess to be. We knew going into the game that one of us would go home sad. Then again, given the way our teams are playing this season, I was half-expecting both teams to lose. Sarah departed before dawn on Tuesday, and made it safely home to Vancouver. Which is all the way on the other side of North America. We've discussed when and where our next gathering will take place. Since I know she's not an axe murderer, I'm sure we'll have another great weekend of fun...and hockey.

*Wanna read Sarah's take on the weekend and her visit on Nationwide Arena? Go here.