Wow, look who hasn't been on here in 10 months!!!! Well life's busy and certain things just aren't priority. It's been a crazy, good, busy year so far, the girls have finally moved to Calgary and I couldn't be more excited for that and everything there is going great for them. Bay has just started another hockey season, and we're trying to get money together for the down payment on Jennifers school trip to Italy in 2013...hope we can put that together as I don't want my kids to ever miss out on an opportunity.
That being said....holy did my last week seem like a fairy tale...as most of you know, I'm a huge, HUGE hockey fan and Chicago Blackhawk fan. I've always wanted to meet all my favorite players and this last March I was fortunate enough to meet Theo Fleury while waiting outside the rink after a Legends game...that was #14 off the bucket list. Recently I've been talking to Jeremy Roenick via Twitter and I found out he was coming to Saskatoon for a speaking engagement. Sam was going to buy me a ticket so I could go and hear him speak but with money being tight I said no. I figure I'll have time in my life to do the "fun" things, I have to make sure that the kids things are taken care of first. After about a day or so I thought why don't I just ask him if we could meet?? What could it hurt, the worst he could say is no because of time restraints. So I sent him a tweet asking if he wanted to help me remove item #27 from my bucket list which was to meet him. His response, and rather quickly I might add was "set it up Turk! I'm there Thursday afternoon" Well once I picked up my jaw from the floor and double checking to see if it was a verified account I was talking to, I sent him a message back and long story short, we set up a time and place to meet. I did actually manage to sleep that week but the day of the meet my stomach was in knots! We decided to meet after work and that day couldn't end soon enough, when the time came, Sam picked me up from work and we headed out to meet up. We beat him there and as we sat and waited he still sent a message and said he was running late....no problem, I would have waited all night.....my stomach was turning and turning as we waited and if it wasn't for Sam I probably would have ran away and hid in the corner and I'm not a shy guy! All of a sudden Sam bolted from her chair and the next thing I hear is "Where is he?" BOOM there he was, Jeremy Freakin Roenick walking towards me, hand out and said Hi Turk, Nice to meet you!!! Good golly I almost fell over!! He sat down, next to Sam of course, and we talked. Hockey of course, Battle of the Blades, Twitter, bullying, Autism and I could have done it for days. After a little while I found out the left the guys he was with, the ones in charge of showing him a good time in the city, and came to meet up with us.....very cool...he also bought me a beer..very cool...the guys he left caught up with us and we talked for a bit and then JR wanted to go to another establishment, I figured, cool, thanks for taking the time to meet and we'd go home. NOPE, he asked if we wanted to come along!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!??? I'VE WAITED 22 YEARS TO MEET AND YOU WANT TO KNOW IF WE WANNA HANG OUT SOME MORE???!! I calmly answered yes although I was doing cartwheels inside. Before we left he signed some of my memorabilia I've had forever and will show it off in my house, we headed out in a cab and went to a VERY busy local establishment. We were brought inside and it was a madhouse, but not the one on Madison, people recognized him right away and it was nutz, he made sure Sam and I didn't get lost in the crowd. We headed over to a section and the frenzy began, the line up of guys with goofy looks on their faces which made me feel better about the goofy look on my face! There are more hockey nerds like me!! Through all the handshakes, pictures and people he still continued to pay attention to Sam and I asking us to help fans out with pictures and just how much he appreciates his fans. after about an hour he mentioned to us that if he's all of a sudden gone it's nothing personal it's just time to go and we totally understood. He got up, shook our hands, said he had a great time and it was a pleasure to meet and off he went. Sam and I left after that and I still don't know how I slept that night. It was the best night of my life all because I asked him if we could meet. I hope to meet up with him again and hopefully ask all the questions I didn't get to but if I never meet up again I still have this night, that he went out of his way to meet a "twitter buddy" Even going into the evening I heard so many negative things about him, and for the record I love how passionate he is about the things he believes in, how outspoken, wears his heart on his sleeve and stands up for what he thinks is right. What I found out was what I thought all along, he's a great guy, who appreciates his fans, tells it like it is and doesn't think he's better than anyone else.
I can honestly say that without Sam in my life, these items wouldn't be scratched off my bucket list. She supports me like no one ever has, loves my passion for the game of hockey, and loves how goofy I get when I meet one of my hockey hero's. And I don't think I'd want to do any of this without her anyways.
JR, thank you, I know you said for me to relax and it was "just you" but you don't know what it truly meant to me, to be "some guy" that JR was with at the Branch was pretty cool. To ask us to continue to come with you on your evening, continue visiting, man I've never met anyone classier. It was a night I'll never forget and I look forward to meeting up again, maybe on my next bucket list item which is to see a game in the Madhouse and stand at centre ice!
That's all for now, I'll see ya when I see ya!
