For years I have been looking to find an activity that my wife and I both enjoy attending. I am a sports fan and, as most people know, most men and women can never really enjoy themselves when they are together at a sports event.
Don't get me wrong. I love to go to a baseball game with my wife. When she goes, I never have to leave my seat to go and get a beer or a hot dog. Of course, I also have to look over to her after an important home run and see a look of "I don't care." But I have found the holy grail: a sport we both enjoy, hockey.
I know, most of you didn't even know they played hockey in the United States, but they do. You won't find it on TV unless you get some outdoor channel (which is funny since hockey is played indoors, but whatever) but then again you don't want to watch it on TV. Hockey is best seen in person.
My wife and I had been to a hockey game together before but I don't remember it too well. After all, I am a man. So I had no expectations going in this time other than my friend and I would have a good time while my wife would watch everything going on but the game.
But it wasn't 10 seconds into the game my wife is leaning forward in her chair grunting with every man who was plastered into the wall and ohhing every time a goal was almost scored. At one point my wife even starting giving commentary like "they sure aren't taking advantage of their opportunities" and booing, actually booing when the referee made a bad call.
It was when my wife continually pleaded for two guys to fight that I realized that a hockey game is a perfect date spot for men who like sports and their significant others.
First the arena is cold and you have to dress warm (unlike the tiny long sleeve shirt I wore to the first hockey game I ever went to). Many of you may not understand what dressing for the cold has to do with a date but any woman can tell you that men are less likely to be ogling a woman in a turtle neck than a woman in a bikini top. Plus the cold offers plenty of opportunities to snuggle for those couples who are into that sort of thing.
There are also no cheerleaders to gawk at during hockey games. Sure, there are girls that scoop up loose ice during TV timeouts but did I mention they play on ice? These girls aren't dressed in anything that attracts a man's attention.
This is not to mention that hockey is like two sports in one: boxing and hockey. One minute you have the graceful skating of muscular men speeding up and down the ice, similar to figure skating which most women love. The next minute you have a player giving a stinky pinky (this is one player shoving his glove in another players face resulting in a scuffle or a fight). And who doesn't enjoy two men trying to rip each other limb from limb while on skates?
And the game is divided into three periods with about twenty minutes between them where you and your significant other can talk or, in my wife's case, talk about how inappropriate a woman's shoes are. Who knew that snake skin high heels were not appropriate footwear for a hockey game?
Of course as I found out there is always a downside. Before the game ended my wife asked me how much tickets were along the glass, meaning "we should go to a game and sit along the glass." For those of you who don't know they're over a $100.
Oh well, you can't put a price on love. Well, actually I can and it's a lot less than $100 a ticket.