Days Weeks Months, and the Years Go By

It’s difficult to know where to even start. I’ve been absent for days, weeks, (it feels like months) and so much has happened that it almost feels like too much time has transpired to report back on it. But I’m going to do my best because in the last few weeks life has thrown out a rollercoaster ride of emotions and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to go along for the ride.

There have been some good times, some bummer times and some amazing moments that could never be fully captured in words no matter how good a writer I am. Sometimes you really just ‘had to be there’.

And if you were here for any of them I need to say a HUGE thank you!

June marked an entirely new chapter in my life and sharing it with (you know who you are) you was AH-mazing!

Let’s start with the ugly & work our way to the awesome shall we?

Abrupt Ending

By now anyone who’s even a moderate sports fan (or friends with me) knows that the Bruins lost in their quest for the Cup against the Chicago Blackhawks. It was a tough fought series and I think the B’s really held their own despite losing four games to two. And they lost on home ice. Which of course stings a little bit.

But as exciting as it was to watch my hometown team play some of their best hockey all the way up to game 6 (and as nice as it would’ve been to watch them lift the Cup) I have to admit that I’m secretly glad hockey is over for this season.

The temperatures were getting a little warm and with the shortened season I think this is the latest into the summer I’ve ever seen the boys in black and gold play. I mean, the season starts again in about two months. Plus watching upwards of four games a week was getting a little tough to manage. But I love hockey and especially hard-hitting hockey like the playoffs. But being in Phoenix means 115+ temps and now I just want to be in my pool for a couple months.

Speaking of hockey, some of the off-season changes have me reeling a little bit:

• Andy Ference, my second favorite player on the Bruins and my number one favorite environmental activist is being let go in favor of cheaper defensemen because of the lowered cap. This sucks in so many ways I can’t even begin to say how much it sucks. A Bruin and Boston community activist for seven years, Andy’s commitment to his team and teammates will be sorely missed next season.
• Nathan Horton didn’t entertain any offers from the Bruins before electing to go with his Free Agency status. Which basically just sucks because if ever there was a line that had chemistry it was the Lucic-Krejci-Horton line. We’ll see what this Friday brings during the free agency deadline.
• Pretty much every single core player with the exception of only a few will need surgery for something or other this off season. Bergeron played the last game with multiple issues (hole in lung, broken rib) and others like Horton, Seidenberg, Chara, all have injuries that probably had them playing at less than their optimal selves. I commend them for a job well done under the circumstances!

In hockey years I’d be about 172

In human years I just turned the big 4-0. Yup, I’ve actually entered the period of life where it’s all uphill from here. Yeah I know most people say downhill but that always felt wrong to me. I mean downhill is easier, you can toss her in neutral and just coast. Uphill seems like much more of a battle.

But I digress…

I made a promise to one of my very dear friends, Keith, that I’d write all about the party. Regardless of the fact that I’ve sat down to do just that a few days in a row now, I can’t seem to find any words to do that day any justice. I really think you just had to be here.

Perhaps when I’m looking back in a few years and thinking of the top five parties of my entire life I’ll have the distance from it to write it all out, but not right now. For now I’m going to leave you all with a word cloud that pretty much sums up the overall celebration that started with a big secret Matt concocted months ago, culminates with my crazy party on Saturday June 22, and ends the following weekend when my vacation ended and I finally was able to recover from the enormity of it all.

I love you all!

It’s Official…

I’m finally a paid Writer! I started pursuing my freelance career a few months ago with full force and since then I’ve had five articles published on Yahoo! Voices, three of which I’ve made money from and just last week I was offered a writing position as a blogger for a company that reports on socially responsible companies. Not sure when that starts but I can’t wait!

In the meantime I’m going to finish up my classes and books on how-to write various forms of content and just keep applying for writing gigs as well as submitting articles. My goal is to be self-sustaining from my writing in the next year and I can clearly see that path starting to materialize now.

Cha-ching

At the end of June we refinanced our home into a fifteen year mortgage, something we’ve both been looking forward to doing since we first got the place last year. With the increase in values in Phoenix (it’s a great time to own property here, things are climbing again, steadily but not out of control) we were able to cash-out refi and roll our car payment in plus take a little cash to make some improvements to the efficiency and functionality (plus the beautification) of our home.

In the next couple months we’re planning to replace all of our single-pane aluminum windows with Low-E double (or triple) pane, replace all the exterior doors to prevent gaps where ac sneaks out, spray additional insulation into the attic, replace the pressure valve for our house water, open up the wall from living room to kitchen for an open concept plan and remove the fireplace that takes over the living room, rip out the very poorly installed tile/carpet and put hardwood bamboo throughout, and complete a few other minor things that no one would notice but will make a huge overall impact on efficiency/uniformity (vent covers, doorknobs, etc.).

For the first time in our adult lives we made a good choice when it came to a housing purchase. But it wouldn’t matter if values tanked again tomorrow. We’re not going anywhere and now that we can start personalizing our place I’m even more excited to stay.

Overall June was a pretty kick-ass month around here full of old and new friends and family I wouldn’t have expected to see in my house anytime soon. It really seems like the last three weeks have been a constant party and cause to smile, laugh, and have fun.

And I don’t see any signs of that stopping anytime soon.

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

Two U’s Two K’s Two Down Two to Go

Joel Quenneville, head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, said before Finals began between his team and the Boston Bruins that Tuukka Rask, our goaltender, isn’t all that good. And man, I bet he’s chewing on those words this morning. Our ‘not so great’ goalie and the Cup-caliber Boston Bruins team standing tall in front of him pulled off a win in regulation (the first in this series) and…

Wait for it…

A shutout.

That’s right Quenneville, Rask now has 3 shutouts under his playoff belt. How many does Corey Crawford have? Oh, just one? Aw, that’s cute. What’s that you say? Crawford has a 1.74 goals against average and a .936 save percentage?

Wow, that would be so impressive if Rask wasn’t sporting his 1.64 GAA and .946 SV%.

Okay, okay. To be fair it isn’t like Crawford’s numbers are awful or anything. And considering 2 out of the 3 games they’ve played have gone into overtime it is a pretty hard-fought series. With this matchup I would have expected no less than grinding games full of heart and spirit. Neither team has let me down.

The Bruins have lost one game so far in the Stanley Cup Finals. That night Rask played 112:05 minutes as opposed to the usual 60:00. Almost two full games in one night? Impressive all around.

But now with Marian Hossa, leading points man, on the questionable list for Chitown in game 4 and Kaspers Daugavins fitting in just fine on the B’s fourth line with Shawn Thornton and Rich Peverley, The Hawks will have their work cut out if they want to win. Especially with game 4 taking place in Boston.

Call your arena the Madhouse on Madison if you like. The Bruins have the Gahden. Simple and unfussy. Gritty and tough just like the fans, ready to cheer their heads off for their team when they retake the ice on Wednesday night.

And if playing hockey were anything like battling the Devil these guys sure got it fahkin right, kid.

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

Steve Miller Really Knew What He Was Talking About

Time really does seem to be “ticking, ticking, ticking, into the future” at a pretty rapid clip these days. The past few weeks have been super busy learning all this new information on how to start and successfully run my freelance writing career, actually writing and applying to get some freelance writer gigs, chewing on my sequel in the subconscious (yes I’m still going to be writing fiction, no worries there!), and watching lots of exciting, long-winded playoff hockey.

I’ve barely had a minute to put together any kind of comprehendible thought that doesn’t involve SEO, keyword research, content marketing, some other industry specific term, or how many times in a day I can tweet with #BostonBruins.

So some of the stuff I’ve jotted down (because you know I carry a notebook and pen around with me everywhere) or uttered out loud has stuck with me the past couple weeks. In no particular order.

Refinancing your mortgage is kinda like losing your virginity

You wonder if it’s more than you can handle and you know it’ll hurt while it’s happening but it’s such an exciting prospect that you just can’t force yourself to stop moving forward. Especially because you know you’ll come out a different person on the other side. The pressure is off. Things can get back to normal. Maybe. I just hope at the end of it all I’m not left confused and bewildered, wondering if I made the right decision. And the bastard had better call me the next day. And if they can’t get it together to commit forever at least leave my big huge check on the nightstand and get the hell out.

There are at least 83 levels of awesome in “How I Met Your Mother”

Matt and I are TV bingers. When there’s a series that we have interest in watching but didn’t start from the start we add it to our Netflix instant queue and after the series is over we go back to watch all the episodes in one lump sum. Without commercials. “How I Met Your Mother” has been sitting in our queue for about four years and now that they’re coming back in the fall with the last season in the series it seemed like a good time to start watching from the start. I’d seen plenty of disjointed episodes over the years in syndication but something about knowing the full story is legen…wait for it…dary. “The Big Bang Theory” is up next.

Writing with keywords is a pain in the ass on a personal blog

No matter how much I want people to find and read this blog I just can’t make it keyword stuffy. It isn’t what this blog was originally set out to do and I don’t want it to become a chore or I’ll probably stop writing it. I write here to rant and rave and writing for content marketing doesn’t really fit in with that. At least not now. If I figure out how to do it maybe it’ll be so subtle no one will even notice. Until then I always have my website or Green Leaf Reviewer to jam pack with perfectly written keyword articles.

Hockey games should never be five hours long

Don’t get me wrong, I love that the Bruins are in the Stanley Cup Finals and I love that they’re playing the Chicago Blackhawks because having an Original Six matchup for the first time since 1979 is awesome. But there’s a reason I don’t watch much baseball. After the first four hours all I want to do is take a big old nap. So when the Bruins had to play a double overtime game to beat the Penguins and move on to the Stanley Cup Finals I figured that would be the longest game I’d ever seen. I figured wrong. After last night’s game 1 against the Hawks went into triple overtime and the game was within a minute or two of being the longest game ever in NHL history, I slept like a wee baby. All that screaming and excitement can really wear a person out. Please go back to your regularly scheduled two and a half hour running time. My east coast peeps shouldn’t have to be up until 1:00 AM watching these games. Unless the Bruins win of course. Then I don’t care if it takes seven hours. Carry on.

I love the smell of sweat in the morning

I started getting more serious about working out again in the past month or so and it’s all thanks to the stationary bike. That thing was the best $130 investment I’ve ever made. I ride at least five miles every morning, sometimes another five in the afternoon, and I’m already down about four pounds. It isn’t an extreme loss but if I can keep up the pace and intensity I should be up to twenty miles a day in the next few weeks and burning fat regularly. Exercise isn’t on my immediate radar so doing something quick like this really helps me stay motivated to keep doing it. The dancing thing happened a few times but I admit it pretty much fell by the wayside. Oh well.

Still wonky, still have sausage fingers

I found a naturopathic doc who seems pretty cool even though she’s very expensive and not really covered under my insurance. Of course she’s not. She gave me some plant based something-or-another to “completely stop” the wonkiness. It didn’t work. She goaled me to lose ten pounds in the next three months. I’m trying to do more than that. Not sure if I’ll go back or not. None of them seem to have a clue whether trained in east or west. Sometimes I think I’m better left to eating a more natural diet and exercising so I can just work this out on my own.

I’m wearing my hair up until it stops looking like Darth Vader’s helmet

You get what you pay for when you go to the cheapest possible place to get a trim. But really, she went a little too short and blunt this time. I asked her to do a small stack in the back so it would fall more naturally toward my neck instead of fluffing out like it does when it’s all one length. She said no and cut the way she wanted to. In turn I tipped her what I wanted to. Good thing it’s long enough for a ponytail and that I’m okay with my hair being up every day.

I need a new saying because “oh my god it’s a hundred out!” is actually low balling it

Mother fucker it’s blazing hot here. I mean I knew what I was getting into by moving to the desert but its only mid-June and we’ve already had twenty-four days at or above 100 this year according to the National Weather Service. With at least two more months of this on tap I’m just happy to have a pool and central air.

“No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater... than central air.”

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

The Boston Bruins are on a Roll but Not Out of the Woods Yet

You knew it was coming eventually. I held out as long as I could for all of you readers who have no interest in sports, hockey in particular. But after last night’s four hour long, double overtime, game three between the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins ended in such dramatic fashion I’d be remiss if I didn’t write at least something.

Plus, this is the semi-finals and with the Stanley Cup Finals just mere games away for two lucky, hard-working teams it feels right to talk about the fact that the Bruins are up 3-0 on this last series before they could theoretically get to the big game for the second time in as many years.

But they aren’t there yet and as any professional sports player knows – it ain’t over ‘til the final goal horn sounds. Or something like that. So more now than ever is the time for the Bruins to bring their A++ game because the Penguins will not be put down without a fight.

And that fight will no doubt result in more bloody and bruised faces like this one:



Image Courtesy CBSBoston



So let’s just say I’m looking into where I can buy a broom but I’m not saying out loud just what can be done with one.

There are a few Bruins from last night’s game that I feel deserve a high five. Let’s start where no one else is and give a huge debt of gratitude to Jaromir Jagr.

Boston was iffy on Jagr becoming a Bruin and with good reason. In hockey years the guy is about a million and one. As my uncle said “he looks older with every shift out on the ice.” True dat.

But with age comes experience and as the (unquestionably biased) announcers happened to mention during last night’s game he’s been spending some time with David Krejci lately to help him improve his game. And centerman Krejci is leading the team in goals scored this post season with nine.

Which brings me to my other point about Jagr, can someone just give the poor guy a goal for goodness sake? He’s played all 15 post season games, has 7 assists, a +/- of +1, and 45 shots on goal (third after Tyler Seguin at 50 and Patrice Bergeron at 48) and the guy just cannot seem to put the puck in the back of the net.

Not to mention he’s working his old ass off every single night and last night was no exception. It was his play along the boards at the line that created the puck freeing to Brad Marchand who passed to Bergeron for the game winner.

Clearly Jagr’s the team muse because whatever he’s feeding Krejci and the rest of the guys is working.

But Jagr isn’t the only one who battled it out last night. You want to hear about some extreme toughness? Talk to Gregory Campbell who was out there during a Pens power play in the second period. He laid out to block a shot and ended up with a 100 mph slapshot to the leg resulting in a broken fibula.

Ouch.

But that’s not the tough part. The puck remained in the Boston zone so Campbell had no choice but to get up and play for almost a full minute on that broken leg until the puck was cleared down the ice. And what happened during that minute? The guy pushed his stick out to poke the puck away and broke up another play that could have resulted in a Pens goal. On a broken leg.

No pansy-ass players on this team.

Campbell is out for the remainder of the post season regardless of how long it goes but hopefully prognosis will be good for him to return next season all healed. He’s a key member of the roster and his presence on the ice will definitely be missed.

Everyone played a hard fought game, and I’ll even say that the Pens looked pretty good too for most of the contest but they were not getting more than the one goal through the brick wall in goal known as Tuukka Rask. He stopped 53 of 54 shots and in quite dramatic fashion at times. The man was a machine.

Overall the Boston Bruins exerted a solid effort that went until after midnight on the east coast and they left the Pittsburgh Penguins with quite a mountain to climb if they want to stay alive or take the series away from Boston. But coming back from being down three games is rare and I’m sure the spirits of the Pens were quite crushed at the end of the very long game.

And in hockey playoffs, because it’s the Cup, momentum and spirit can count for almost as much as effort when players take the ice. I’m looking forward to seeing if the Bruins can get it done on Friday night to advance into the Cup finals.

Oh, and as a side note…

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

Round One NHL Playoff Prediction Post

Say that five times fast…

Earlier this morning my friend Chris posted a nice NHL Playoff prediction post.  I started to reply to him and suddenly realized that my comment was encroaching on the length of his post to begin with so it seemed just as good a time as any to throw out a playoff prediction post of my own.

So I’ll start off by sharing what I was writing back to him.  If you didn’t get over to read his post first that’s probably a good idea so you know where I’m at.  See the link up there?  Yeah click that and I promise it will open in another window.  Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Interesting choices right?  And by “interesting” I mean spot on (mostly).  In quotes is my reply to him because I’m too lazy to go through & fix all the pronouns…

“I agree with all but one of your predictions (have to disagree on Nashville).

I tried to avoid even reading the paragraph on the PA teams because frankly no matter who takes the series both teams scare the begeezus out of this Bruins fan. Of course to play either of them means one or the other has to get through the Panthers or NJD.  Lord willing its NJ because I have no love for FLA.  Then that of course also means the B's have to take the Caps (as you predicted, though I see it in 5 not 7 JMO) AND then take the Rangers (because seriously, sorry Ottawa but it was really nice of you to try).

Anyway, that's about all I can think about at this point and its all projections based on fandom where I try to imagine the B’s in the Cup Finals again more than anything else.  Here’s why…we just found out that Horton is shut down for the rest of the season (sadly that’s not a shock but still a morale blow to the guys). 

Quaider won't be playing game 1 (and I predict he's done too but I can hardly bring myself to even say it out loud) and its possible Boychuck won't be playing game 1 either.  That's 2 of our strongest D which means we have to make a choice on who to play instead - Mottau, Krug, or (oh god help us all) Corvo.  Two newbies (1 B's newbie, 1 NHL newbie) and an idiot who hasn’t learned over the course of an entire  season how to play our style of hockey.  Sigh.

And then there's the question of Rask.  Thomas can't play every game so we'd get Khudobin which would be great if we knew how the kid played but, as Yoda would likely say – one start does not a playoff goalie make. 

Not going to blame a shallow talent pool if we go down to NYR in the semi's but we'd have to work our freaking asses off to take that series.  Did it last year but the spirit was way different (as I've already said in a prior post).

So my thoughts on all the first round teams are as follows (no thoughts on number of games though, I don’t go that far):

Eastern predictions...

B's over Caps

Rangers (shudders) over Ottawa

Pens over Philly (though I don’t like saying it out loud because the name Malkin haunts me at night…)

Devils over Panthers

My predictions in the west...

Vancouver over Kings (the rioting will have to wait at least one series)

Blues over San Jose (if the Sharks took this I think it would be the biggest upset in hockey right now)

Red Wings over Predators

Coyotes over Chi-town (and though you know I'm a huge B's fan I'm also a hockey fan so to see these guys win it all this year is a secret wish of mine so the team would find it just a bit difficult to move...but don't tell anyone, gotta protect my street cred)”

Now, to expand on that whole last thought about the Coyotes.  Of course I’d love to see the Bruins in the Finals, of course I’d love to see them win it again as proof it wasn’t a 39 year broken curse fluke.  I mean hell I’m a huge fan, no question about that.  And some of those guys aren’t going to be playing maybe ever again so to get their name on another Cup would be like validation for the lack of penalties / punishment handed out in response to their injuries.

But (and it’s a big one) I live in Phoenix now.  This in no way, shape or form means I’m no longer loyal to my team though.  The reason I’d love to see the Coyotes win it all is truly because I just love hockey and I think there can be a place for the Coyotes here in the desert.  They need to stick around.

It isn’t like we don’t have talent out here, Smith is actually a pretty decent goalie.  Sadly their defense is somewhat lacking (other than Yandle who’s at 40 something points on the season…and it doesn’t hurt that he’s from Boston originally.  Not the team, the town.  And you all know how I feel about my Townies).  Offensively we have a decent number of good players too – Doan, Torres, Vrbata to name just a few.

I think they can certainly make a really good run for it this year and if the Bruins happen to make it all the way too you can bet your ass you’ll see me in the stands.  Secretly wishing for a Coyotes win but wearing my black and gold.

Pic courtesy http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockeynightincanada/ but I edited for my semi finals predictions in my trusty Photoshop program.

Can Not Function

As if it wasn’t bad enough that I’m running on the thinnest bit of rope with everything going on to move across the country in 11 days, now the Bruins are going to play game 7 tonight. And somehow I’m supposed to be able to not only work but also focus on school and pack, and wait for Matt to get home to find out if he’s taking his job with him or not?

Yeah, good luck with that one, Self.

It’s the last game. (Which probably makes all you people who really don’t give a crap about hockey happy that I’ll stop posting about it non stop haha). The Bruins, in franchise history (which is 87 years mind you) have never played a game 7 in the Stanley Cup finals. They also haven’t won a single game in Vancouver yet this series.

But hey, how does that saying go? I think its something like -- there’s a first time for everything. And frankly I think of all the games they could win in Vancouver, tonight’s would be a most excellent choice. I mean we’ve even got my Wicked Stepmother yelling ‘TIMMY!’ every time Tim Thomas makes one of his Tank-patented, no-man-should-be-able-to-do-that-with-his-body saves.

Regardless of the outcome tonight, the hockey season ends with our boys getting further than they have in decades and I for one couldn’t be more excited or proud to call them my team. You may take this girl out of Boston but by God I’m taking NESN with me.

Back in November sometime I was texting back and forth with my aunt during a regular game and made the mention that the team seemed to be skating so well together I could see them going all the way to the Cup finals if they kept it up all season. And its funny too because I have a vivid memory of seeing Adam McQuaid’s #54 hip checking someone into the boards as I was typing it. Lo and behold, here we are.

And man, after waiting 39 years do we ever want that Cup.

I was listening to 98.5 Sports Hub radio at work today and they mentioned something that’s both bizarre and eye opening -- with the exception of Mark Recchi (my man!!!) not a single player on the team was even born yet the last time they won a cup. I know I sure as heck wasn’t. Hell, I wonder if Tyler Seguin’s parents had even started kindergarten!

Nathan Horton will be in the building tonight. With his severe concussion from a week or so ago I was shocked to hear they cleared him for flight. But man what a HUGE boost that will be for our boys to get out there and bite back.

Not literally of course, we try to leave the dirtiest stuff to the other team. Not to say that always happens of course, I mean tiny little Brad Marchand certainly put a hurting on Henry Sedin’s face the other night. Over, and over, and over… But then one had to ask, why didn’t Sedin fight back? Had he just lost the will to fight?

I think pretty much all of Boston and every Bruins fan would be cool with the Canucks having lost their fight. Roberto Luongo sure did when he let 3 slide past him in the first 4 minutes of the last game but keep in mind that wasn’t all on Luongo. It was because you fine hockey players kept the pressure on him, because the puck was on your sticks.

We want the Cup. And by ‘we’ I mean the entirety of the hockey fans who would like to see the Bruins win this thing tonight; from the team themselves to the babies in Melrose-Wakefield Hospital. You boys need to go out there and play the best game of your lives.

But, and this is a big BUT…we don’t want to see bad play tonight, no intentional taunting while you’re laced up and try to avoid dirty hits or fighting majors if you can okay guys? Just skate, forecheck aggressively, pass well, shoot and score. If you’re going to win the Cup, do it on your talent and ability, not on your reliance of the Refs making calls in your favor.

And just remember, you boys have loads of talent and ability. No way you could have made it this far without.

Do it for yourselves. Do it for the seventh man. Do it because you know you can.

And now I’m off to try to get some school work done and a few boxes packed because NESN pre game coverage starts in just 4 hours…