Thursday, December 20, 2007

How About a Comeback?

Well, I finally have a full day off work... and I finished up my holiday shopping -- without setting foot in a mall (not that I'm afraid to, in fact I was in a mall in Kearney two days after the shootings in Omaha -- looking for a sports store for skate laces... no luck there).

But instead of writing my (semi-)annual Christmas letter, I'm blogging. I mean, it's four days from Christmas, no chance cards will get there in time. And what am I going to tell people? I graduated from college... still looking for work... still looking for 'the one'. I think that about covers it.

Instead, I am here, talking about something that has me feeling like a kid again. After a 20-month layoff, I have started the ball rolling on a hockey comeback.

Never fear, Maverick fans -- we haven't found a way for me to get another year of college eligibility. I'm just strapping the pads on for the hell of it.

For those of you who don't know, in May 2006 (Mother's Day... a week before my brother's wedding) I suffered a knee injury while playing soccer. A partial tear of the meniscus in my right knee. I actually gutted it out for the rest of the game, but was in visible pain.

Not to strut around, but gutting it out should be no surprise to those of you whole know me well. The fact that I missed any time, let alone allow it to keep me out for 20-months is more of a shock than anything else. Looking back at my 20-plus years of hockey and soccer, and my 10 years in baseball I think the number of games I missed due to injury is in single digits.

I suffered a concussion during a soccer game in 7th grade, only to return to the game in OT, and then face a PK shootout (which we lost in 12 rounds). Broke my nose the next year, and came back for the second half... once the bleeding stopped. I even broke my finger at a hockey practice my junior year of high school, then played the next night. Of course those are minor injuries. Well, a concussion isn't -- we know that now -- but not something that keeps you from functioning.

I even broke my foot in eighth grade and played soccer through it. Maybe I'm just too dumb to stop... but then again, for most of those my coaches were my parents -- my mother a school nurse -- and if they thought I was going to hurt myself more, they wouldn't have let me play.

So, I'm thinking back trying to think how many games I've missed due to injury. And I honestly can't remember missing one game, until I left the world of competitive sports. I missed one game after injuring my knee 20 months ago (though, I was helped out by a bye week and a holiday weekend where there were no games)... and I actually played the Tuesday after at indoor (the injury occurred playing outdoor) before missing time.

There were a couple other games that I was injured and didn't play, but I was available when needed -- one my freshman year at Iowa State where I was held out for precautionary reasons after suffering two concussions in a week (one in my second career game at South Dakota State -- a game I don't remember all the details of, but apparently got a shutout... and the next week when I got kicked in the head against Drake), and Games 2 and 3 of the playoffs my first year of juniors in Landmark (concussion and groin). However, I was dressed for all three of those games, and ready to play if called upon.

I'm sure somewhere, someone is going -- what about the story from your first year of juniors in Winnipeg (prior to being loaned to Landmark) where they had the line brawl, you were out with a pinched nerve, and Andrew got jumped.

I don't count that as a game missed due to injury, because we knew ahead of time that it was my turn to sit for that game. I would have been a healthy scratch, anyway. Besides, we all know that it didn't prevent me from participating in the evening's festivities. :)

Back to the story, it was about three weeks after the injury that was the last time I strapped on the pads -- as a counselor at a week-long goalie camp. Three weeks wasn't enough, as I was in incredible pain working with goalies on lateral movement. The pain got to me enough to know that I had to take time off. You can't play not knowing if your knee will be there when you need it.

Under the advice and direction of a physical therapist, I was back to playing soccer with a knee brace right away. Soccer became my major rehab activity, where the movements are a bit more controlled. So, technically, I was out for three weeks, but missed just one game.

The other game I missed was last week, when I sat out Thursday after getting kicked in the eye on Tuesday.

But now, the time has come for me to return to the ice. My knee is pain free, and my friend has ice time, where I won't have to extend myself -- a nice, controlled environment where everyone will know I'm rebounding from an injury and the extended layoff.

So that's what's new in my world.

Happy Holidays.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

A Whirlwind Of Emotion

Really, I just need somewhere to speak my mind, talk about this, and maybe get the comfort of some friends.

Yes. It is old news by now. I know it made CNN, so I'm fairly sure it made national headlines. If you can't tell already, it has me pretty shaken up. Today's shooting at Westroads Mall in Omaha hits pretty close to home in both the literal and physical sense. So I promise you this is going to be a very emotional blog.

This is how my day went.

I spend my Wednesdays as the Floor Director (Stage Manager) for 'The Omaha News' a weekly news broadcast from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. That is where I was when the first reports of two dead at Westroads came in.

Then it hit me. I drive past the mall almost every day -- obviously I've shopped there. I have several friends who work in the mall. I am happy to report that all of them are fine... except one. The problem is, I can't remember which of my friends it is... and she works (or at one time worked) at Von Maur, where this all went down.

Yeah, I'm panicking. I spent about an hour calling pretty much everyone in my cell phone -- some I hadn't called in a couple of years. I'm sure I scared one or two of them. In fact, I know I did... cuz after no answer, I got a quick call back from her mother -- and after I explained what I was going through, all was good on that front.

I still don't know which friend it is, but the list is shrinking. I am just praying that I don't recognize any names in the newspaper. That sounds shallow, because I understand that many people are deal with losses right now.

Realizing that we did have breaking news, I did volunteer to go to the scene to report for the newscast. Fortunately, Eric Iverson was able to go -- and there is a lighter side of the story in that.

But the effects were setting in all around. Several coworkers were shaken, including one who used to work at Von Maur -- and was unable to contact a friend who still works there. I could tell she was a mess. So every time I walked by her, I gave her a hug. It was the least I could do for a friend.

We went on with the broadcast -- five confirmed dead at this point -- and as you can imagine it was total chaos. People in the control room calling to get information. Employees flipping out phones during commercial breaks to call family and friends. And, oh yeah, trying to script the next segment of a newscast.

At one point my boss' wife called. She happens to work at Creighton Medical Center, which happened to be the Trauma Center du joir in Omaha. The report from her was nine dead at this point. Hoping we could actually scoop the local affiliates. What a coupe that would have been.

The problem is, you get insider information, unconfirmed. Do you go with it? If you're wrong there will be ramifications. But I felt we could have been safe saying: "[We] have an unconfirmed report from Creighton Medical Center stating that at this time nine people are dead from the Westroads shooting." You take the risk, but you use 'unconfirmed report' as a safety net. I was overruled -- and probably rightly so.

If only we had known that was accurate. Here's the kicker: at 10:00, I watched one of the local affiliates. They had been talking to the University of Nebraska Medical Center (who Creighton began diverting victims to). The question I have is: If Creighton was the Trauma Center for the day, why weren't the local affiliates going there for information first? We could have broken the story wide open. We were in the right place, and we had accurate information.

Elation at the thought of being able to scoop the 'pros', upset that we didn't go with it, disappointment to find out the report was accurate, and then back to reality: people dead and a newscast to finish out.

Then comes the aftermath. I find out that I know more people that work at the mall. Others who were shopping there, and it sets in... I could have been there (and not as a reporter... I mean Christmas Shopping).

So as the Omaha News crew assembled at a local eatery, we sat down to watch the continuing live coverage on TV. When the report of the suicide note, and the statement 'going out in style' was read three words crossed my mind: suicide by cop.

Now I'm pissed off. First of all, my brother is a cop. My sister-in-law was in the academy, and dropped out when she came to realize that given the opportunity in a life-or-death situation, she could not pull the trigger. Using the police to kill yourself is wrong. Hell, taking out eight other people is wrong.

It may sound bad, but if you want to kill yourself... fine. But don't go messing with other people. You are already going to mess up your friends and family, there is no need -- zero -- for you to make other innocent people suffer because you can't take the reality of life anymore. That upsets me more than anything else. Right now eight families have been shredded, and for no reason whatsoever. Some jackball loses his job, loses his mind, and takes it out on people he doesn't even know. And lets not forget the hundreds or thousands of other people who you terrified, who were scared.

So where do we go from here. We must move on. Like 9/11, like a school shooting, like a plane crash, like anything else we must learn from it, but not let it derail us from our daily lives. We can not be afraid to go into malls.

We must pray for the victims. We must pray for their families. We must pray for their friends. We must pray for each other. And we must pray that events like these can be prevented, and be prevented without a major inconvenience to the daily routines of the average American.

Please keep them all in your prayers. God bless. And please remember: 'tis the season.