Hockey with Alex Tonight

So, I get a call tonight from my friend Alex, asking me do I want to go to a hockey game with him. I'm cool with that, I love hockey and I haven't been to a game in almost four years. It would have been less had there not been a strike last year...the fuckwads.

Anyway, I'm going. My company has a suite at Phillips Arena in downtown Atlanta. Let me tell you that the suite is SWEET! Kick ass view of the ice (and stage if you go to a concert there). I've seen Madonna and Bon Jovi from the suite. took little Peabody to see N'Sync when they came years ago, as well as Toy Story On Ice. Last summer I saw Coldplay from the 6th row. SWEET!!! I wasn't turning down hockey tickets.

Alex, is a guy I have known since I moved here almost 9 years ago. I started working in a restaurant that shall remain nameless, let's just say that KB's dad owns several of them in central IL. Anyway, we became friends.

Let me start by saying that Alex is Jewish. Not my only Jewish friend, but my MOST Jewish friend. He's sort of the stereotypical New York Jew. Probably his most endearing quality. Sort of Woody Allenesque, only not short, not slight and not nearly as goofy looking! Neurotic? Absolutely. But, he wouldn't be Alex if he wasn't. He's fun to be around and probably the most trustworthy person I know. Alex will help you out of a jam if he has the wherewithall, any time of the day.

Now, poor Alex has always gotten teased, by me, by our friends...all the way back to childhood. He just says the right thing, and you HAVE to pounce on it. I can't pass up a golden opportunity to tease someone who can take it. Alex is a good sport, but there are times when a few of us used to tease him about being "gay", which he isn't. DROVE HIM APESHIT! He had lived with the same roommate since moving to ATL years before and when the rommate bought a huge house he let Alex move in for cheap rent as long as he A) did the yard work, and B) kept the house clean.

Neither were any problem for Alex. He is anal about cleanliness. ANAL. In fact that was one of my nicknames for him when we worked together at the restaurant...Anal Alex. He hated that, so I quit. The funniest part, and the part that prompted us to tease Alex about his "boyfriend" was that he cooked every night. HE LOVES to cook. And the man can cook! We told him he would make Rob, his roommate, a great wife. Didn't go over so well with Alex. We told him that he and Rob were in love and we were waiting for the wedding invitations. Pissed him off royally.

So we quit teasing him. Mostly. I felt guilty after a while because he was such a great guy. So I toned it way down and just kid him. He laughs with me now.

We both work for the same corporation now, in different departments, but I used to work in the department he's in. My boss used to tell me that I was the only one who could keep him in line. The fact that I was pre-med before I quit school shortly after Peabody was born seems to impress him. It seems he has a lot of respect for me, as a single mom, and as someone he considers smarter than himself. Kewl with me! I'll take that respect.

So, I'm gonna head downtown to the hockey game with Alex, whom I always call "Alexis" as a throwback to the "gay" teasing days. He takes it with a goofy smile, but doesn't insist that I NOT call him that. It's just become my name for him. I should probably quit, considering that his brother actually IS gay.

Alex is a die hard hockey fan. Hell, he's a diehard sports fan. He is also a font of endless musical information about bands and songs and blah, blah, blah. It's like he has a a photographic memory when it comes to sports and music. So, Alex kinda has a one track (or two track) mind. But you can get past that.

I really shouldn't get started on Alex's fabulous parents except to say, he has a very sweet father, and a very Jewish mother...enuff said? Perhaps not.

His dad calls his mother "Mommy." The first time I heard him call her that I almost pissed down my leg.

This woman rules the roost. She is a woman of women. A former editor, now retired and living in FL. Oh I do love a good cliche`. Actually, I admire this woman quite a bit. She did a good job with her kids and had a great career. What we all want, right?

Alex, strangely not a mama's boy, is a good man. His parents instilled great values in him. He's a trooper who's had nothing but heartache from women. I hope someday he finds a girl that can make him happy and vice versa. He deserves that much. Don't we all?

Time to go watch some blood bounce off the ice! Go Thrashers!