Short Bus Yellow

I had only ever heard that the beginning of fall is marked by a trees ability to paint a portrait in the sky; I am seeing it for the first time and its beautiful.

With fall comes a chill in the air that reminds you that winter is only a few weeks away. Apparently winter is serious business, shopping for a coat the other day I witnessed two women get into an argument over a jacket that I had just moments ago decided was too fashionable for me, apparently short bus yellow is the color this year.

While I eventually settled on a less conspicuous grey coat, the women’s argument reinforced the fact that it’s going to snow and snow a lot. While my friends have entertained me with countless stories of last years so called Snowmageddon, they find me a little crazy in that I am overly excited. If we come close to that amount of snow this year, your regularly schedule programming will probably be interrupted by me, walking down Pennsylvania avenue, in my boots, wearing swim trunks, and wearing a beanie, yes, ill be “that guy”.

As you can tell I find this whole idea of winter intriguing, while Texas offered me campfires and high school reunions at the chicken (Local Bar)… DC is stretching me a bit, and by stretching I mean allowing me to observe the unique, and it is the unique that keeps me writing. Now, one thing that DC has that Texas does not is hockey. Yes, you could create a valid argument that hockey is a sport in Texas … Dallas and Houston both have teams, however, unlike DC, hockey is not culturally engrained in your average Texans. Its something we might watch in between the end of college football and the start of college basketball and only if baseball is not on TV.

Like so many other things in DC, hockey is a sight to be seen. I went to a Capitols game (local team) for the first time the other night and I while I didn’t understand half of what I saw; I know that whoever invented the sport was spiteful. There train of thought was this:

• Give a few guys some sticks
• Put them on a field of ice
• Give them fancy shoes
• Tell them this is really soccer
• Let hilarity ensue

In all seriousness, hockey is something I am excited to learn more about, just like I learned to embrace cricket in the West Indies, I will embrace hockey as it will provide me a window from which to view a culture I am beginning to call my own.