ok so it's been a while I tend to do that

so, let's see...in no particular order:

I got new glasses for refereeing - they're big lenses with no transitions, so I can see a lot and see it clearly. 

one thing I forgot to mention from Beast - at one point, a referee from another crew told me something like "I've been watching you, and how when you're middle OPR, you stand way back*.  I tried that, and I really like it."  HOLY CRAP I INFLUENCE PEOPLE KINDA SORTA.

(*I stand pretty much at the edge of the OPR lane, to the point where I almost run into coaches who are standing at the edges of their box.  It gives me a wider field of vision and helps me from getting into too much tunnel vision.  I also try to do it on the inside when JRing, but it's harder.)

still haven't ordered new boots yet.  I can't decide on the colors I want.  I was going to get a mix of orange/pink/blue/yellow/purple, but then I saw a picture of silver ones with pink and blue trim and they were amazingly beautiful and now I'm all torn.  I think I need to see more of the actual colors in person before I make a final decision. 

Put Up Your Toques was a few weekends ago; it went really well.  I was happy with how I performed and all that.  Got some good feedback - more acknowledgment of communication; clearer and slower signals - one particular piece was that I often forget to do the follow-through of pointing off the track when completing a penalty call, which I never realized until I paid attention and yeah, I do forget to do it often.  So I've been working on that. 

The double header that I was HR for the entire night (regulation game and 40 minute juniors' game) went ok as well; we had a slight emergency when the laptop with the stats book on it wouldn't connect to the printer, and that took up a lot more time than it should have and then people would come up to me with questions and I'd be like CAN'T YOU SEE I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A CRISIS HERE and was much snippier than was necessary (I need to work on that).  No one died, the juniors were a lot of fun, happy ending all around.

Yesterday I went out to Buffalo for a juniors game; I RIPRed but wasn't HR (and I'm very glad I wasn't; had a situation where THREE players were expelled in a single jam (one of whom most definitely got a suspension).  I'm not going to go into detail because it was a juniors game, but it was something I'd never seen in person before and hope I don't see again.

Related to pack definition and whatnot... I really need to stop resting on the laurels of being naturally loud and work on actually projecting from my chest.  It'll only help me get better.

Let's see... I may or may not hit 300 games officiated before the end of the year.  I'm at 282 (238 ref/44 NSO) right now, with at least 9 more games scheduled, not including ECDX.  Wheeeeee!

in which stuff has happened

so last weekend was Beast of the East (a tournament for home teams of Canadian leagues) in Montreal.  I'd remembered that it was fun (I first went in 2017) but I'd forgotten that it was FUN.  20 minute games, two teams just going full-throttle the entire time?  Definitely FUN.

I got to HR two of the games - they went pretty well.  There were a few out-of-my-control hiccups (the projector stopped working mid-jam; a coach requested a time out at, like, 29.999999999 seconds before the whistle starting the last jam of the game [which ended as a tie and went into overtime]) but no one died and the THR said I did a good job, so that works for me.

I also got to try on some skates, and pretty much fell in love with the Bont Hybrids, in a size 4.5. Just snug enough that they'll stretch a tiny bit to feel wonderful.  (I do need to get the heel lock band thing, though.)  Hopefully I'll be able to order them in the next few weeks.)