Reason I Love Hockey #18

Hockey Land

My mom is a pretty nosy person. I say this with love, but she's happiest when she's in everybody's business. She turned 50 two days ago, but we had to plan her surprise party for next week (I hope she's not so nosy that she finds this blog before then), because otherwise she would have known it was coming months ago. My dad, on the other hand, is an entirely different breed. When we planned his surprise 50th last year, on the actual day, he didn't have a clue, even though there was immeasurable evidence: we snuck around, whispered behind his back, made excuses to get him out of the house so we could plan decorations and gifts. We even had random relatives showing up at our house unannounced right before we were set to "go out to dinner." But nothing was so hilariously obvious as the time when my brother accidentally blurted out "When are [Aunt and Uncle who never visit except on special occasions] coming this weekend?" no more than four feet away from my father. And yet he didn't even notice. Why? Because there was a Sabres game on. I'll never forget how everyone in the room--including my brother, who quickly realized his mistake--tensed up and turned in slow motion to face my dad, anticipating disaster, only to have him respond with: "Come on! Who was that pass to?" Eyes glued to the screen, he didn't even know anyone was speaking. Even though he's probably the smartest person I know, my dad's notorious for obsessively focusing on one thing at a time, to the almost complete exclusion of all else. But when that one thing is hockey? Forget about it. He's dead to the world until commercial break. And it's a good thing, too, otherwise we would have had a lot of explaining to do last January. Instead we all got to chuckle and say, "Oh, it's okay. Dad's in Hockey Land again."