til' we aren't strangers anymore:: one

one::

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! Yeah, my worst enemy.. the alarm clock. Okay, so maybe the Flyers are, but that's besides the point. I'm just not much of a morning person, we'll leave it at that. For some reason when I woke up today, things just felt, I don't know, different. I couldn't even explain what I was feeling. There had to be some reason why, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I groaned, rolling over and shutting my alarm off. I sat up in my bed and looked around at the walls surrounding me. There were tons of pictures that I'd recently hung up, some of my family and friends, a couple of my favorite NASCAR drivers, and of course my millions of Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby pictures. As I gazed up at one of the pictures, my mind went straight to fantasy land. Sidney Crosby, one of the best hockey players to ever step on a rink. Full of skill and talent ever since he was kid. If I had just one wish it'd be to spend the rest of my life with that amazing, incredible.. I finally snapped out of it when I heard my phone ringing. I jumped out of bed and ran into the living room, hopping on the coach and picking it up.

"Hello?" I didn't bother to look at the caller ID. "Ready for tonight?!" A huge smile crept onto my face when I heard the persons excited voice and I knew exactly who it was. "Hell yeah I'm ready! I've been waiting months for this!" "I kind of figured you'd say that," she laughed. Jodi has been my best friend ever since I can remember. Sometimes I think she knows me better than I know myself. She's like the sister I never had. "So, we're still up for hanging out all day, right?" "Of course. Do you want to meet me at my apartment and then we can go grab something to eat?" "Works for me." "Okay. Then we can just here until game time." "Sounds good. I'll see you in a little bit. "Kay. See ya." "Bye." With that I put my phone back on its charger and headed back to my room.

I went through my dresser, finding my favorite pair of jeans, then walked over to my closet, got a shirt and made my way to the bathroom. I took a quick shower, then went back into the living and sat down on a chair, waiting for Jodi. A few minutes later, I heard someone open the door, but didn't panic. It's not like I didn't know who it was. "Do you ever knock anymore?" "Nope. What's the point? You'll just let me in anyways." "True, but what if you were some scary criminal?" She checked herself over and looked back at me. "Oh yeah, I'm real scary." I just laughed at her, picked up my bag and keys, and walked out the door. We walked down to the parking lot and I unlocked the driver's side of my black F-150. A couple seconds later I heard Jodi knocking on the door, yelling at me to let her in. I simply stuck my tounge out at her and finally unlocked the door. "Funny," she said as she got in. "I know, right?" I replied with a grin. I started up the truck and turned on the radio, only to hear my favorite song playing. "Sweet! What Was I Thinkin'!" "You are the only person I know who actually keeps one song as their favorite." The rest of the way there we sang along to our favorite songs.

We finally made it to our favorite, Primanti Brothers after sitting in tons of traffic, not like that's anything out of the ordinary. I found a parking place and we walked in the resturant, placing our orders and getting our food, then went and found a table. I bit into my sandwich and looked up to see Jodi smirking at me. "What? Do I have something on me?" I picked up a napkin and wiped my face. "No," she laughed. "I was just thinking about how happy you're going to make some guy one of these days. You're not afraid to pig out on a bunch of junk food, you're obsessed with hockey, you love sports in general, you're totally outdoorsy, yet you're one of the prettiest girls in the world." "Awwww, thanks, " I smiled. "Don't worry, you'll make someone really happy too. I just hope that guy you're talking about just so happens to be Sidney Crosby." She looked at me sincerely and said, "I'm sure he'd love you, Carr."

We finished our lunch and I drove us back to my apartment. "So, what do you wanna do?" I said as I crashed on the couch. "Well, it looks like we have time for a movie. Christmas Vacation?" she asked, giving me the puppy dog face. "You know you don't have to beg. I love that movie." I got up from my comfy spot and popped in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. We laughed through the whole movie, as always, right up to the very end. After it was over, I laid on the couch, not bothering to stop the DVD. I looked over to see Jodi grinning at me again. "Geez Carrie. I thought you'd be bouncing off the walls by now." I glanced over at the clock, 5:00. "Yessss! Only two and half hours til' game time! We better start getting ready so we can be at the Mellon early." I jumped off of the couch and sprinted to my room. "Hurry up slow poke! We need to be ready to leave by 6:15 and I know how you are." "Now there's the excitment I expected!" she said catching up to me.

Today was the day, December 13th. I'd bought tickets on the glass to watch my Penguins take on the Flyers, yuck. Anyways, I've been anticipating this day since I bought the tickets two months ago. I guess you could call them an early anniversary present celebrating my sixth full season as a Pens fan. For some reason I've always been able to remember the exact date of the first game I ever watched, December 16th. I walked over to my closet, carefully taking out my baby, an offical Sidney Crosby jersey that my parents gave me as a gift last Christmas. I gently slid it over my head and clasped my lucky necklace around my neck, a gold chain with quite the history and a Penguins charm I'd recently added on. I went into the bathroom, straightened my bangs, and applied the perfect amount of makeup. I checked my reflection, then ventured back into my room. "How do I look?" "Perfect as always. How do I look?" "Absolutley lovely. Wow! 6:15. Better get going, wouldn't want to be late." "Got that right."

We decided we'd take Jodi's car this time, so we both grabbed our bags and headed out the door. On the way to the arena I stayed pretty quiet, which definatley isn't normal for me. I just couldn't stop thinking about that feeling I had all day. It was different, but in a good way. Oh well, maybe I was reading too far into this. By 6:30 we were stepping out of the car in the arena lot. "Holy crap. We almost didn't make it." She rolled her eyes, "Okay lead foot." "Here's a chance to redeem yourself. Race you there." "You're on. Loser buys snacks. On the count of three. 1, 2.. 3!" We darted off towards the doors, earning some funny looks from the people we passed by. We were even most of the way, until I sped up towards the end, taking the lead. "Ha! Beat you!" "You're just lucky." We handed our tickets to the man at the door to scan. "Thank you. Enjoy the game," he said returning the tickets. "Okay snack girl. Let's get something to eat. I'll buy the drinks."

We bought our snacks, then took our seats. "Holy crap, this is amazing!" we both squeled. "Tell me about it. I've been to a couple games, but never had seats like these." "Guess I won't be needing these," she said placing her glasses back in her purse. "No. i think you'll be able to see the puck just fine," I laughed. Of couse I brought my camera, so I started digging through my purse, trying to find it. "I swear this purse eats things. Ouch!" "What did it bite you now?" I simply rolled my eyes at her. "Finally!" I turned my head, looking across center ice, scanning all the of the Pens warming up. No matter how many games I went to, it always amazed me to see the players in real life. To think that I was only a few feet away from the best guys in hockey blew my mind. I took a few seconds to take it all in, then pulled up my camera and took some pictures. My eyes shot over to some of the guys streching along the boards. I picked up my camera and took a photo of the first guy, Evgeni Malkin. "Hey Jodi! Don't look now, but there's Geno." She jumped up from her seat and stood even closer to the glass, Malkin is her favorite player. While she stood in complete awe, I continued taking pictures, now snapping a photo of the next player, my second favorite, Ryan Malone. As my glance moved over to the next player, I froze. " Hey Carrie, see who else is there?" " Holy.. heck," I said in complete shock. " Well, are you gonna take a picture or not?" "Uhh.. yeah," I stuttered managing to hold up my camera. Just as I did he raised his head and started looking around the arena. He scanned the whole place until his gaze finally fixed on someone in the stands..