April 12th, 2003

I love lacrosse! I have since I watched my first match here in Montreal at the Bell Center… And yet, I find it extremely ironic to have had more fun getting to and from this particular game in Ottawa than at the game itself…

We got off to a really good start; it even looked like we were going to be able to leave on time. That is until Irene discovered other ways by which we could accessorize and show our team spirit. Now, please try to understand, I am the only member of this group who does not get to wear an Express jersey when we attend games. I have to find other ways to make myself noticeable. On this occasion, we girls had it narrowed down to silver and purple ribbons in our hair to match the silver and purple nail polish on our fingers (the face paint and glitter would come later at the arena.) Of course, this was all last minute planning which resulted in us getting out the door late and wondering if we were going to make it to Ottawa on time.

Now comes the fun part. In order for us to make the bus to Ottawa, we have to take two separate city buses first. For those of you who do not know how those work around here, the answer is slowly and irregularly. They are supposed to run every 30 minutes but can often be late, so we really did not leave ourselves much time. To make a long story short, we nearly got ourselves killed (literally) by running across the street to make the second city bus. If it were not for the nice bus driver (I cannot stress that enough) we would not have made it on time.

Alex, Irene, RJ, and I met up with Jason at the bus terminus. This was to be his first lacrosse game, so it marked a tremendous occasion. I cannot believe that it took him this long to actually see a game, but I am glad we did manage to slip one in for him. After meeting up with Antoine on the bus, we were ready to go. Next stop Ottawa.

Our first order of business is usually the application of face paint (after haven eaten of course). Today, Irene and I, not being very artistic, had crossed lacrosse sticks on our cheeks covered in glitter. However, RJ and Antoine managed to outdo us. Jason is a very good artist, so he managed to draw giant Express X’s in the middle of their faces. I think Irene and I got the better deal though! Guys cannot wear glitter!

Whether the result of my faulty memory, or some other factor, I do not remember the Rebels having a very good match. Do not get me wrong, I loved it for being lacrosse, but all I remember from the game were awful throws, missed passes and botched plays. That does not add up to a good game in my books.

The next order of business seemed obvious: After-game party at Local Heroes. Obvious until we got there of course. Our trip had coincided with a Senators hockey playoff match on TV. Therefore, Local Heroes had canceled the after-game party to make more room for other clientele. I would like to take a moment to point out that Local Heroes would have been more packed and would have made more money were the after-game party to take place, but that is simply my opinion. When this decision had been finalized is beyond me, but we had called that morning to make reservations for the after-game party, and no one told us that it had been canceled. So, in short, this section of our trip was for nothing.

No one will ever be able to call us unenthusiastic fans (if they ever did before) again. Before the match, we had gotten an e-mail from none other than Peter Lough (Yeah for us!!) who had said that he was looking forward to meeting us. Therefore, we did the only thing we could do: We set out to explore the different hotels in the area to see if we could find him. I do not know if you remember that night, but it was freezing! After visiting three or four hotels, we found ourselves an indoor payphone and called many other candidates. Unfortunately, we did not find him. No special meeting or signatures for us… So it was back to Montreal we went.

As a whole, the experience was a positive one. If I did not enjoy these road trips, I would not attend. There will be a next time (hopefully) to get more autographs, and maybe we will be able to meet Peter Lough eventually. Now, all we have to do is sit tight, figure out where all the teams are going to be next season and plan our next trip.

-Emma