Happy Friday to all, most of you back in the states haven't even started your days yet, and for myself, well... I have already finished mine... I'm just chillin' at the apartment doing some laundry, thinking about an interesting conversation that took place in the lounge area of our locker room last night. I walked into the locker room about 10 minutes early and said 'what's up' to one of our Americans BJ McKie. When he didn't say anything back, I looked at him again, and said, 'bro, you alright?' He says to me, 'hold on man, I need to get my mind right.' I asked him again, 'what the hell is the matter with you, we haven't even practiced yet!?' He looks at me and says, 'they told me we aren't gunna be home for Christmas, I have never missed Christmas with my son.' After a few more minutes of back and forth, BJ explained to me that since our last game before our break is December 14th, they were going to give us the 15th-22nd of December off. While 8 days is a great amount of time to have off, it really defeats the purpose with the American players (including myself even though I'm Jewish) because we will be missing Christmas in the states. Obviously missing Christmas is not nearly as important to me as the other 5 Americans on our team, but growing up in America, Christmas is the ONE TIME in the year, when you know your friends and family will be around. Being home on the 22nd of December doesn't guarantee anything to our American players in terms of seeing all their family members, or there close friends who they have been away from for at least 4 months. So what I suggested to BJ (BJ is basically the voice for us American guys since he is 31 years old, and the longest termed veteran out of us all) that he and I go to speak with our coach (who finalized the decision on when we are supposed to be back) and try to get it extended until the 26th. The reason I suggested myself going with him, is I feel like being an American Jew, I could be an intermediary of sorts, and I can help explain to the coach the importance of the holiday considering I grew up around it my whole life. It's not that I think the coaches and management aren't respecting the holiday, but I think they just might not be completely aware of it's importance to our guys. From the coaches perspective, he wants us here two weeks before our next game (which could be the 4th or 11th of Jan depending on whether we win our next 'Cup' game or not). I realize the importance of getting back early, because in all honesty I don't know how many of us American guys will be working our asses off to stay in shape when we are at home, but at the same time, two weeks early might be a little much, and I don't think that missing Christmas is fair either. I think the best solution for us in the meantime, is to do everything in our power to win these games on the early part of our schedule, because anyone who has ever been around sports realizes the coaches and management are much more likely to be lenient with the time off if our record is 6-2 rather than 2-6. Either way, I think if us players approach the situation in a mature manner, I think we can get the date pushed back a little bit, and I really hope we can, 'cuz I wanna be chillin with my man Coop in P-Town on December 25th.
