The Dream

I was more than excited to start work with the Pittsburgh Penguins today. My birthday is in less than a month and this was about to be the best birthday present ever. Being a fan of them since I was nine meant that I not only knew all the players but I also knew majority of the leading staff members. Getting to meet everyone was going to be an out of body experience. The drive into Pittsburgh was about 40 minutes long and I filled the whole care ride with throwback songs from my awkward middle school years and my own loud laughter as a result of my poor singing ability. Entertaining myself like this kept me calm and prevented me form over thinking myself into an anxious mess. I arrived at PPG Paints Arena, a place I was very familiar with, after attending countless hockey games. It was early May so the weather still had some chilly winds to it. That combined with the ice rink contained in the arena made me go with a warmer, fall like outfit. It was a heavy dark orange dress that went down to just above my knees and features a scoop neck line that displayed an appropriate amount of my chest. It has subtle patterns sown into it and a gold zipper down the back. I am wearing the dress with a larger knit sweater that features tones of grey, blue, and orange. I tied the whole thing together with nude shaded wedges that managed to compliment both my clothes and my skin tone. My long, light brown hair has loose curls that bounced when I walked. I am ready, I can do this. As I walked past "Le Magnifique," the statue next to the entrance that's dedicated to Mario Lemieux, a smile crept across my face as I held out my hand to introduce myself to the woman in front of me.
"Mae? Dr. Melissa McLane. It is so nice to meet you!"
"The pleasure is all mine! Thank you so much for the opportunity!"
She has such a young energetic vibe to her even though she had to be older in order to hold such an important position on the medical staff. She has shorter brown hair and a warm smile that presented a 'cool aunt' vibe. Dr. McLane dressed the part of an established doctor, in a black blazer, white blouse, and sleek pencil skirt, she immediately made me feel like a poorly dressed potato.
"Follow me and I'll walk you through the facility and cover some of your responsibilities you will have here."
Dr. McLane walked me through every aspect of PPG Paints. I got to see where everything was stocked for PensGear, where the control room was for the score board above the ice, even the box seats that Lemieux and the injured players spectated from during games. We finally got to the highlight of the day, the medical staff offices and the player locker room.
"This is where majority of your day will be spent. You'll be assisting the athletic trainers, the head team physician as well as me, the on staff physical therapist, as well as the conditioning coaches, and obviously the players."
"wow that's a lot of names to put to faces," I say feeling a tad overwhelmed.
As she began to tell me about each department I began to ignore her. All the equipment and computers and medical supplies had me head over heels (I know, lame right?) but to go from having very little prior experience in medicine to working for such a huge organization, I was just amazed and so pleased with myself. Before I knew it I had to tap back into the conversation as Dr. McLane was introducing me to someone.
"It's nice to meet you Mae, welcome to the team."
He was tall and aged with short grey hair. He didn't look elderly but he didn't look young either, probably in his 50s. I could tell by his facial expression that he didn't have any interest in meeting me at the moment so I ignored the fact that I didn't catch his name and just shook his hand replying, "thank you sir, it's good to be here."
"Please call me Curtis, Sir was my father. I'm late to UPMC complex for practice but I'm sure I will see you again at a later time."
Well at least now I know his first name, Curtis. After he grabbed his laptop bag and his keys, he hauled ass out of the offices and down the hall.
"You'll probably work with Curtis again, most likely during the off season to help keep the players conditioned." and there it was, Curtis had to be a trainer."
"While we're kinda on the topic.....when will I get to meet the players?" I was trying to hide my overpowering anticipation for this certain occasion and tried to ask as casually as possible, but she probably saw right through me.
"Oh you'll meet them and the rest of the staff down here early tomorrow before the game against Washington."
"Oh cool." Not only was my first game a playoff game but it was a playoff game against the capitals. I've been to one before and they're always intense, I knew it was going to be good. This was game six too so if we won we'd win the series and the caps would be knocked out of the playoff run.
Dr. McLane continued talking but I was already done in my own thoughts, running through all the possible situations tomorrow. I was going to meet my team. The guys that brought me so much joy, the guys I would defend when someone would insult them, and they don't even know how important they are to me. I couldn't help but smile wide know that this time tomorrow I'll be a part of the Penguins' daily routine.

Notes

This has been sitting in my phone for a good week but I just now got the time to type it up and post. I'll try to get another chapter done today too and post it before I go home on winter break.

Boyyyyyy it's getting good fam ))))