Minion Monday and... I don't know.

I am Minion, hear me mrowr...

I'm never really sure what to write in here; blogging as Cherie's Minion is this weird cross between sort-of actually about ME and sort-of not really about me at all.

I'm so so JEALOUS of her, right now, though, because...well.

HOCKEY.

I have gotten really into hockey over the last couple of years -- it started during my DH's last deployment, when I was following his favorite team for him, keeping him updated on their standings and scores and whatnot, and it was just... wow. Somehow I got sucked in. And then I started watching interviews -- particularly post-game or off-day locker room interviews. And, ok, I'm shallow enough to admit that part of the appeal of those interviews is that the guys are young and in PRIME shape and many of them have ridiculously attractive faces. But also -- they are in PRIME shape & at the top of their game and just.... I don't know. I think it's kind of like watching big cats, you know? There's something primal and powerful and attractive about it all, like watching an apex predator take down its prey, or something.

Anyway. I *do* have a point and a connection here. I'll have to start by saying DH's team is the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they hold a deep and special place in my heart and can never be moved (and I am devastated by some of the trades and firings and whatnot that happened this offseason but I'm trying to focus on some of the stuff that I've heard that make it sound like this could be a Good Thing, please Hockey Gods! and having faith that the changes will work out in the end). But then, I discovered Tumblr. I mean, I had been aware of Tumblr as A Thing before, but then I discovered the Tumblr Hockey Fans, who are just as ridiculous as I am and possibly moreso. And so I came to love more than just my Penguins.

Some of my new hockey loves are individual players, but I also have an unnatural love affair going with the Chicago Blackhawks -- a couple of their offseason trade left me with a bruised heart, too. There is a game on I think the Saturday night of GRL. I wanna go SO BAD you have no idea but will probably not just because money and also it's kind of anti-social to go to something like that and completely skip all the socializing bits and only do the business-y bits. Also I really really wish somehow someone could have managed to get some sort of You Can Play thing going at GRL & maybe get a couple of the players out there to be all supportive because that would have been AWESOME.

Anyway.

Hockey reason why I am insanely jealous of Cherie: Patrick Kane, #88 for the Blackhawks, is from Not Too Far from where she lives. And apparently he's keeping his offseason skills sharp by playing in the local rec leagues. Which would frankly just be icing on the hockey cake for me; like 98% of my jealousy is that she lives somewhere that actually has ice rinks, much less ones that are still going in summer. And she could, if she were so inclined, watch hockey, even baby baby hockey (OMG baby goalies are so freaking ADORABLE. Heck, all kids on skates & in hockey pads at age 5-ish are too cute! but the baby goalies! Melt me, every time) pretty much whenever. SO. I mean, here's me, loving hockey, and able to see, if I'm lucky, one, maybe two college hockey games at the little 4-school, 5 game tournament that happens mid-January every year at the Civic Center in Savannah.

Cherie has made some noises about maybe writing a hockey story one day, once the backlog has cleared out a little. I am therefore trying to start educating her and have a bookmark folder labeled "Hockey for Cherie!" which has as many links that are really mostly for me as it does links for her & I should probably find some way to make that accessible to her, huh, so she can browse it at her leisure?

Can we just all take a few minutes to be VERY PROUD of this young man?

This is Michael Sam, recent NHL draftee (to the Rams) and first professional football player to come out before retirement (even before playing professionally, even). He is accepting the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPN awards ceremony.

I cried, and it looked like there were very few dry eyes in the audience.

VERY PROUD.

And I don't even *like* football.

Let's Talk About...

well, sex, actually...

I've been thinking a lot lately about this (talking about sex, not about actual sex, although, yeah, that, too...I'm only human!) because my daughter is reaching that age -- probably already *at* that age -- where kids are not only thinking about it, but doing it. Also I ran across a great, thoughtful, helpful post that I think I failed to bookmark at Captain Awkward which talked about this topic, specifically, ways and resources for a parent wanting to start a conversation about sex with his teenage daughter, and I followed all the links and wishlisted books, and when my kids get home from my parents' next month, the Girl-child and I are going to have a sit-down and I am *dreading* it like you would not believe.

Which, to me, feels like a major disconnect, because I read romance, and it's not like romance is a strictly G-rated, no-sex-before-marriage deal anymore, even if I *did* cut my romance eyeteeth on the likes of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and Betty Neels, where a mere kiss was nearly scandalous.

And so, one of the things that struck me is that, even in the contemporary het romances I still occasionally read (I'm weak, I know...), they never ever talk about sex, really. Maybe a sentence or two about protection, but usually not even that (because, HELLO Secret Baby!). But there's a little -- or a lot -- more discussion in the less heterosexual books I read, particularly as they get more and more away from vanilla sex, and more importantly, unless there's a Big Misunderstanding centered around sex, they talk about it other places, too. Sometimes it's like a book review -- what worked, what didn't, what could be different next time. But there is, at some point in the book, almost always a discussion about the sex.

And the truth is, that's making it SO MUCH EASIER for me to screw together my courage and talk to my daughter -- and eventually, my sons -- about the whole thing.

SO thanks for that, authors!