As wonderful as the Blades experience was in New York with its excellent hockey, fun tournaments, and magnificent media experiences, the career path that had taken me to New York was not as exciting.

After Husband and I married, I was having serious reservations about continuing my studies in Neuroscience. When I became pregnant, I thought about how and where I wanted to raise my child. As much as I love New York, I longed to be back near my family in California. As much as I enjoyed neuroscience in theory, I didn’t enjoy it in practice.

And so, through the morning sickness that lasted all day and exhaustion, I completed my Master’s Degree and Admission to Candidacy exam for the Ph.D.. I pushed myself so that I would have enough credentials to earn one degree and leave the door partially open if I wished to return to the field at some point.

When I left my New York life behind in February of 2001, so did I leave hockey behind, at least until September 11th.

No, 9/11 didn’t prompt me to suddenly take up the sport again. Rather, I had already started the process but the final try-out was on 9/11. Instead of sitting around watching the same coverage over and over again, I made the hour trip to the rink (past the closed SFO, over the Bay Bridge – would it be a target?) to complete an evaluation session and experience some stress-busting.

I was assigned to the Red Division. The organization was more lax than the Blades: Fewer practices, fewer games, fewer tourney opportunities. But that didn’t matter since my life was now dedicated to my son. I enjoyed my time in the red division, earning “Most Sportsmanlike Player” during one season, and the “Puke and Keep Going” award during another. The latter was bestowed on me because of one particularly gruesome shift which I ended by heaving myself over the boards in more ways than one.

I played several seasons in a row before I became pregnant with Spliggle. I then resumed hockey after that, and played until last year when we started having additional concerns about the Cat’s behavior and transition to Kindergarten. Of course, because of his expulsion, starting again this past September wouldn’t have worked well.

Both my kids have indicated an interest in hockey. Perhaps one of them will actually learn to skate, unlike their silly father. The Cat talks about “seeing mommy play hockey” and Spliggle perks up when he sees just about any sport on television (he knows “baseball,” “hockey,” “football” and “golf.”) So I have hope that hockey will remain a part of our lives, regardless of whether I am playing any given season.