Susan Speaks: Energy!

Yeah, so the Boy Band and I went down to the new Consol Energy Center today. If you follow me on Facebook (and you should!), you might have seen my status updates as the signs downtown changed. This is new, it’s exciting, it’s wonderful. Having a new venue in the city, where hopefully more bands will stop in and perform inside of…

Oh, yeah. Hockey. And man, does the ice look GOOD.

Walking into the Consol, I expected it to be all stiff and shiny. Almost overwhelming in its pomp and ceremony.

HA.

It was like slipping into a boyfriend’s shirt. The Boy Band and I agreed it was like coming home.

We wandered around. Holy smoke, the food prices! I thought they were bad last year, but NINE BUCKS FOR A PIZZA???? Hello, Consol and Pizza Hut people… I can get a pizza that feeds six of us for ten bucks. At the POOL. (and it’s good!)

Yeah. At four bucks for a bag of popcorn, even, I’ll be doing most of my eating at home, thankyouverymuch. What the heck; it’s healthier in the long run (although there is a fruit plate that’s priced at … ready? Six bucks!).

We went up to our seats (or what we think are our seats; we could only remember the section number and seat numbers, not the row.) — yes, as I’d feared, we are further back from the ice than we had been in the Igloo. But I gotta say it now: the sight lines are fantastic. I don’t think the players will be the tiny ants I was expecting them to be. If I can’t be ON the bench — not behind the bench, not in the first row behind the glass, but ON the bench. Butt on bench with the players — I want to be right where we are.

And the seats! Oh, I think the Tour Manager is going to be very happy with them. I know I was. They have great lumbar support and I suspect they’ll be great for doing multiple overtimes in once the playoffs come (me? Optimistic much? Nah.).

The women’s room at the top of our section has more than three stalls! Of course, this means less to joke about as we wait in line, but…

I was surprised to see that the toilets don’t have automatic flush. And that the faucets in the sink have those annoying water-wasters where you push the lever and can’t adjust the hot or cold or how long it’s on. And this is a LEED-certified building? At the highest level??? Sheesh. I thought the water would NEVER shut off.

Then the Boy Band and I wandered down to the club level, where a few of the boxes were open for inspection (we went into all the hoity-toity areas, in fact. I figure it’s the only time we’ll ever do it, so why not???). They are quite lovely and that private bathroom is something to covet. But the seats?

Yeah, they’re leather. They’re high-backed.

And after two minutes, they made my back hurt. I can’t imagine spending an entire game in them.

I’ll stick with the unwashed masses, thanks. Even if access to what they’re calling the Upper Bowl is confusing, limited, and probably a guaranteed death if we ever have to evacuate fast. That was probably my biggest complaint — but it’s also possible that once we learn our way around, we’ll find better ways up and down from the ground floor.

So now all we need is to wait for that puck to drop… I’ll be there with one or the other of my boys. I can’t wait.

In the meantime, I’m taking off for a few days R&R down at the beach. We’ll be back this time next week or thereabouts. You guys behave, peruse the archives here (can you say Musical Hanukkah Celebration? I’m already laying plans for the biggest and best yet), and buy my books. I got hockey tickets to pay off.