I’ve been waiting for the holidays to be over since October 18^th. That’s the day that the panic of the season sets in for me. This year seemed worse as the time flew along with the cash and nothing seemed to get done. But they say “That which does not kill me only makes me stronger.” If that is the case, then today I should have been freakin’ Hercules…or dead. Just another Merry Christmas with the family. But a few things kept me going: the Shiraz and the fact that tomorrow is the day I’ve been waiting for since the summer release of the NHL schedule.

Jason Blake will finally be back on the Coliseum ice, albeit in a Leafs jersey and really ugly striped socks. I’ve thought about tomorrow for months. Just to have him in the building will do my heart good…. I think.

When I arrived home from Christmas dinner and sat down with my brand new laptop to think of something I wanted to say about tomorrow, I started out by poking around all my usual internet haunts. I wasn’t the least bit surprised that Isles VP Chris Botta has already beaten me to the punch by posting a very complimentary view of Blake in his NYI Point Blank blog (http://nyipointblank.blogspot.com). Nice to hear that the Islanders will do just a little something special for Jason before tomorrow’s game, but CB’s last line of his entry broke my heart. “He might wear a different uniform now, but to all of us he’s Jason Blake and…. he’s an Islander.”

If that was the case, I wouldn’t have to put his name on Goggle Alerts just so that I can keep track of him 450 miles away on a team that I have no interest in. So, Goggle I must, the good, the bad and all the annoying duplication that comes with it.

I followed him for his entire tenure on the Islanders. I followed him to Columbus and St. Paul in 2004 for the World Cup. My husband hid the news from me that he had joined HC Lugano in Switzerland for a few weeks during the “work stoppage.” When I asked him WHY he didn’t want me to know, he was very serious when he answered “Because I didn’t want to spend Christmas in SWITZERLAND.“ Ok, that would have been a tad much, and likely impossible as I don’t have a valid passport. But such was the depth of my dedication and belief in his ability to succeed.

Tomorrow I will leave work early. I will wear one of my FOUR personal Blake jerseys, probably my Team USA one. (This was actually requested by a friend who is one of the Isles organization employees.) I will stand at the glass on the visitors side of the ice (for the first time), if there’s room. I will have my camera and more than a few tissues ready. Tomorrow night will likely be very emotional for me, but I wouldn’t miss it. After all, I was Blake’s “….one true fan…” according to Hahn way-back-when at a time when no one really knew his name. Now I’ll just be one of 1,000s welcoming him back to the Uniondale ice and saying “Thank You for making hockey exciting for me, whatever team you play on.”