tuesday april 7

today i went to my first toronto marlies game. about 30 seconds into the first period, a stadium employee approached me and my friends looking for a pair of participants for an in-arena promotional contest related to the molson canadian $5 beer night. against my will, my friends volunteered me to participate in this contest, which involved "sport stacking," apparently a real thing that people take seriously. we had to dismantle a stack of 15 plastic cups, restack them, then dismantle them again -- whichever of us finished (and yelled "i love five dollars beers!") first would win.

having been hoping to just watch the marlies continue their run for a playoff spot, and maybe see william nylander score a goal, i instead spent most of the first period practicing my sport stacking, meeting and getting advice from stadium employees, and preparing to be on the jumbotron at the first timeout after the 10-minute mark of the period.

finally, the big moment arrived, and the in-arena host introduced me and my friend before giving us the go-ahead to start stacking. while i had a steadier hand than i anticipated (we were being filmed in the concourse and shown on the jumbotron in the arena, so there wasn't as much pressure as if we'd been in the middle of the ice or something), i still felt like i was focusing more on not screwing up too badly, rather than really trying to race through as fast as i could.

ultimately, this approach at least kept me in the running -- i trailed slightly heading into the home stretch, but my friend knocked a bunch of his cups off his table right near the finish. for a split second, i thought i was headed for a dramatic comeback victory. however, one of the nearby employees unexpectedly returned his fallen cups to him without missing a beat and i panicked as i tried to finish stacking mine, knocking mine off the table and handing him the win.

it was a bitter pill to swallow, but at least they ended up giving both of us the "prize." this has been a sponsored post.