Remember that family trip I took when my husband lost his wallet and we looked all over Tofino for it and, in a last ditch attempt to locate it, we stopped by the visitor’s centre as we were leaving town and to our great shock and surprise, there it was?
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In the very first sentence of the column I wrote about that adventure, I called my husband a loser:
My husband is a loser. Not a loser in the dead-beat, good-for-nothin’ kind of way but more so in the literal way. He’s often misplacing stuff.
Anyway, a few weeks ago the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships were in Langley and as luck would have it, there were a few athletes with Cowichan connections playing for Australia, England and Finland. I grew up in the Lower Mainland and still have family there so my husband and I decided to mix business with pleasure and head over to visit with family and watch the Cowichan contingent play some world-class box lacrosse. The only thing is we’ve got different work schedules and two kids, one of which is in school, so our travel plans weren’t streamlined.
I opted to fly over with my three-year-old daughter a few days early to have a girls’ adventure and to get in some extra quality family time. (Don’t feel bad for my boys. They laid in my bed watching old school Transformers episodes on YouTube while taking turns spraying whipped cream right from the can into each other’s mouths and then took the ferry over a couple days later.)
Where was I? Oh, right. Losers.
I last saw my licence while checking into the float plane terminal in Maple Bay. A flight, a sky train and a bus later, my licence was gone and by now, could be anywhere. Seeing the joy on my preschooler’s face as we took off from Maple Bay and landed in Ganges and then took off from there and landed downtown all the while pointing out the ‘ants’ down below on her first ever airplane ride was totally worth losing my licence. But also, what a hassle.
I needed my ID to get my press pass at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships. I couldn’t get new ID until I got back to Duncan after the weekend. I could just hear my husband snickering under his breath (and for good reason). It turns out I’m a loser too!
Fortunately my business card and very sad sob story did the trick and I got my pass just in time to see Slovakia face off against the Czech Republic. The Czech team dominated 17-3 but that wasn’t the game I really wanted to see. The following day I joined my nephew to watch USA and the Iroquois Nationals play.
He is my only nephew, the one I claimed as my own when my sister wasn’t around and one I still would claim as my own if I thought I could get away with it. I’ve watched him grow up into a sports-loving athlete just like his Auntie. We used to be best pals when he was little but now that he’s 14 it’s just nice he’ll hang out with me at all let alone be seen in public with me.
We marveled at the level of lacrosse we got to see. It was amazing. The best lacrosse game I’ve ever seen in my life to be honest and few that were there would disagree. Iroquois won 12-10 in one of the most competitive games of the tournament. Even the final wasn’t as spectacular. I was so pumped to be able watch it with my nephew.
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And to think, I could have missed it all because apparently I, much like my husband, am a loser. Even so, despite the passing years, I haven’t lost the special bond I’ve got with my nephew and that’s worth way more than the money it cost me to get a new licence. That makes me the ultimate winner.
sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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