One of the most life-changing things I ever learned came from Mythbusters, where they tested and proved (with cognitive testing puzzles and reaction time tests) that lying down and resting with the intention to sleep STILL provided significant mental benefits over just staying awake, even if a person couldn’t fall asleep in the amount of time they had.
It helps me to actually sleep to know that just lying down with my eyes closed is still doing me some good, and helps me to not freak out/beat myself up when I stay up later than intended. Any amount of rest is better than no rest!
Still feeling super sad and upset. I’ve seen people still being fannish about other Blackhawks, but every time I think about the team or the upcoming season, it’s like the mental equivalent of missing the bottom step.
Jonathan Toews: See this dog? My girlfriends dog. The dog that my girlfriend owns. Not MY dog, my girlfriends dog. A dog owned by my girlfriend. A very small girly dog that is my GIRL friends dog
Lindsey: Hey, can i see my dog for a second
Jonathan Toews: *looks down at the dog he's been holding the whole time*
I’m writing out what I love about K/T fics and fandom as a way of letting go of it. (Although if anyone knows of a similar dynamic in another fandom, feel free to rec it).
-Their history. The way they’d known each other for half a lifetime, giving so much backstory and accumulated friendship and affection to build a ship on.
-Their competitiveness, respect and underlying love for each other, that seemed to be inevitable.
-The “found family”, camaraderie and instant supporting case that the team gives, without having the tragic family background that found family stories frequently do.
-The rhythm of the “canon” - next game, next season. It was comfortingly predictable; no alien invasions, struggles to make rent or characters getting killed off because their actor wanted to go make films. Trades, but the players were still in the league.
-Jonny’s dorky earnestness, his intensity, his not-so-seriousness, the responsibilities he took on at a young age.
-Patrick’s emotional expressiveness, endearingly terrible tastes in pop culture and passion and fandom for all things hockey.
-Their complementary hockey styles - Kaner’s elusiveness and the way he draws the defenders to him, his ridiculous hockey IQ, Jonny’s two-way game and hard work that are so obvious they tend to overshadow that he’s also an elite offensive player.
-The parallelism of their careers, from rookie year together, through three Cups, projected to their numbers in the rafters and statues outside the United Center.
I’ve been talking about the characters, but the last two points were such a big part of why I loved watching the Hawks that that’s why I don’t think I can continue to follow them, no matter how the legal investigation winds up.
I’m angry at the predictable round of “but she...” comments from people who would say they are good guys.
I’m angry at a judicial system that’s weighted in favor of the already powerful.
I’m angry that we STILL live in a society that produces so many men and boys who think that getting what they want at this moment is more important than the consent and autonomy of another person.
I’m angry because I think that if the Blackhawks unclamp their media lockdown, there will be teammates making “supportive” statements.
I’m angry that someone who said again and again he had “grown up”, who said he prayed to be a better person....wasn’t.
I’m sad that a career and a legacy that brought joy to so many people is ruined and tarnished because its owner didn’t manage to meet the most basic, bare minimum requirements of being a decent human being.
I’m sad that someone who endeared himself to us by expressing when he was sad or scared, by crying openly and dancing terribly to bad music, by telling us how much he loves his grandfather and his parents and his sisters, is someone we shouldn’t have loved or trusted. I’m sad that someone can be all those things and also be a rapist.
I’m sad that this fandom, where we fic’d and gif’d in among the real events that lent themselves so easily to narrative, this fandom that felt so safe because the worst thing that had ever happened in “canon” was a playoff elimination or an injury that could be rehabbed in six weeks, turned out to not be safe at all.
I’m sad that not only will there be no more fics like “A Light-Handed Approach to Regulation”, “Orbital Resonance” and “Learning Curve”, but that we can’t re-read the ones we had.
I want to go back in time and put that girl in a cab home (and any others there were).
I want to go back to 2007 and wipe his name off of 30 draft boards.
Most of all I want to go back further than that and somehow (somehow!) teach that little kid in the Sabres jersey YOU CANNOT DO THAT.
And I’m so, so tired. Tired of G*merg*te and Donald Trump who doesn’t think it’s even legally possible he could have raped his ex-wife, and tired of everyone who sneers at the phrase “rape culture” - what kind of culture do they think this is?
For me, this Blackhawks era was so tied to Kane and Toews that I won’t be able to cheer for them for a long time, even if he’s off the team (and the chances he’s convicted and they can Mike-Richards his contract are slim. If not convicted, I’m sure he’d be trade-able in a year or so, but that doesn’t really improve things). I can’t look at photos of Toews or videos of Hjammer’s baby any more. I can’t speculate how Anisimov’s deal will look if he doesn’t have the elite winger he was brought to center. I can’t care about how they’re going to dig themselves out of the roster mess they were already in even without a $10.5 million dent in it.
It all makes me sick just thinking about anything that could happen. It makes me sicker to think there’s a good chance there won’t be enough evidence or the victim will be pressured into not testifying, and he’ll get away with it.
Does anyone have any recs for comforting fandoms/ships/fics? T/K was my happy place for a while there, and now I’m in need of a happy place.
What if Panarin or Teuvo turn out as good as they can be, and they’re 80% Patrick Kane for $6M instead of $10.5? Would the Blackhawks trade Kane or Toews?