A weird thing happened to me when I got out of bed this past Sunday morning…my body didn’t hurt, or I should say, it didn’t hurt as much as it had been for the last 3-4 weeks.  Besides my sprained knee from the Montreal game I actually felt pretty good!  My fingers and wrists moved the way they were supposed to which was a nice change and I could actually go down the stairs one at a time instead of stepping down on each stair with both feet…kind of like a 2 year old goes down the stairs.  The bye week allows players to heal their bodies which have undergone much physical abuse since June 7th.  Just as importantly though, it allows players and coaches to take a little time off and spend time with their loved ones.  Some people often forget that the majority of players leave girlfriends/wives, kids, parents and siblings behind when they come to Saskatchewan to play for the season.  They may not have seen any of them since they left in early June and to be able to spend a week with them rejuvenates their spirits for the second half of the season.  People have asked me why those players don’t bring their family up north with them instead of leaving them home.  The problem with that scenario is that most of their girlfriends/wives have jobs back home and can’t simply leave for 6 months and their kids are enrolled in school and it wouldn’t be fair to them either to make them change school every 6 months.

    As for me, I stayed back east for a few days before making my way back to Regina Wednesday morning.  My girlfriend’s…oops, I mean fiancée’s family all came from Kingston (Ontario) to watch the Montreal game with my family and then everyone drove to Sherbrooke (Quebec) the next day to spend a night at my mom’s house.  We all had a great time hanging out together since our families don’t see each other too often.  My mom cooked enough food to feed a small army and my dad arranged for us to have two wave runners for the afternoon…it was needless to say that is was a great weekend filled with “cold” beverages, an engagement, great catch up conversation and more food.  On Tuesday, Leslie and I along with a childhood friend of hers and her boyfriend all drove to Toronto to spend the day at Canada’s Wonderland which I had not gone to since I was probably 6 years old…or about 150lbs.  I expected three things out of that day: 1) to have a lot of fun, 2) to get sun burnt and 3) to not fit on all the rides.  Luckily for me, we had an awesome day and I didn’t get sun burnt but most importantly I fit on all the rides…sort of.  Some rides may have needed two employees to jump on me to get the restraint bar to click in or to get me buckled in but in the end I fit on all the rides we wanted to go on.  I especially enjoyed the ride called “Scream Drop” where they drop you straight down about 100ft from a tower.  I noticed some “husky” gentlemen who were turned away because they couldn’t fit the shoulder restraint over their bellies.  When our turn came up, I had to squeeze in pretty tight, have one girl keep jamming the restraint down until the other girl was able to clip in the safety belt to the restraint.  With my face turning purple and my shoulders in my stomach, the employee asked me “Are you comfortable?”…did I look comfortable???  I just chuckled and told her to get this thing going before the clip exploded.  Why hasn’t anyone invented an amusement park for “big boned” people yet?  I know there are plenty of us out there so someone should get on that.

    I was happy to be back in town on Wednesday so I could get some work done at my second job…real estate.  I have had alot fun so far since starting to work at Exit Realty so it was nice to be able to spend a few days with only real estate to do each day.  My broker, Loretta Hughes has been an awesome teacher for me since day one and Jason Clermont has given me tons of tips and ideas since he found out I got licensed.  Even though I’m going to be playing football for many more years it’s nice to find something else I am passionate about and can do after my football career.  But now it’s great to be back in the swing of things and prepare for another football game, especially the Labor Day game.  I struggled for a good week to get over the Montreal loss and I cant wait to get back on that field Sunday afternoon and start hitting people again…I have a really good feeling for the 2nd half of the season for us, make sure you’re there to see it all…and I tell you my friends, I’m not making this stuff up…

Marc Parenteau #57