Atlanta Gladiator

I am Canyon "CJ" Alston, I live in Atlanta, Georgia with my wife BJ and our newborn son JJ. I was born in South Carolina, but went to college in Atlanta and moved back after I became the owner of the Atlanta Gladiator's hockey team about four years ago.

[cj-alston]

“ can you really see me bein’ a hockey mom ?? i’ll cheer for him , sure , but i’ll have no clue .. thank god i got a few years ahead of me to brush up on my knowledge . “ she knew that her hands were tied when it came to the boy growing up . maybe he’d go the tattoo route , grow up with a creative streak instead of a sporty one , but with cj as the father ?? she knew they’d have a little champion on their hands . not that it mattered , though . with the two of them being his parents ( and his first name being jett ) he was destined to be a badass just like the two of them . sidling up to the window , she pressed one hand against the glass and stood on her tippy toes in an attempt to get a better view of everything . “ so , talk me through it – give me a quick lowdown so i’m not completely clueless , “

“Can I see you getting into fights with other mom’s in the parking lot and being the most insane cheering section any kid on his team has ever seen?  Absolutely.  I’ll be seriously disappointed if you don’t get us kicked out of at least one of his games,” he said laughing. Of course, CJ wasn’t going to force JJ to play hockey if that wasn’t what he wanted, but at the very least he was going to try and find some common ground with him, something his father had never really bothered to do with him. It didn’t matter what their son was interested in, CJ was going to do the best he could to have the best relationship possible with him.  “Well,” he said, stripping off his coat, “We’re playing against the Orlando Solar Bears, this is our 6th time playing them this season and they’ve beaten us 4 times and the one time we won was a fluke, so I don’t have much hope for our chances tonight, they’re having a really good season and we’ve been struggling to say the least.  The only good thing is that I have no say in what goes on with the coaching and the players and all that, so I can’t be blamed for how terrible we are right now, I’m essentially just a figurehead.  We’ve probably got another twenty minutes or so before things get started, so I can explain more as they go along.” 

[cj-alston]

Seeing him with the small baby reminded her of the few times she’d seen her son when he was an infant. Having put him up for adoption she only saw him when they were around the community, but she often wished she’d had the confidence to ask to take a picture of him. “It’s the best job in the world,” she nodded. “It hardly feels like work when I’ve got a camera in my hands. Wait, you own a hockey team?” she asked, surprised. “That’s pretty cool. My brother is a big hockey fan.” Holding out her hand, she smiled, “I’m Kieran. I’m a fan of people who don’t do much.”

“That’s great.  My father wanted me to go into the rice business, my family’s been farming it since we settled in South Carolina before the revolutionary war, but the thought of being saddled to that life makes my skin crawl.  I love my family, but I’ve been a hockey fan for as long as I can remember and when I got the opportunity to play in college, I jumped at it and if I hadn’t decided to buy the team, I’d probably be playing for them right now, but I like being an owner, it means I get to spend more time with my family.”  He smiled and shook her hair, “it’s nice to meet you Kieran, and I get that, it’s much easier to understand his motivations than anyone else’s, which is nice.  Have you been living here long?” 

[cj-alston]

“ well i hope it isn’t that bad – i can’t deal with a grumpy husband , maybe i can help cheer you up later if things don’t go too well , “ bj shot the other a wink , thankful that jj was too young to understand her crude proposition . despite being a mother she still found it difficult to censor herself , some rather colorful language spewing from her lips more often than not even with cj trying to remind her not to . whenever she stubbed her toe , dropped the freshly cleaned laundry or put on their son’s diaper a little crooked a foul remark would shoot from her lips like a bullet , the pistol of her words forever cocked . “ as long as i’m with you , babe , it doesn’t matter . i honestly have no idea what goes on half the time , anyway .. it’s just cute when you get really into it . what kind of wife would i be if i wasn’t by your side , even when your team is kinda sucking . “

CJ loved how straightforward she was with him, in his world you never openly talked about your desires, it was something that was discussed privately between a husband and wife in their bedroom and it was something to be ashamed of, but he was much happier being with a wife who was open about what she wanted from him.  Though he tried to curb her language in front of their son he didn’t actually mind when she cursed, and he did it fairly regularly as well when JJ wasn’t around, but he didn’t want to have to deal with a swearing toddler in the future, though it was likely to happen anyway, no matter what they did.  “It’s alright babe, it’s not going to be a good game, so we can just enjoy being out.  And don’t worry about not understanding the game, you’ll pick it up as we watch JJ play over the years, I’m definitely envisioning him having one hell of a career out there, or I can just pass the team onto if if that’s what he wants, but hopefully he and I can make hockey our thing, I think that would be really fun.”

[cj-alston]

It had been the look on her face as he looked at the small baby that caught her attention first. Capturing the moment had been second nature. Kieran didn’t leave the house without at least one camera and she could hardly let a moment pass without snapping a few pictures, it was just what she did. “I do actually,” she chuckled. “I’m with the Associated Press, but on my days off I like to come here and see what people are up to.” Laughing, she shook her head. “Yeah there are definitely perks to being a smaller woman behind the camera, I get away with a lot more.”

CJ hadn’t really ever thought about having kids before, it was just something that happened and he couldn’t have been more than thrilled about this new role in his life.  JJ was a lot of work, but he was an amazing baby and CJ loved spending time with him, even though he was so young they didn’t actually do very much yet. “That’s sounds like a great job, if you like it enough to be doing it on your days off.  Then again, I love my job, but I own a hockey team, so it’s hard to do anything when you’re not actually at the rink, but still, my days off are my days off.”  Smiling again he glanced down back at the baby to make sure he was still just chilling and not in need of any attention.  “I’m CJ, by the way and this is JJ, he doesn’t do much, but we like him anyway.”

[cj-alston]

there were two teams in her life at this point – the hockey ( which she could never seem to remember the name of ) , and their little team of a family – and when the two had an opportunity to interlink there was no way she could pass up the chance . it would allow her to join cj and spend the much needed time with him too , as well as having an extra pair of hands when it came to their grubby little newborn that had a habit of pooping and throwing up at the most inconvenient of times . “ babe , “ standing up on her tiptoes so she could reach his lips , bj puckered her own in a silent request for a kiss . “ i love you , but i have absolutely no idea what you’re talkin’ about . is this an important game , and do we need to do anything other than sit around and shovel snacks in our mouth ?? “ it was moments like these where the age difference was shown , or maybe it was more their differences in upbringing . bj was always outside exploring and crawling around on her hands and knees in the dirt rather than having her nose pressed up a tv screen or her hands clasped around a hockey stick . as much as she teased though it was a sweet gesture , a ‘ date-night ‘ with a twist , something that they could fit around a busy schedule and all enjoy as a newly formed trio .

CJ knew his wife didn’t have the same love for hockey he did, but he loved that she was willing to go along with him to these games when she could.  They were both exhausted from their roles as new parents and they need a night out, so he’d arranged this at the last minute an it seemed to be going over well so far.  “It’s not an important game, we’re going to get killed like we have all season.  They’ll just announced that we’re here, we’ll wave to the crowd and no one will give us another thought for the rest of the night.”  CJ had played hockey his entire childhood and all through college; he’d actually been considering accepting an offer to play for this team, but he enjoyed being an owner more than a player, and it was a lot less likely that he would get injured in this role, and with a new family to think about, he couldn’t afford to be put out of commission for an extended period of time.  “It’s not much, but we should have a good time tonight, and we don’t really even have to watch the game, it’s not gonna be pretty.”

[k-s-horowitz]

Lining up the shot, Kieran squinted through the viewfinder and carefully pressed the shutter release button. The clicking of the shutters made a satisfactory sound and she cranked the film, taking another shot. She’d learned quickly in her career to shoot first and ask for permission later. When she was certain she had the shot, Kieran took a deep breath and approached her subject. “Hey, so I just got a really great shot of you and I’d love to give you a copy when I develop it, do you mind?”  @atlanta-rpgstarters​

[cj-alston]

CJ hadn’t really been paying much attention to his surroundings, life with a newborn was totally rewarding, but exhausting, and since he had JJ with him today, all his attention was fixed on the little boy until the woman’s voice pulled him out of his fog.  “You got a what?” he asked, before his brain caught up with what she was saying, “Uh, yeah, that would be great, I’m sure my wife would like that.  Do you just walk around taking pictures of people? Seems like a cool job, but I feel like I’d get punched if I tried to do that, the taller you are, the creepier people seem to think you are, at least if they don’t know you...”

[cj-alston]

CJ had never been a “spur of the moment” kind of person, his whole life had been planned out for him, but meeting BJ had changed everything about him and he loved the person he was when he was with her.  Since JJ was born, things had been stressful around their home, but in the best possible way, they loved their baby and they loved each other and life was good right now.  He’ taken some time away from his job to focus on his family, but the team had a game tonight and he wanted to make it a special night for their little family.  He watched the games from a private “owners box,” and tonight he had it set up so they could spend a night out, but still keep JJ with them.  He’d gotten a caterer to set up dinner for them and the heat was turned up to keep the cold of the rink out, but the box was soundproofed so that the crowd and the noise of the game wouldn’t wake JJ, so it was private, but they weren’t cooped up in the house. 

“What do you think?” he asked, setting JJ’s carseat down once they were inside and the door to the box was closed behind them.  “We’re playing Orlando tonight, so it should be a good game, but I thought it would be fun to make a night of it.