Wednesday, March 31, 2010

si teh wednesdayzar

so I went to the travel team practice yesterday, in the hopes of observing and writing down ideas for skills and training and all that.  Unfortunately the practice got delayed for an hour and a half because there was a kid skating party, so we all ended up going to one of the skaters' houses and they all talked uniform stuff.

I have no idea what we're going to do for uniforms.  I know what I would like, but that won't necessarily translate into what the team wants.  Unfortunately. :) 

Tonight I have a coach/captain meeting, then tomorrow I have to go to practice (with Maverick in tow) for a little bit to collect dues and chase down team members with their name suggestions.  I will get an evening at home at some point in the future.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

it's never easy

the Board of Directors decided that one of the names we're contemplating is too close to the name of a team that's not too far from us.  Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo  I rip my hair out.  Well, not really.  What I mean to say is that we do another poll.

tuesday tuesday

team practice last night.  Man I love my team. Everyone works hard and pushes herself, no one drops out of skills and all that.  Yay us!

I fucked up my ankle last night - it's not broken or anything, just sore and owwwy.  Good thing I will be off skates for a week (can't go to practice Thursday, Sunday's Easter).

We don't have a name yet.  The team voted and one name received more votes than the others, but (a) more than a few people have an issue with the name and (b) it didn't get a majority of the votes.  So, I wielded the Captain Stick and said we were going to re-vote by Olympic City Bid format, where the name with the lowest votes gets dropped, and then a new vote is taken.  We'll see how that goes - everyone seemed to be okay with that idea.

There were sample uniform jerseys at practice yesterday, to try on for size and coverage (there are a few styles - racerback, tank, cap sleeve and short sleeve).  I contemplated a cap sleeve (so I could just put my number on my sleeve and not have to Sharpie up my arms every bout) but it covers the top of my tattoo (a Charles Rennie Mackintosh rose) and WE CAN'T HAVE THAT.  I HAVE MY PRIORITIES.  So it looks like tank top for me.

Monday, March 29, 2010

one of the things about living where I live

is that this time of year the weather turns out to be totally and completely on crack.  Witness the week of the St. Patrick's Day parade - it was sunny and 60's during the week but turned rainy and mid 30's by the date of the parade.

Today it's rainy and chilly, high in the mid 40's.  The weather for the rest of the week is supposed to get better and better, culminating on when it's SUPPOSED TO BE SUNNY AND EIGHTY. 

And then next week we'll probably get more snow.

it's another week oh yay

so about fifteen minutes into the first bout (it was a doubleheader) I set my Facebook status to something like "I WANT TO PLAY ROLLER DERBY NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW." 

I did not go to practice yesterday; bad bad Kicktoria.  I didn't get home from Buffalo until quarter after one, I had a captains' meeting at 8, and then practice after that? Um, no. (I also had a metric ton of treasurer-related work to do.)

So now it's Monday, and we have team practice. yay!  One of the things we talked about at the captains' meeting is that we should be allowed to attend (if at least to watch) the travel team practices, so we can see what they're doing and filter it down/over/across to our own team. 

Saturday, March 27, 2010

so...

I am sitting in a bowling alley in Buffalo.  The wonders of WiFi!  I had some treasurer-y related work I needed to get done today so I brought my laptop.

Lookin' forward to derby tonight.

Friday, March 26, 2010

WEEKEND AGAIN YAY

to look outside, it's a beautiful glorious day.  to actually *be* outside is to discover it's windy and barely above freezing.  Sigh.  No outdoor skating for me.

Tomorrow is Buffalo for the QCRG bout.  I'm excited.  I haven't seen real live roller derby in months AND I MISS IT SO.

I also found out that Roy only has three or so more weeks of league bowling AND THEN I CAN START GOING TO THURSDAY PRACTICES YAYAAAAAAAAAY.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

sigh and argh and bleh

I did get to try out my new outdoor skates.  I would be happier if they were a half size (or maybe a size) larger, but after all the angst I went through with getting them (witness my months of waiting to get my first pair only to have them be wrong, and then months of agonizing over that before ordering this pair), I am just going to wear them and deal.

Thursday.  No practice for me because Roy has bowling.  Sigh.  WHEN IS TEH BOWLING SEASON OVER?  We're having a captains' meeting on Sunday at 8am.  Sigh. The high temperature tomorrow is supposedly going to be thirty degrees.  Sigh.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

WEDNESDAY, NOT THURSDAY.

so for the past however many decades I've been playing roller derby, we've had practices Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday.  This Sunday/Monday/Thursday-whenever-Roy-finishes-his-bowling-league thing is throwing me off.  I keep thinking it's Thursday (since I didn't have practice yesterday), so I'm telling my boss that he missed a seminar because it's scheduled for Thursday at 8am, and then he reminds me that, no, it's only Wednesday and I feel like a big doof.

It's bright sunny out right now; I am hoping that the streets dry out enough so that I can try my new outdoor skates when I get home. 

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

si teh tuesday

so OMG I LOVE MY NEW WHEELS YOU GUYS I AM NOT KIDDING.  They are a perfect combination of grip and slick.  I could snake across the track without feeling like I was going to careen out of control, and I did 27 laps in 5 minutes without trying that hard, so they're not slowing me down.  I am a happy, happy camper.

We're voting on our team name this week - narrowed it down to five.  One will have to be thrown out (we realized too late it copies a skater's name, which is "strongly discouraged"), two are...okay, one I really don't like that much and the fifth is COMPLETELY AND AWESOMELY FULL OF WIN.  Like, we HAVE to have this as our team name, to the point where if we don't I just want to pull captain's privilege and say "WE'RE DOING THIS GODDAMMIT".  I won't do that, though.

Monday, March 22, 2010

heartless is more than a heart song

(though isn't it kinda hypocritical that a group named "Heart" is doing a song called "Heartless"?)

ANYWAY.

My Voodoo wheels showed up this afternoon; huzzah!  I hope they will work out well and I can rock out with the best of 'em.  (My outdoor skates also showed up.  I couldn't try them out because it's raining, but I put my wheels on them and I won't have the problem of the sole of the boot rubbing into them, at least.)

the prodigal daughter returns

I WENT TO THE GYM ON FRIDAY.  Yeah, I know!  It was painfully (literally) obvious that I hadn't been in a while.   Kyle made me up a new workout for me to do on my own (I'm not going to be doing the PT sessions for a while - life is insanely busy and the PT sessions are expensive).  It's mostly arm stuff (HI I HAVE PENCILS FOR ARMS). We'll see if I actually do it.

Saturday....what happened Saturday?  Oh  yeah - went to the local(ish) racetrack for my friend's birthday.  I had never been there before and have only been to two casinos in my life, so it was a bit bizarre.  Row upon row upon row of video slot machines.  I lost $10 in one machine and was like "Um, okay, that was fun?" (Meanwhile my other friends won $90 and $70...)  It was just bizarre.

Sunday. Apolo Anton OhHELLno.  Sigh.  I actually started crying at one point near the end.  Not fun at all.

So today we've got team practice.  We're supposed to come to the meeting beforehand with our top three potential team names and honestly? I got nothin'.  Any names that I like have been taken already.  (My top name for a team, Pretty Skate Machine, is the name of a skater in Virginia, I believe.)  There are one or two names people have suggested that aren't bad, but nothing that makes me go OMFG WE HAVE TO PICK THIS NAME NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW.

Friday, March 19, 2010

because naps are NICE, ok?

so I threw on my skates again last night and skated up and down the street.  Mostly for the exercise and the HOLY COW IT'S NICE OUT AND THE SUN IS STILL OUT AFTER DINNER YAY SPRING WAHOOOOOOO but also so I could keep an eye on Maverick while he played with the kids across the street (I am a wee bit of an overprotective parent).

I am going to the gym tonight. It's been a frickin' month. Oops.  How did my life get so busy?  How did I get so lazy (see the title of this post).

Hm, this weekend.  Going to see the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie with Maverick.  Then going out with a (former) skater friend for her birthday. (She fucked up her wrist moving furniture last year, was told by her doctor if she falls on it again it could be permanently injured.  She does computer graphics for a living, so she kinda needs the use of her hands/wrists.)  Then Sunday practice, skills & drills for Maverick for baseball (and then his assessment for which team he'll be on) and then over to my parents' house for dinner.

Like I said, how did my life get so busy?

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

oops

so I put my outdoor wheels back on my skates and took a spin up and down the street.  It was a lot harder than it usually should have been, so I took the bearings out to discover that out of sixteen, eight had rusted.  Oops.  Maybe I should've not waited until four days after the fact to think about cleaning them. 

Fortunately I had enough extra lying around to replace the bad ones, so Maverick and I biked and skated over to his elementary school's playground.  Unfortunately, they have a "no skateboarding or rollerskating" rule, so I played the responsible parent and brought shoes to switch into, even though there were kids there on roller blades scooting around.

As I think I've said before, I never skate without my knee pads any more, even if I'm just going to an open skate night at the rink.  I also usually wear my wrist guards.  Elbow pads and helmet, not necessarily as much.  It's really jarring for me to see kids wearing nothing but a helmet that doesn't fit properly going out on blades or skates (especially when said kid falls down and lands on a knee).   I've trained Maverick to wear full gear when he skates outside, and if we skate at the rink, he'll usually start out in full gear but then take off his helmet and elbow pads after a while.  Fair enough, I suppose.

I wish my actual outdoor skates would hurry up and show up.

oh hey look, it's an entry

so now is the long dark tea-time of the derby soul, in which I don't do any practicing until Sunday.  One of the new skaters (who is actually the co-captain) has taken my helmet to repaint and freshen up my crown and maybe bling it up a little (my only worry about that is if something comes unglued it'll be a rink hazard).

I finally bit the bullet and bought skates for outdoors.  I also bought new pusher wheels - I went with the Heartless Voodoo (86a) rather than the Stalker (88a).  Figured I might as well get as much traction as I can, so that I am not skittering all over the place.

So, let's see.  On Monday we couldn't find a file at work (that's one of our downfalls - we are slightly unorganized and hoardy here.  When we moved to the new building and the movers were picking up my boss's desk, they found cold medicine that expired in 1989 in one of the drawers).  In my searching and digging around for it, I found my little Personal Trainer: Walking pedometer that I'd lost (the white one.  I lost the black one on the Zombie Walk the league did last year [yes, I wore a pedometer to a Zombie Walk.  I figured I could get a lot of steps in, even if they were shuffly and undead]).  So now I am wearing that and seeing just how much I am not walking.

I should've gone to the gym last night; I could've - I forgot to RSVP to my mother about dinner plans and she made plans without me, so we were home - but I couldn't.  Lost was on, that's my excuse.  (Sigh.)  I am going on Friday, though - I have my last PT session with Kyle and it's scheduled so I hafta hafta HAFTA go.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

so, hello

last night was our team practice, and the skaters on our team voted me for team captain. Yay!  Hopefully I won't fuck it up too much.  A new skater whom I like very much and whom I think will do a bang-up job is our co-captain, and together we will be a force with which to be reckoned.

Monday, March 15, 2010

weekend in an entry roundup

Friday: I did not go to the gym.  In other news, water is wet and fire is hot.

Saturday: St. Patrick's Day parade.  It was cold and rainy and completely miserable, weather-wise.  However, because I am an idiot/am a glutton for punishment/have a death wish, I skated (there were probably about ten of us who did).   We had an awesome float ( VW Cabriolet decorated to look like a roller skate) and we elicited a lot of cheers and support as we went by.

Skating back to the cars after the parade was over, though, was not much fun, as (a) it was raining harder, (b) we had to swerve in and out of progressively drunker and drunker spectators, and (c) we had to skate on the sidewalk, which I never like doing.




As soon as I got home, I took the world's hottest shower.

I also took apart my skate trucks so I could clean all the mud off them.  This was sort of terrifying, as I'd never done it before and was worried that I would do it wrong and my skates would explode (not really.  But there was one skater last year who somehow managed to strip the threads on one of the bolts of her truck, and it took a really long time for it to get repaired.  I really need to order a pair of outdoor only skates [though I did talk to one chick at the parade who had a pair that I was contemplating, and she loves them, so I will probably go with those]).

Sunday: Skills and drills.  Apolo Anton OhHELLno was out of town so we didn't have to kill ourselves with off-skates training.  So we worked on hitting and dropping into a low stance when we're hit so we don't fall, and I had to leave early because Roy had a bowling makeup session and Maverick had his baseball skills session thingy.

Sunday night we had a league board meeting in which many exciting things were decided and discussed.  Whee!

Tonight is our team meeting/practice, which should be fun.  I like my team - we are teh awesome.

Friday, March 12, 2010

eep

one of the skaters on my team spiral fractured the two bones near her ankle last night.  It was another freak thing - she wasn't scrimmaging, wasn't doing anything bizarre - apparently she was just trying to slow down and all her weight just sort of twisted around and she went down. 


We've rallied the troops and put up a "bring her dinner" database which got filled in record time, and I will probably go to the hospital this afternoon to visit her.

Before I found out that she hadn't been scrimmaging (it apparently happened during the first two minutes of practice) I was wondering if we were pushing the new skaters too hard, too fast.  Our league practiced for about six or seven months before we even contemplated scrimmaging - now we're putting skaters into scrimmages after a month or two at most.  I will have to bring it up at our pre-practice meeting on Monday.

So knock on wood, that will be our last injury of the year.

It's raining today.  It better not rain tomorrow - I want to skate in the parade, not walk!  I put my outdoor wheels on yesterday (Radar Pure, which are really nice but admittedly pricey) and did a few laps of the street.  It was soooooooo nice.  I noticed that our neighbors down the street still had their "Merry Christmas" flag hanging off their front porch; oops. 

I also, of course, wore my knee pads.  It's gotten to the point where I do not like skating without them.  I think it's because when you fall in derby, you always try to fall forward, and if you're not wearing knee pads, well... one time at open skate I didn't wear them, and...



Yeah.  Ow.



 

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

last night

last night was our first team practice, and I am so stupidly excited for this season.  We are going to be a force with which to be reckoned.

Now we just have to come up with a name.

Monday, March 8, 2010

okay

so I was really going to go to the gym on Saturday, and I even went, but wanted to stop at one of the stores at the mall before I actually went into the gym. I found a cute dress and a skirt, but then realized I'd forgotten my wallet, so I went back home and figured I would go back later that evening, which of course I didn't.

Sunday was practice.  Now to explain.

I write this blog with a sort of thin veil of anonymity.  I mean, I use my real derby name, but I use fake names for everyone else - mostly because if I know people are reading this, I won't be as free-flowing, I'll think "oh but what will so-and-so think if I write this," etc.  So I use fake names so people can't google themselves.  Or something.  Also, it's fun.

So!  We have three coaches.  Coach Superstar is in charge of the travel team - she used to play for a few big WFTDA teams before she came to our city.  She's insane.  She gave birth to her daughter on February 25, and was at the travel team tryouts on March 2. 

Coach Dude was the coach of the B travel team last year.  He is, as his name would imply, a righteous dude.  He's also Fearless Leader's boyfriend.

Our newest coach is the guy who also is a speedskater, who runs the insane training sessions on Sunday.  He is Apolo Anton OhHELLno, because that's what I say when I hear him run through what we'll have to do.

So yeah, yesterday was training with him.  Good LORD.  All sorts of running and jumping and squatting and IT'S NOT A PUSHUP IF YOUR CHEST DOESN'T TOUCH THE FLOOR and this morning I woke up and my legs said "you want us to move? Not gonna happen" and guh.

So that was Sunday morning.  Yesterday afternoon Maverick had another bowling tournament and once again he continues to amaze us.  He bowled a 143 (a new high score!) a 100 and a 106.  He's really gotten a lot better this year - his average is up over 25 points since last season, and it's steadily increasing.  So yay to him. 

Friday, March 5, 2010

oh!

and now we get to decide on a team name and colors and all that. 

For some (bizarre) reason, I *really* want to call our team "The Titans of Industry".  I just think that would be really neat.  (I really hope we don't decide upon some sort of pin-up related theme.  I am *so* not a pin-up type of person.)

As for uniforms, I want a dress of some sort.  And for colors, I like ocean blue/black.

We shall see what happens.

looking back and looking forward

I think I might have mentioned before, but Roy has a Thursday night bowling league, and since Maverick isn't old enough to stay home by himself, I miss league scrimmage night.  Which is a bummer.  There have been nights when my parents have been able to watch him (like, say, the Thursday night before a bout), but (a) they live about twenty minutes away and (b) I don't like obligating them to do it every week.

So!  My practice schedule for the season is Sunday morning league skills and drills 10-12:30, Monday night team practice 8-10, and then Thursday league scrimmage 7-9:30 once bowling's over for the year (which is like, May, I think).  Bit of a change from last season, when team practice was on Tuesdays.  At least I'll be able to take Maverick to his baseball practices and games.

Tonight a few people are getting together to watch Blood on the Flat Track.  It's available on Watch Netflix Instantly, you should watch it.  (I do not have Watch Netflix Instantly because we are a Linux household.  We do, however, have a Wii, so eventually apparently at some point this spring we will get it.  HOPEFULLY.)

Tomorrow I really need to get over to the gym.  Like, desperately.  Going to North Carolina and being sick and Roy doing a lot of extra bowling this week has completely thrown me.   I have been somewhat able to keep a little bit of the weight that I lost while sick off (I am now hovering around 165 rather than 169); YAY ME. 

I really want to put my outdoor wheels on and skate outside.  The streets are dry even though there's like a foot of snow on the ground.  Either that or I need to get a real pair of outdoor skates.  I tried last year just getting a cheapo pair of skates for my outdoor wheels, but the ones I got, the trucks were too close to the base of the boot, meaning that if I put my (somewhat larger diameter) wheels on them and tried to turn, the wheel pushed into the bottom of the boot and I would stop.  (Those were the skates I sold in this entry.)  I am lazy and am getting tired of swapping out my wheels every single time I want to skate outside.

I'm so ready for spring.  I hate winter so very much.  You cannot conceive how thrilled I am every year when Daylight Saving Time starts.  Maybe I have Seasonal Whats-its-face Disorder or something.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

okay

so I didn't make the travel team.  I've done my five stages of grief* and am now ready to be as much of a motherfucking superstar on the home team as is humanly possible.



------------------
*leaving the practice early in tears, screaming in the car on the way home, wishing damnation and hellfire on everyone and everything in the world, cake and sleep.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

in which your humble narrator starts spazzing the fuck out

okay.  I've swapped my wheels but that's it.  I don't want to go tinkering with other stuff (toe guards, toe stops) lest I screw something up and make things worse.

sigh.

today is the day

so in a wonderous bit of serendipity, Gnomeloaf (my older sister who lives about 6 hours away) is contemplating being in Buffalo on the 27th as part of the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair (she runs an online literary journal, The Northville Review).  If all works well, I'd hang with her there for the day and then we'd go to the bout afterwards.  Fingers crossed!

Tonight is the travel team tryout.  When I get home from work I have to swap out my wheels.  I never got around to doing it yesterday.  I hope I do okay - I don't necessarily care if I make the team*, but I just don't want to make a complete fool out of myself.

Let's see.  The St. Patrick's Day parade is coming up - we marched in it last year and it was hella fun, except for the part where we had to stand around for 3 hours waiting for our turn to march (we were near the back).  There was no snow and the streets were dry, though, so we got to skate, which was fun.  Hopefully we'll be able to skate again this year.

I am still down about five and a half pounds from where I was last week because of being sick.  I have no confidence that I'll be able to keep it off, what with it most assuredly being water weight, but I have to admit it's nice to look at the scale and see different numbers.  I am actually trying to eat more proper-like (for example, breakfast today is a banana and a TLC cereal bar).  AND I NEED TO GO TO THE GYM.  Maybe I'll get up early tomorrow or something. (yeah, that will happen.)

----------
*who am I kidding, of course I care if I make the team.

so, yeah

tomorrow's the scrimmage for Travel Team tryouts.  Actually, make that "later today".  Sigh.  Right now I am on the "why am I bothering" side of the swinging indecision.

Monday, March 1, 2010

and now we're back at Monday

and not only is it Monday, it's the first day of March.  whoa!

So, like I mentioned before, I was really sick on Friday, and spent about 90% of Saturday and 75% of yesterday recovering.  This means that I didn't go to practice yesterday.  Sundays are league-wide practices that our speed skating coach runs, and as I expected, everyone's Facebook statuses afterwards involve the fact that they can't move their limbs.  So I'm not completely upset that I missed it.

Kyle called me on Saturday - I have one more personal training session left of the bunch that I bought.  It expired yesterday but he's going to try and hold it for me.  Honestly, I don't know when I'll be able to get in - Roy is subbing in for someone tonight bowling, I have travel team tryouts on Tuesday, and then Roy is bowling again Wednesday night and Thursday night.  Okay, so maybe I do know when I'll be able to get in - Friday at the earliest.  Sigh.

I also (before I got sick) managed to solve an issue that haunted a lot of us all last season.  When we come to practices, we need to have scrimmage shirts - one black, one white, each with our number on it.  While the black was no problem (I have two bout shirts in black), I only had one official white one, which I lost.  So I'd either have to jerry-rig something with duct tape and a Sharpie, or beg to be on the black team. 

Well, one of our skaters found that a sports clothing outlet place had reversible black/white mesh basketball shirts for $1.  Score!  I went on Wednesday and got one (it's a men's XL, so it's basically like a dress), but for $6 I got my number on both sides so I am SET TO GO.  I hope that whatever team I'm on does something like this for our uniforms (though I would not be upset if we ended up getting dresses).

I know I've mentioned Roy's bowling tourament in Buffalo - as it turns out, it *does* coincide with a Queen City Roller Girls bout, yay!  So all I'll need to do is finangle a ride home, which shouldn't be difficult.  I've been jonesing for some live roller derby - watching it on the internet just doesn't suffice.

So while Roy is bowling tonight, I'll need to swap my Heartless wheels for my Fugitives, and I should probably clean my bearings.  I also need to see if I can find my old toe guards (I have two sets - plain ones and fancy ones with crowns on them.  The fancy ones make my toe stops too low).