Friday night, we find a copy of their roster online. We figure out that seven of their players, half the roster, played against us two weeks ago. So the roster's stacked.
Saturday morning, we load up the car and head out. It's about a 4 hour drive. We stop in Syracuse at Black Mamba Skate Shop, I buy some Gumball toestops because my Roll-Lines are completely worn down around the edges. At a rest stop further down the line we run into a bunch of Assault City skaters - they are on their way to play the Hudson Valley Horrors.
The hotel has a bar ACROSS THE PARKING LOT FROM IT. This will be important later.
We drop off our stuff and relax for a bit. I thought the bout started at 6 and planned the carpool accordingly, but it starts at 7 so we have some time. We do an off-skates workout to get our blood pumping. Load up the cars and drive to the venue.
Almost three years ago (November '08) I played my very first bout as a member of a pick-up team. It's the same venue. It's nice to be back and actually know what I'm doing this time.
We suit up and warm up. The floor is nice and grippy but filthy - we have to scrub our wheels with baby wipes after our warmup. The band they have playing is really good - they do a neat alt-rock version of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
Two lineups; I'm in the first one, playing inside. I do not like being in the first lineup. I don't like the pressure. But I sigh and go out to the pivot line. Something's wrong with their scoreboard software (I later learn that their usual scorekeeper moved to CA and took the stuff with him) so they have to figure out how to fix the new software.
So we wait.
And wait.
The scoreboard appears on the big screens they have up, then disappears.
We wait some more.
I decide to be goofy and pretend to use Queenly Magic® to get the screen to appear. I get laughs. The scoreboard does not appear.
Hey, the scoreboard's up! Oh, wait, it's showing a half-hour period. The scoreboard disappears again.
EIGHT MINUTES LATER (someone timed it) the refs finally decide "screw this, we'll time it ourselves" and we get started. Wheeeeeeeeee!
Then the second jam.....and one of the skaters on the other team gets injured. We all stop again. (Later we learn she fractured her fibula and dislocated her ankle.) They can't even move her off the track yet, so we kneel at the pivot line (her injury happened at the very end of a jam) and wait.
And wait.
We talk about how if there was a photographer swarming us while we were injured, we'd throw something at him.
We wait some more.
FINALLY things progress. We knock them down, they knock us down. We get lead jam. We score points. Skating for 20 minutes then having 15 minutes off is really, really, really annoying. We get sloppy. I fall. They fall on top of me. I get sent to the box for low blocking. Twice. I get annoyed. Twice. I get sent to the box for destroying the pack even though it was a skater from the other team, way in back, who actually did it. I get really annoyed. The penalty box guy says I look quite relaxed for someone who's there so often. (I actually think this is the most I've been in the box in a bout.)
One of our skaters forgets to put her mouthguard in at the start of the jam. She realizes it mid-jam, tries to put it in and drops it. She skates out, grabs it, shoves it in. She doesn't get a penalty.
Another one of our skaters gets her wheel clipped (or something) AND HER SKATE COMES OFF HER FOOT. She sits down in the middle of the track, puts it on as quickly as she can.
Finally, the dust settles and we are victorious again, 130-67. Yay us!
The first after party is walking distance from the venue. This is most awesome. They have pretty good food. There is talk of going to their after-after party, an early 80's dance party not too far from the after party, but we all decide that our team would like to party together and not have to worry about designated drivers, so we go back to the hotel and the bar across the parking lot from the hotel.
The best after parties, in my opinion, involve three things:
1. Dancy Dance DANCE DANCEPANTS
2. Inexpensive drinks
3. Walking distance to hotel
THIS ONE HAD ALL THREE AND IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FUN.
Whee!
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