Maverick and I both have Monday off (THANK YOU WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN). Maybe he will want to go roller skating; I will have to ask him.
I think I have recovered from whatever was making me feel horrible on Tuesday. My chicken wing arms are still a little wonky, but so what else is new. My left elbow, which started bugging me way the heck back when, is still not quite right, but (once again) so what else is new. When you're trying to combat 35+ years of general sloth, things are not going to go smooth sailing right away.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
so
some of y'all (by which I mean no one, who reads this blog, anyway?) might notice that I do 99.9% of my posting during work hours. Why would you risk getting fired, Kicktoria*? Doesn't your job have an Internet policy?
In a word, no.
I work for one attorney who asked me once, completely serious, "How far does the Internet go?"
Basically as long as the work that needs to get done gets done, he really doesn't care what I do. Heck, half the time he'll go out for lunch and not come back until I've already left for the day (I work 9am-2pm).
I have a very sweet deal here, for which I am most grateful.
-----------------------------
*For what it's worth, I generally prefer to be called Kicktoria, but 95% of the league calls me Queen or Queenie, so I deal.
In a word, no.
I work for one attorney who asked me once, completely serious, "How far does the Internet go?"
Basically as long as the work that needs to get done gets done, he really doesn't care what I do. Heck, half the time he'll go out for lunch and not come back until I've already left for the day (I work 9am-2pm).
I have a very sweet deal here, for which I am most grateful.
-----------------------------
*For what it's worth, I generally prefer to be called Kicktoria, but 95% of the league calls me Queen or Queenie, so I deal.
in which I whine. a lot.
So yesterday I went for my personal training session with Kyle. Some stuff I've done before (bench pressing with dumbells) and some new stuff (planks! with weights on my back!). I got about halfway through when I just started feeling like crap. I don't know if it was the fact that I'd practiced the night before, or not, or what, but I got really sick to my stomach and miserable and all that. So we finished very lightly and I went home and whimpered and watched Lost and then RuPaul's Drag Race episodes online (I saw Pandora Boxx perform live at the club where we had our last bout's afterparty. She better win that whole damn contest, lemme tell ya).
So I had to do some arm-raisy exercise (I don't know what it's called) and I couldn't do 5 pounds with my right arm. It was pathetic. I figured it was from the whips I was giving at Monday's practice, so I told Kyle. About halfway through my explanation I realized how bizarre it must sound ("basically you reach behind and YANK THE OTHER SKATER WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT SO SHE'S IN FRONT OF YOU AND TAKES ALL YOUR MOMENTUM. THEN YOU HAVE TO SPRINT UP TO CATCH UP TO HER".)
But hey, that's derby.
So I had to do some arm-raisy exercise (I don't know what it's called) and I couldn't do 5 pounds with my right arm. It was pathetic. I figured it was from the whips I was giving at Monday's practice, so I told Kyle. About halfway through my explanation I realized how bizarre it must sound ("basically you reach behind and YANK THE OTHER SKATER WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT SO SHE'S IN FRONT OF YOU AND TAKES ALL YOUR MOMENTUM. THEN YOU HAVE TO SPRINT UP TO CATCH UP TO HER".)
But hey, that's derby.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
tuesday
So I borrowed a set of black Heartless wheels (88a) and they are a bazillion times better as pushers than the yellow 92a's. Even though the 88's had nearly no tread, I wasn't worried I'd fly all over the rink. So I'm going to buy myself a proper set, and then keep the 92/96 combo for the sport court.
Yesterday was the second day of Fresh Meat Cram Week (they're practicing Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Thursday in anticipation of their tryouts). There are a lot of great prospects out there; I'm excited. (There are also some skaters out there who really need to not look like they're going to fall every single second.)
I am also rethinking my travel team tryout status. Again. One of the travel team skaters and I were demonstrating positional blocking and I could not get past her at all. At all. And she's primarily a jammer. Sigh.
I did, however, get a cheap thrill out of lapping some of the fresh meat skaters during Hell (10 minutes of just skating as fast as you can). I am easily amused.
My hamstring bugged me again, as per usual. It was a sharp occasional pain, though, which, bizarrely, was easier to deal with than a constant ache. (I think that sentence wins the award for Most Commas In The Fewest Number of Words.)
Tonight is my buddy Kyle again, whee fun excitement! We had to give whips last night and I feel like I contributed absolutely nothing when giving them, and at one point someone took a whip on the outside and something in my right shoulder hurt for a moment. YAY.
Yesterday was the second day of Fresh Meat Cram Week (they're practicing Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Thursday in anticipation of their tryouts). There are a lot of great prospects out there; I'm excited. (There are also some skaters out there who really need to not look like they're going to fall every single second.)
I am also rethinking my travel team tryout status. Again. One of the travel team skaters and I were demonstrating positional blocking and I could not get past her at all. At all. And she's primarily a jammer. Sigh.
I did, however, get a cheap thrill out of lapping some of the fresh meat skaters during Hell (10 minutes of just skating as fast as you can). I am easily amused.
My hamstring bugged me again, as per usual. It was a sharp occasional pain, though, which, bizarrely, was easier to deal with than a constant ache. (I think that sentence wins the award for Most Commas In The Fewest Number of Words.)
Tonight is my buddy Kyle again, whee fun excitement! We had to give whips last night and I feel like I contributed absolutely nothing when giving them, and at one point someone took a whip on the outside and something in my right shoulder hurt for a moment. YAY.
Monday, February 8, 2010
blah
so as soon as I list through my injuries, my knee starts bugging me. The right one. It's a sharpish pain right behind the center of my kneecap. Sigh argh bleh dammit.
I went through the lamest workout on Friday and didn't even go yesterday. A SLACKER IS I.
So yeah. My grandmother died on Saturday. It wasn't a complete surprise; she was 92 and hadn't been doing that well lately, but it still really sucks. I've been making myself cry by thinking about how she's finally back together in the wherever hereafter with my grandfather, who died in 1995. They probably have a *lot* to catch up on.
In other, non-depressing news.....
Did I ever mention how old I am? I'm 36 (insert involuntary shudder here). The youngest member of our league was born THE YEAR I GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL. Sigh.
Someone is going to let me borrow her black Heartless wheels tonight (I am helping out with the Fresh Meat practice). Hopefully she'll remember to bring 'em.
(If you're asking yourself "What's all this about different colored wheels? Is she that fashion conscious that she needs to color-coordinate her wheels?", read the next few paragraphs. Otherwise, you can just skip 'em.)
Many skaters will mix their wheels - put softer, grippier wheels on the left side of each skate [the inside] and harder, slicker wheels on the right side. It helps you on the turns. "But Queen!" I hear you ask. "How do you tell the grippiness of a wheel?"
That's the durometer. It's a number, followed by an "a". The lower the number, the softer and grippier the wheel. Most wheel companies will assign a different color to different wheel hardnesses. My outdoor wheels, which need to be soft so they can go over twigs and random gravel bits and not send you flying, are 78a. My current wheels are 92a (yellow) on the inside and 96a (white) on the outside, which is just too damn slick for me. The black wheels I'm looking at are 88a. I'm thinking if I do 88a inside and 96a outside, that might work. We'll see.
The surface upon which you skate also makes a difference as to which wheel you want to use. Our practice space right now is a typical wood skate rink floor. But, we don't have any of our bouts there. Our bouts are on pretty dirty sport court and/or polished dirty concrete. I won't get to try out the sport court until April (right now it's an ice rink), but I will get to try out the concrete next Monday. We shall see what happens.
I went through the lamest workout on Friday and didn't even go yesterday. A SLACKER IS I.
So yeah. My grandmother died on Saturday. It wasn't a complete surprise; she was 92 and hadn't been doing that well lately, but it still really sucks. I've been making myself cry by thinking about how she's finally back together in the wherever hereafter with my grandfather, who died in 1995. They probably have a *lot* to catch up on.
In other, non-depressing news.....
Did I ever mention how old I am? I'm 36 (insert involuntary shudder here). The youngest member of our league was born THE YEAR I GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL. Sigh.
Someone is going to let me borrow her black Heartless wheels tonight (I am helping out with the Fresh Meat practice). Hopefully she'll remember to bring 'em.
(If you're asking yourself "What's all this about different colored wheels? Is she that fashion conscious that she needs to color-coordinate her wheels?", read the next few paragraphs. Otherwise, you can just skip 'em.)
Many skaters will mix their wheels - put softer, grippier wheels on the left side of each skate [the inside] and harder, slicker wheels on the right side. It helps you on the turns. "But Queen!" I hear you ask. "How do you tell the grippiness of a wheel?"
That's the durometer. It's a number, followed by an "a". The lower the number, the softer and grippier the wheel. Most wheel companies will assign a different color to different wheel hardnesses. My outdoor wheels, which need to be soft so they can go over twigs and random gravel bits and not send you flying, are 78a. My current wheels are 92a (yellow) on the inside and 96a (white) on the outside, which is just too damn slick for me. The black wheels I'm looking at are 88a. I'm thinking if I do 88a inside and 96a outside, that might work. We'll see.
The surface upon which you skate also makes a difference as to which wheel you want to use. Our practice space right now is a typical wood skate rink floor. But, we don't have any of our bouts there. Our bouts are on pretty dirty sport court and/or polished dirty concrete. I won't get to try out the sport court until April (right now it's an ice rink), but I will get to try out the concrete next Monday. We shall see what happens.
Friday, February 5, 2010
injuries et al
So even though you didn't ask, I'm going to talk about the injuries I've received last year while playing derby.
I managed (knock on wood) to make it through the season pretty much unscathed. Beyond my tendonitis, which I have thoroughly bored all my non-existent readers with, I had some swelling under my right kneecap in June/July/August. If I fell on my right knee it would be a big whole mess o'pain and I wouldn't be able to get up immediately. Five/ten minutes later I'd feel perfectly fine. I actually skated a bout like this, which was really stupid and selfish on my part. But finally, after taking a break and having it still bother me, I went to the doctor.
(My doctor is awesome. He's a very athletic guy and understands my need to get back out there NOW NOW NOW NOW.)
He diagnosed it as swelling under my kneecap and prescribed some supar-strong ibuprofen. He also had me get X-rays, just to confirm I didn't have arthritis.
(insert the standard TV sound effect to indicate time passing.)
Guess what? I'm starting to get arthritis!
It doesn't hurt or anything, but I do get the CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH when I go up stairs.
So that's my knees.
I also jammed my right ring finger knuckle a week before my last bout, and had to skate with it taped to my other fingers otherwise I was in a world of pain. (You can see it in the picture I posted yesterday.) Fortunately I was not wearing my rings at that practice, or they would've had to cut it off. (It's only now, four months later, that the swelling's gone down enough that I can put the ring back on.)
So nothing broken (like many other women on our league) and for that I am most grateful.
I managed (knock on wood) to make it through the season pretty much unscathed. Beyond my tendonitis, which I have thoroughly bored all my non-existent readers with, I had some swelling under my right kneecap in June/July/August. If I fell on my right knee it would be a big whole mess o'pain and I wouldn't be able to get up immediately. Five/ten minutes later I'd feel perfectly fine. I actually skated a bout like this, which was really stupid and selfish on my part. But finally, after taking a break and having it still bother me, I went to the doctor.
(My doctor is awesome. He's a very athletic guy and understands my need to get back out there NOW NOW NOW NOW.)
He diagnosed it as swelling under my kneecap and prescribed some supar-strong ibuprofen. He also had me get X-rays, just to confirm I didn't have arthritis.
(insert the standard TV sound effect to indicate time passing.)
Guess what? I'm starting to get arthritis!
It doesn't hurt or anything, but I do get the CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH when I go up stairs.
So that's my knees.
I also jammed my right ring finger knuckle a week before my last bout, and had to skate with it taped to my other fingers otherwise I was in a world of pain. (You can see it in the picture I posted yesterday.) Fortunately I was not wearing my rings at that practice, or they would've had to cut it off. (It's only now, four months later, that the swelling's gone down enough that I can put the ring back on.)
So nothing broken (like many other women on our league) and for that I am most grateful.
so
on today's episode of "My Boss Left The Office For The Day at 11:30am"....
In addition to being a fearless skater on our league, I am also its Treasurer. I'm the one who yells at everyone to pretty please pay her damn dues on time. (It's not a fun job, which is why this season I'm foisting it off on the team captains.) I'm also the one who is preparing the 501(c)(3) application, which is not very fun either. But it's got to get done, so I do it. Whee.
This upcoming week is Fresh Meat Practice. We've been holding little training sessions every few weeks, to let the freshies know what they'll need to do to pass the WFTDA assessments, and they have been running with it. They go to rinks on off nights to practice and practice and practice. They call themselves the Dream Team. It's honestly quite awe-inspiring (and a little scary; one of these chicks could take my place!) So this upcoming week they'll have practice Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Thursday, and then the week after that is their tryouts. We'll have our first full everyone on the league practice Sunday, February 21.
In addition to being a fearless skater on our league, I am also its Treasurer. I'm the one who yells at everyone to pretty please pay her damn dues on time. (It's not a fun job, which is why this season I'm foisting it off on the team captains.) I'm also the one who is preparing the 501(c)(3) application, which is not very fun either. But it's got to get done, so I do it. Whee.
This upcoming week is Fresh Meat Practice. We've been holding little training sessions every few weeks, to let the freshies know what they'll need to do to pass the WFTDA assessments, and they have been running with it. They go to rinks on off nights to practice and practice and practice. They call themselves the Dream Team. It's honestly quite awe-inspiring (and a little scary; one of these chicks could take my place!) So this upcoming week they'll have practice Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Thursday, and then the week after that is their tryouts. We'll have our first full everyone on the league practice Sunday, February 21.
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