Sunday, March 14, 2010

Day 22 Open skate and FIRST BOUT!!!

No I didn't ref the bout, that's silly, I can barely skate.

Well actually I'll scratch that, I can now officially skate. Not well, not skilled. But there is no terror or anxiety before skating. I don't ask myself why there are little wheels on my feet when I strap my skates on. And it doesn't take half an hour to warm up before I feel ok. Now it just takes a lap or two. What this means is that I can no longer be a weenie at practices. I have to skate the whole thing and skate a lot harder.

But I digress. Lets talk about the day.

The bout was Saturday and there were no practices so I wanted to get in a little skating before I went. I may have grossly miscalculated how much time I would have, but I still got about 45 minutes in before it was time to go.

It was a family open skate, which I initially felt was a bad idea. I couldn't go very fast with all the small children. Kids are tough because they explode like landmines left and right and you are constantly dodging. But in the end I decided this was a good thing as I needed to practice sticky skate. In the short time I had, my thighs were thoroughly brutalized and soaking me with sweat.

Onto the next project. The bout. And not just any bout. We had our first bout. Our league has not yet separated into individual teams so they took a group of our best and set them against the Hula Honeys of Jet City Rollergirls.

The game was awesome. It's funny because I've only been with these guys for 3 weeks. But I feel so into the whole thing. I'm pretty sure that even with all the newness, my inability to skate well and having really no experience at all, this has still made the coolest I've ever been.

But anyways we bouted. The girls worked hard. They were getting their feet wet for the first time and did a pretty good job. We didn't win, but there were some freakin awesome moments and jams. We had a big group of fans cheering and it made everything that much more fun. I don't think I've cheered so hard for anything.

My husband and kids were there. The kids are still a little young for watching a full bout, but they had a great time cheering and watching the skaters.

After the match I went to the after party. That was pretty cool too. I'm not a world class socializer. Small talk is not my forte and I really don't know anyone that well except Bricks. But it was actually the most fun I think I've ever had at a bar/party function.

No one parties like derby girls. And when I mean party, I don't mean drunken craziness. That would have actually been kind of boring. You see the thing with derby girls, and I don't know if this true for all of them, is they don't seem to pull the cool card.

I used to hang out with people who were cool. I wasn't cool, but somehow they still let me be around. And it was lame and boring. They were so focused on being super cool that they seemed to have forgot how to have fun.

With the derby girls,and their associates, I feel like they do something really cool that they work hard at so they have their default cool guy card. They don't need to try to act cool on top of it. They are cool. So when they party they just have fun.

They were dancing, there was karaoke, there was Spice Girls. It was fun and comfortable, kind of like a big pajama party, but at a restaurant with drinks. I had so much fun watching everyone, singing along. It was without a doubt the most fun party I've been to.

Then there were all the players, coaches, associates and refs. No one knows me that well. We've mostly just met a time or two over the past weeks. But that doesn't seem to matter. I sat at a table with a few other league members chatting away. People kept stopping by to talk to me and the other ladies at the table. It was so comfortable and nice. It was kind of like how I think people should, but don't seem to be.

Honestly I don't need a lot to enjoy someones company, but it's amazing how few people try. Last nights party everyone tried. People I had never met introduced themselves, chatted it up, and in general were just great. I don't know if it's always going to be like this, but if it's even half this good, I'm in, full on and for real.

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