Week 18 Geek Out Moment BOBIII #2

So we met a lot of really cool people. Really cool. Like the people you would have kept hanging out with had they not lived in another state.

I remember back in the days of less brain function when I would travel the country following some here unnamed bands, meeting people and friends. Then the sad reality of life would creep back in, that once it was over I would likely never see them again.

Enter Geek Out Moment #2, Facebook.

Facebook has been instrumental into my reintroduction of social life after children.

Pretty much everyone I met at Battle of the Banked has acquired enough nerd points to be on Facebook.

So when we left San Diego we brought all our new friends home with us, via Facebook.

Week 18 Geek Out Moments BOBIII

I met Smarty Pants from TXRD. She was driving a van and stopped to see if I needed a ride.

I totally pretended that I hadn't just watched 3 days of Rollergirls back to back.
She totally pretended she didn't know I knew who she was.

Stars in Roller Derby are most likely not stars anywhere else, but the geeking out is just as good.

Week 18 Introducing Banked Track

Holy Fuck! Sorry this blog is not rated PG.

This weekend I went to the fabulous world of Banked Track Derby. So thus far in my derby career we have been learning and playing by flat tracked wftda rules. We have been trained by the local flat track gurus, Texie Scoldem of Rat City and RPOD previously of Jet City.

These guys know the rules and regulations, the in's and out's, the do's and don'ts. As far as flat track goes we have been in very good hands and I believe our progress has shown that.

This weekend was spent learning, training, studying, working, and of course drinking. I met a lot of super cool people and made some new friends. But most importantly I have learned how different banked track is from flat track.

These are details I will go into later. Our league has a lot of decisions to make on how to approach the change over, how, when, where, ect. And I haven't a clue what that will look like. Stay tuned.

Week 17 Battle on the Banked

This is a very cool day. Today I will fly to San Diego to contribute my mad NSO skills to the Battle of the Banked.

Well actually my skills aren't that mad, and the rules are a bit different, so even if my skills were mad, they wouldn't really count for the banked track. But whatever.

I'm flying in a plane. Not excited.

Learning some new rules, totally excited.

And participating in my first and most undoubtedly bad assed banked track roller derby!

I got the line up yesterday of what jobs and when I'm working bouts. Hah! They listed me as an OPR. Outside Pack Ref. Which first of all, on banked track, I have no idea what that means. Second of all, I have only OPR'd 3 times. Not well, not fast, probably not a good idea. But not to worry, they switched me out for another position.

But whatever. I leave tonight, first solo trip, first banked track, first for reals.

Week 17 Back in the saddle

Yeah!!! After 2 and a half weeks off skates I finally made it to practice.

I missed two entire weeks of practice due to home projects and the last scrimmage I had been an NSO. These were projects that needed to happen and could not wait for my skating schedule. I put the time in and now life can go back to normal.

I had still been able to go to the gym most days so I didn't regress at all. And I wasn't actually worried about how it would feel to get back on skates.

Skating has been somewhat stressful for me the first few months. I always would wonder if I still knew how to skate every time I went to practice. Fortunately after several months I have convinced myself that I do know how to skate.

So last night's scrimmage finally arrived after days and days of longing for derby. I strapped my skates on and hit the floor. A couple laps later I was right back where left off. It felt so good to skate.

I've been doing a lot of weight lifting and the extra strength is paying off. I was the outside pack ref, which is currently my favorite position. I get to skate skate skate, crossover crossover crossover. It's weird how 2 weeks off and my crossovers are greatly improved. I'm skating much much lower now. I was never winded, never tired and it all just felt really good. Now I just need to figure out how to get faster!

Week 17 Finding some balance

I completely skipped week 16. You see the first four months of derby, I hit hard and heavy. Pretty much everyday was at least partially devoted to derby or skating. But the month of June has been a little tough for me.

I made a deal with my husband that I would get 3-4 months to get my skating up to a basic level and he and the family would sit in the sidelines for me.

The kids didn't really notice any difference because I am home with them all day during the week. But my husband was missing out on us spending time together. Evenings and weekends were devoted to skating and he took over with the kids.

So now I am trying to make a schedule that includes a good combination of working out, skating, derby, and family time. I think I have the schedule well worked out but the month of June has required me to take a significant break from derby.

We had to get the house cleaned up. All the work from last year and the winter had fallen to the wayside while my husband was injured and now that the weather was sort of turning we had a lot of catch up.

Also we decided to turn the storage area in the studio into a gym. Specifically this gym is being made available to the skaters on my league so those who are injured, can't afford a gym membership, have kids, or just want to work out together can come and get some exercise in. It's also for me too, so that I can be motivated to exercise more.

And finally the chicken coop is being remodeled. We had gotten a little out of control with the chickens and our backyard had become unusable because of it. This weekend we will demo and rebuild the roof and separate it from the studio.

These are all projects that needed to happen and I couldn't skip out on them. Trying to balance things I need to do and things I want to do is just not always easy. And because the house and family needed time I had to miss out on derby.

I've hit a few practices off and on, but nothing like I need or want. And while it's hard to be ok with it, I have to just sit back and chill. I read the posts of the other girls talking about practice. I miss going, I miss them, I miss being a part of it.

But what keeps me going is knowing that they will be there when I'm ready to go back. Knowing that they miss me and look forward to seeing me again too.

Week 15 Part of the gang

Today was a suck ass day at practice. Maybe I'm getting old or maybe I just need to get into better shape, but last nights alcohol kicked my ass. I felt like a freakin noodle, no strength, no energy. I'm ok with days like that, they happen and I get through them.

But the bummer part was after practice Don Juan asked if I wanted to stay and ref for the PFM scrimmage. I really wanted to do it. And honestly I was so excited and flattered to be recognized as one of the refs. Even though Don Juan knows I am learning and not particularly skilled.

See that's one of the misconceptions about joining teams or activities. I think a lot of people think that if you aren't awesome or one of the best then why bother. I've gotten very far in life being mediocre at a lot of things and being good at very few things.

I don't look to be the best. I work hard to always be better but I don't measure my success at being the best. Success for me is showing up, being part of it, and being known for working hard.

If I am ok, then that's good enough for me. If I work hard and become good, well that's ok too.