Life is about challenge and disturbance, about pushing our edges, rocking the preverbal boat but you can’t rock the boat unless you have an anchor or you will end up lost at sea. Depending on friendships as our anchors gives us the support we need to take great risks in our lives. –Angela Kearns
I ultimately broke one day I had (to coin my own quote) to many anchors pulling at me and something had to break.. no way around it, I had to cut one or be pulled under so I cut the one with the least impact on my friends, the one that was just impacted me… maybe too much “mi vida loca”.
When I stepped back into that warehouse last night, felt the cold dirty air, heard the sounds of girls laughing and watching them dawn the gear to skate and just be free.
I know now, yeah, I know… I took too much time a time away from myself. That was not my intention mind you, but it seems that I made myself too busy with family and other obligations to make it near impossible to focus on much else. What I learned tonight from roller derby was about the wonderful thumbscrew and rack I did on myself , my self-sabotage that ended up costing me more than I can let you dear readers know.
I don’t do the poor me posts very well… and this has started off pretty emo – so fuck that and I want to say in truth:
I love the girls who play Roller Derby. I’m still very much a newbie, but I’ve never come across a group of such inspirational, awesome and above all friendly girls in my entire life! They’re such a supporting bunch of people an every training session has such a fantastic, positive vibe (as do the sessions in the hot tub afterwards!).
Viva la Roller Revolution!
Photos by: Mr Ego, AKA Jason Santti :D
I really had no idea what to expect coming into this Derby world, a true rookie to the sport, the only knowledge I had was based off of the few times I had caught glimpses of the vets playing the game why the fresh meat practiced. Roller derby involves one part aggressive combat, one part speed/agility skating and one part spectacle. It’s better than any other sport I have ever played, honestly the last team sport I played was in “World of Warcraft” PVP arena… Melancholy I know. Derby is it’s a subculture, influenced by a do-it-yourself punk and a fierce sense of femininity. To me the "skatepunk" look is more the Cyndi Lauper, Sex Pistols and Billy Idol type that I dreamed of dressing like when I was a teenager in the 80’s. I still remember my mom refusing me to wear anything that crossed the line of being an individual.
And I’m off topic again… I’m trying to talk about last night’s derby scrimmage. Our first time in a pack play playing the game I was the Jammer, and Travis or as they call him “Mr. Gyro” was watching so I was hyped up and excited beyond butterfly’s, I had so much hyper trapped into my little body that I used it to lap the pack like 5 times and I retained lead jammer! If it was a real game I imagine that I would be on the shoulders of the girls cheering and singing my praises because I am the point scorning bad ass jammer queen of the world!!
Way off topic…. And into daydream land…
I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t been scared, at times. But the idea of challenging myself to improve physically and mentally is there burning inside to make a stronger girl. I never know what will be in store for me or my ass, and I’m constantly looking like a douche when I can’t stop and roll into other girls, or feeling like my back will literally explode if I have to squat for one more second. All that aside, when practice is over, all my mind does is pace about the million little things I learned and the thousands more to come. Being new, the information is endless, which can be taken in two ways–as chaos or opportunity–and I’m going with the latter. Every practice I’m surrounded by a great group of ladies laying their hearts on the track and if that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is. Derby is rowdy and passionate, it makes you feel alive.
And I’m off topic again… I’m trying to talk about last night’s derby scrimmage. Our first time in a pack play playing the game I was the Jammer, and Travis or as they call him “Mr. Gyro” was watching so I was hyped up and excited beyond butterfly’s, I had so much hyper trapped into my little body that I used it to lap the pack like 5 times and I retained lead jammer! If it was a real game I imagine that I would be on the shoulders of the girls cheering and singing my praises because I am the point scorning bad ass jammer queen of the world!!
Way off topic…. And into daydream land…
I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t been scared, at times. But the idea of challenging myself to improve physically and mentally is there burning inside to make a stronger girl. I never know what will be in store for me or my ass, and I’m constantly looking like a douche when I can’t stop and roll into other girls, or feeling like my back will literally explode if I have to squat for one more second. All that aside, when practice is over, all my mind does is pace about the million little things I learned and the thousands more to come. Being new, the information is endless, which can be taken in two ways–as chaos or opportunity–and I’m going with the latter. Every practice I’m surrounded by a great group of ladies laying their hearts on the track and if that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is. Derby is rowdy and passionate, it makes you feel alive.
my Subconscious is evil, just downright Malicious, it told me that I needed hummus, feta cheese and olives stuffed with garlic cloves today for lunch... so I diligently obeyed went to the store... halfway through my yummy lunch I remembered I have Derby practice tonight...
The weather couldn’t have been better for yesterday’s Pride Parade. It was wicked awesome fun skating with the Red Rocketts we all had so much fun. The crowd of people watching got to see us skating around in circles, playfully checking each other, screaming, and periodically laying 3 girls down and skate jumping over them, girls were packing up and sprinting down the street as fast as we could in our outdoor wheels. I enjoyed slapping the hands of young fans and people watching. Over recent years there has become a change for community groups to express themselves, be creative and be involved with something wonderful. How could we not get involved in supporting our community and our rights to be who we want to be? Not to mention I think that parades seem to have been designed with skaters in mind.
Next time I will make sure we have a car at the end of the parade route to pick us up, because we had to walk all the way back (grin)
Next time I will make sure we have a car at the end of the parade route to pick us up, because we had to walk all the way back (grin)
Arch Burning-Toe Numbing Pain
Okay my skate from heal to toe fits like a glove, but it’s the ball of the foot to my little piggy that is too small and makes my toes squishy-sleepy-no-fun. Last week I wore no socks and I had no problems so I think I will try some real thin socks or nylons to see if that will help the comfort level. TBC…
On another note I have so far passed the minimum skills requirements I have been tested on and I am looking forward for the rest of the skills testing so I can Scrimmage.
My small follower’s thank you for your time, this will be a bit longer post than normal. I have actually written posts every Friday after practice but most of them just notes and little comments, thoughts and feelings nothing substantial to publish so this post will be a combination. Enjoy
The Battle of the Skates
Tools and Advice from people the interwebs with good old trial and error.
Part 1
Arch Burning-Toe Numbing Pain
Within society and particularly the part of society that controls fashion, the smaller breasts you have the cuter the bra. If you’re a man reading my blog then yes this is true, they tell you small is cute. It’s completely different with shoes the larger size shoe you have the more choices. I wear the smaller shoe they make for women and I generally have the least choices to choose from regarding style, type and cuteness, sometimes places don’t even carry my size 5 and I’ve had to buy a shoe in child’s sizes or buy a size larger and stuff the toe to fit me.
Back on track the reason I took time explain this is because when I walked into the Pro-Skate shop and they were selling a gently-use-once pair of size 5 shoes I jumped at the chance not knowing anything about skates or the way they should fit. I tried them on skated a few feet and in the overly excitement of what I was about to do jumped in and bought them without a second thought. Now I have only worn them for 8 sessions so I know I still have some breaking in to do. I started with 2 different pains, first the arch of my right foot would burn as if being pulled a different direction then rest of my foot and placed on hot coals and second my toes are going to sleep as if when I skate a merry lark of sheep dance about inside my shoes for my cute toes to count and fall into the dreamy land of painful needle sleep.
The burning in my arch was the first thing I attempted to fix, so asking around and reading up I determined this was a 2 part cause and effect first when you skate your right inner foot is doing most all of the hard work and my laces were too tight. I re-laced my skates skipping the eyelets right above my arch so the laces do not add extra pressure and that seemed to help along with stretch out and rubbing that portion of muscle in my foot before skating. I haven’t had the burning for a few sessions so I believed this helped.
Sleepy toes is still a big problem for me and I’m still experimenting with different methods the toe box and socks maybe even stretching the shoe out, so I will report later on what works and what doesn’t.
Here is a site with a ton of variations on how you can lace shoes and skates
http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/lacingmethods.htm
Tools and Advice from people the interwebs with good old trial and error.
Part 1
Arch Burning-Toe Numbing Pain
Within society and particularly the part of society that controls fashion, the smaller breasts you have the cuter the bra. If you’re a man reading my blog then yes this is true, they tell you small is cute. It’s completely different with shoes the larger size shoe you have the more choices. I wear the smaller shoe they make for women and I generally have the least choices to choose from regarding style, type and cuteness, sometimes places don’t even carry my size 5 and I’ve had to buy a shoe in child’s sizes or buy a size larger and stuff the toe to fit me.
Back on track the reason I took time explain this is because when I walked into the Pro-Skate shop and they were selling a gently-use-once pair of size 5 shoes I jumped at the chance not knowing anything about skates or the way they should fit. I tried them on skated a few feet and in the overly excitement of what I was about to do jumped in and bought them without a second thought. Now I have only worn them for 8 sessions so I know I still have some breaking in to do. I started with 2 different pains, first the arch of my right foot would burn as if being pulled a different direction then rest of my foot and placed on hot coals and second my toes are going to sleep as if when I skate a merry lark of sheep dance about inside my shoes for my cute toes to count and fall into the dreamy land of painful needle sleep.
The burning in my arch was the first thing I attempted to fix, so asking around and reading up I determined this was a 2 part cause and effect first when you skate your right inner foot is doing most all of the hard work and my laces were too tight. I re-laced my skates skipping the eyelets right above my arch so the laces do not add extra pressure and that seemed to help along with stretch out and rubbing that portion of muscle in my foot before skating. I haven’t had the burning for a few sessions so I believed this helped.
Sleepy toes is still a big problem for me and I’m still experimenting with different methods the toe box and socks maybe even stretching the shoe out, so I will report later on what works and what doesn’t.
Here is a site with a ton of variations on how you can lace shoes and skates
http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/lacingmethods.htm
