Archive for January, 2008

Dance revolution

January 23rd, 2008

Mike Long is my new hero. Check him out.

Hell on wheels

January 21st, 2008

It’s been a nice 3-day weekend. Saturday we celebrated Emily’s birthday with the kids and got to meet her new beau, Alex. He seems like a fine fella and if he sticks around after hanging out with all of us for an afternoon then he’s probably worthy of her;)

After some lunch and birthday cake, we all went skating (of course) and Emily worked on regaining her skating legs. She wants to try roller derby and plans to start attending beginner practices next month. So I think she’ll be spending more time at the rink between now and then, which is great! The more, the merrier! We are already well on our way to dominating the Saturday afternoon skates sessions. Small children and wobbly skaters, beware. Mwahahahahaaaa!

Sunday night derby practice was awesome. I never had so much fun getting my ass kicked, and boy did I ever. Mama Knee-Ya led the practice and introduced a new drill in which we divided up into 2 packs, and then one person from each pack took turns playing the jammer. Whoever was jammer had to break through both packs while racing around the track. It was my very first full-contact blocking drill and it was both humbling and exhilarating. I was so exhausted from being knocked down and then racing to catch up with the pack that by the time it was my turn to be jammer I was all used up. I never did get through either pack, but oh well. For the remainder of the drill I decided to focus on staying upright and blocking, and that was more than enough.

My determination to improve my fitness level has been renewed. I’m hoping to start skating outdoors soon, but this winter weather is a major impediment. For now it’s just me and my stationary bike. It certainly gets the job done, but it’s boring as hell.

Soon, however, I will have thighs of steel. Steel! Oh yeah.

Catch me if you can

January 18th, 2008

Wow, what a week it’s been! Derby practice started back up and I’ve been skating a lot and getting faster and I just keep having more fun every time. I also took my second artistic class, at which I ran into our derby coach, Coach Ken. He also coaches the local artist skate club. He surprised me by trying to persuade me to switch from derby to figure skating. I told him to ask me again in 5 years. Artistic skating is certainly harder, but it doesn’t thrill me much. I’m just doing it to improve my skill set and comfort level on skates. I’m more likely to go for jamskating. Dancing on roller skates has a lot of appeal since dancing and skating are two of my all-time favorite activities.

On Thursday evening we all(Me, Steve, Rio and Tyle plus Darelle the neighbor kid) entered a dodgeball tournament at Rio’s school, and that was big fun, too, at least everyone but Rio had fun. He was tired, cranky, and inconsolable all night, which is a shame because it was otherwise a good time.

Later that same night Steve and I went to Retro Skate and that was lots of fun. I pushed myself, trying to skate low and fast, weaving through the crowd. I got a good workout, which is a bonus. However, I very nearly broke my neck once when I collided with a guy twice my size. We both went down and he inadvertently slammed me into the edge of the wall, my neck taking the force of the blow. I heard all the vertebrae in my neck crack in succession when I hit. It’s pretty sore today but I feared much worse at the time so I think I got off lucky.

I had a consultation with a surgeon about my lump, which was recently re-diagnosed as a lipoma. He looked at it and said, “That’s not a lipoma. It’s fluid.” He thought he could drain it with a needle but warned me it might fill back up again. I wanted to find out if he was right, so I told him to go ahead and give it a try. I don’t mind needles and I’m game for anything that might work, especially since it’s non-invasive. Well, it didn’t work. He didn’t find any fluid. So he decided that I’ve probably had this lipoma all along, and I just never noticed it until I banged it up and it became painful.

You tell me, what woman doesn’t notice a fatty growth the size of a lemon on her ass?? As if.

I don’t care what they want to call it, just get rid of the damn thing already.

He scheduled my surgery on the 30th, and then all the secrets of the mysterious lump will be revealed. Stay tuned. There will be before and after pictures!

So yeah, it’s been an action-packed week and I enjoyed every minute. Now it’s Friday night and Steve and I are staying home for a quiet night. We’ll make our own fun;)

Skate jones

January 9th, 2008

I set up this blog so I could post even when I don’t have any new photos, so it’s about time I wrote something, eh? I’ve been distracted by my new facebook and myspace profiles, both of which I swore I would never have. Never say never. Due to roller derby networking on myspace and long-lost family on facebook, I caved. But using those sites has made me appreciate this one anew, because I’m a control freak and this space is ALL mine.

Lately I’ve had the constant urge to be on skates all the time. I really, really want to get some outdoor wheels for street skating. I tried it over the weekend on my second-hand rental skates and it was pretty fun, but those skates suck. Or rather, the wheels and bearings are shot all to hell. If I could just replace those with some outdoor wheels I’d be good to go.

I had entertained the notion of roller skating to work every day in good weather, but Steve talked me out of it. If I had good wheels I might consider it, though. We’ll see. In any case, I want to do some more outdoor skating.

Roller derby practice starts back up January 16th. I can’t wait!

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