I’m pleased to announce that I’ve earned my first big badass derby bruise. It doesn’t have any color yet but as soon as it does I’ll be sure to post a photo of it. It’s gonna be a beauty;)

Here’s how it went down:
I was skating with the big girls last night in the endurance skate because beginner’s practice was canceled on Saturday due to the float trip. As luck would have it, it also happened to be the first 3-hour practice session, now that they’re doing warm-ups for an hour in the parking lot, so they can skate for a full 2 hours during their rink time.

It was a tough practice but I was hanging in there and feeling pretty good about it, considering it was my first time skating with the advanced group, but by the end of the night I was definitely starting to wear out. Naturally, in the last 15 minutes of practice, during a whips drill (which I really need to work on!), Addie whipped me into the inside track and I somehow managed to wipe out hard. It happened so fast that I’m really not sure what went wrong, I just know that I hit that floor like a ton of bricks. It’s a good thing I was wearing my helmet because my head bounced off the floor, too, when I hit. I’ve got a nice ding on my helmet now:)

I got right back on my feet and I was all ready to keep skating but as soon as I stood up my right hip protested loudly. Ow! I mean, damn that hurts! Now I’ve got a big fat lump which is actually on the back and side of my upper thigh. It mostly hurts to sit down. It’s still wicked tender.

I really need to take my skills test this Saturday, though, so I hope the pain subsides. If I were to take another fall on that spot right now I wouldn’t be able to walk! And since I tend to fall quite a bit, well, let’s hope that this thing looks worse than it feels by this weekend. But hey, this is Roller Derby, so I guess I’d better just deal with it:)

In other news, Festival of the Arts is this weekend and once again I’ve entered 2 photos in the Visions exhibition. I chose this one and this one, neither of which I’m terribly enthusiastic about. I really don’t feel that excited about any of my photos from the last year, unfortunately. I certainly don’t expect to get first place again – that was a big shock – in fact I don’t hope to place at all, but I’d be pretty happy if someone buys a print. That would help me get some new derby gear. I need better padding!

Saturday’s derby bout was BIG fun! The turnout was excellent and from what I could see the bout was awesome. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see much of the action, though. The other junior skaters and I had volunteered to mingle in the crowd selling beer, and when I wasn’t peddling my wares I was on tiptoe behind the crowd, craning my neck to catch a glimpse of the girls whizzing by on the track. It was one of those times where being short was a serious disadvantage.

The Blarney Banshees edged out a narrow win over the Yo Ho Ho’s. It was a very close game all night, which made it even more exciting. It was lots of fun but all I could think about was how much MORE fun it will be when I’m out there on the track, throwing blocks and racing with the pack! I can’t wait:)

I also didn’t get to take a single photo, since I had such a lousy view. I had my camera on me all night, just in case, but no luck. Oh well, them’s the breaks.

[See this photo on the Flickr map]

It’s been a busy week! But we’ve been doing a lot of fun stuff: roller skating, live music, and a derby dinner gathering. Tonight is Destruction Junction Derby Dames’ first public bout and it should be a blast! I’ll be there helping out and hanging out and I’m looking forward to it. Steve’s got a gig but hopefully he’ll be able to make it over to the rink afterward. I’m going to try to take some photos but since my equipment is ill-suited to indoor action shots, I can’t guarantee that I’ll have anything worth sharing. We’ll see!

In other news, Rio had an excellent week at school this week. Go RIO! He has come so far in the last year and I’m wicked proud of him:)

[See this photo on the Flickr map]

As you can see, I’ve redesigned the site. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. I also added a new page to the site. You’ll notice a link (at the top) to the Cameras page. Here you will find a gallery of all the cameras in my fledgling collection. I still need to fill in more information on each camera, and I’ll also include links to other related sites. But I really hope to see my little collection grow and it’s fun to share:) You might also notice that there’s a new camera on that page, the Argus C2. I acquired that one very recently and it has a roll of film in it right now. As soon as I finish shooting with it I’ll post some photos here.

At the March March Parade my Holga was the only camera with color film in it, so I determined that it would be my primary parade camera. I discovered quickly that it was poorly suited for the event. The parade was moving faster that I could wind the film! Rapid shooting and moving targets proved a challenge. Luckily, this guy here wasn’t moving:)