ILLUSTRATION 1.1: Calling off the jam.

Banger Sisters vs. Violent Femmes
Originally uploaded by bjmacke (a.k.a. Apron)

This is why I get bruises! When your arms start out above your head, they are going to come down swinging HARD.

And I am pretty sure I am calling it off, not lifting my arms to show I'm not back-blocking - that's the opposing jammer in front of me, that's when the jam ENDS.

Insane in the skate brain

No stats yet, it's eating me up!

I am eating myself up! Chewing on my lip, I am 100% sure there is a cold sore brewing. And my baggy of drugs had a hole in it so I left it at home - which means I did not attack quickly and I will have a big ugly thing on my lip tomorrow. Damn!

In other news, the March derby calendar makes me CRY. There are three nights when I have interleague practice (6-7), regular practice (7-9), and team practice (9-10). A: I will die of four hours of practice; B: I will die from not getting to bed early.

Other highlights:

• Weekend 1: Polar Bear Plunge, practice, Interleague photos


• Weekend 2: MNRG bout, a practice, and a meeting


• Weekend 3: team practice, oddball practice, regular practice; a scrapbooking sale, and a Matt Nathanson show with Lifehouse (haven't bought tix but I might like to go)


• Weekend 4: MNRG bout, interleague practice, no regular practice because of Easter (but probably a trip to Alexandria)


• Weekend 5: How did March get so long? Only one thing this weekend but it's a doozy because it's OUR bout.

April - well it's not as covered in blue (my NSRG calendar label) yet, but I am sure when the April calendar surfaces it will be awful. It's even bigger as our first interleague bout is in April!! It's also the MNRG Championship. As of now Jay was going down to Lincoln with me but the bouts are happening on the same weekend, which I don't think we had realized. Will the pull of visiting the Bass Pro Shop on Sunday be enough to drag him away from MNRG? We'll find out!

It isn't March yet but I already can't breathe!

Bruises, which are disappointing

So I thought I had managed to get one "war wound" from Saturday night - a bruise on my right hip bone.

Until I showed Pippi, who said I totally do it to myself because I call the jam so forcefully. The boy agreed; basically everyone agrees.

So when I call off the jam, I smack my wristguards against my hips so forcefully that I bruise myself.

That's all! Meeting was tonight, now I can't sleep.

bang BANG, that's how it's DONE

Derby rocks! Banger Sisters rule!

Saturday night, NSRG derby; Sunday night, MNRG derby.

Saturday night, Banger Sisters take revenge on the Violent Femmes (who beat us in December), winning by 107 over 70-something (no final stats yet). It was awesome! It was HELLA difficult! We skated mainly with three jammers - myself, Dominatrix, and Torii; with Vixen thrown in every now and then. Last three bouts we skated all four of us, all the time. So it was a much quicker round of skating! 2nd half, I had a skate-sit-skate (instead of two sits to rest) late in the period, and that second jam I was dying. I took a whip that I had to hang on for dear life to get, as someone was coming in between us but I was NOT letting go because I wasn't sure I could keep skating without it! So I think it was the end of that jam that I threw up in my mouth coming off the track. I looked for something to spit it out into back at the bench - but was promptly informed I was going out again almost immediately as a blocker, because I had too many penalties to jam again. So I had to swallow it! YUCK! HOW AWESOME! One of my favorite moments of the night - I must watch too much Jackass. It turned out to be my last jam as a jammer, I think, but it really is mostly a blur. Sadly we ditched the after-party - I really wanted to try Buster Hyman's Spumoni Ice Cream with Cherries - but the bar was PACKED, no room to sit and relax, no way. We picked up Wendy's and I had an M&M Frosty instead.

So Saturday was an AWESOME night, the Kilmores also kicked ass - they won by so much that it was actually a little sad to see the Deltas didn't skate better, because we know all four of our teams are awesome.

Sunday night ended with a bang but had plenty of disappointments. The Rockits-Bombshells match-up was lopsided like our own Kilmores-Delts, and it was really, really sad to see the Bombshells skating so poorly. They weren't cheating as much as we've seen recently (still plenty of elbows to the back, and of all the times she was on the track we only saw Marilyn Monrogue complete ONE jam without being sent to the penalty box!), but their blocking was absolute crap, no defense, no teamwork. Dagger Dolls-Garda Belts was much, much closer - although it was really tense for a while, the Dollies were down quite a bit - but neither team seemed to be skating really well. All over all these match-ups, I was really disappointed by the haphazard strategy (or complete lack thereof), the lack of effective blocking, the lack of jammer strategy. Still, Dollies/Gardas ended with a BANG as the final jam left the scored TIED at 62-62! Rebel Stella lined up to jam against - I think - Suzie Smashbox, and it was super close and tense. Stella probably was pulling to win with about 20 seconds left, but in a move I think was unfortunate Candi Pain decided to hell with it and just pulled someone to the ground, I don't even remember who, and started hitting. So while the Dolls pulled out a 2-point win, I think it's a little tainted - their first win since the season BEFORE last ended with cheating. HOWEVER, you have to admit it was incredibly exciting!

I told Jay, how am I supposed to have two nights of derby, and come back to work and function? Thankfully I am pretty busy and doing alright. Tonight we have a league meeting instead of practice. Hopefully we'll get stats and scores and photos soon, although it does take a few days. I update everything in a Myspace blog on the official NSRG Myspace as soon as I get it, and we get it up on the website ASAP as well, so watch those spots for everything!

Mr. FatCat always makes us awesome vids - check this one out! It starts slow, but I'm the "grand finale"!

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Roller derby ruined my life

Well, no, of course it hasn't; it just means I am missing the company holiday party tonight. Maybe your company holiday party is lame, but mine is having the same awesome band that played last year, High and Mighty. I really wanted to see them again! Plus, the food is great, and I think it's funny to watch coworkers get drunk (and I suppose I am simultaneously entertaining them with my own drunkenness).

However, tonight is our pre-bout team meeting, and while I was ready to skip it (shh!), the boy disagreed and insisted on/reminded me of the importance of being there. So if I did skip, he wouldn't have been my date for the party, and that would be no fun. Buzzkill. So I'm going to the meeting, and he's watching Jackass 2.5 with a friend whose partner also said "no date" - as last year she had to pull over on the way home so he could throw up. Oops! It is an important one this time, hopefully it will make me more confident for tomorrow night - instead of more nervous. I already couldn't sleep last night because of nerves (I'll just have to make sure I get drunk enough to pass out tonight!). Still, once I fell asleep I had an awesome sex dream, so that's alright.

We are getting Chipotle tonight as they are a league sponsor; so go eat at Chipotle!

Cupcakes

I am apparently obsessed with cupcakes. It started with a pair of underwear, then earrings, a belt, more underwear, and now I am going crazy trying to find a shirt, with cupcakes, to really beat this one to death.

I am going to buy some cupcake-themed postcards tonight, but it's a birthday thing. I will pick my sister up a cute photo frame and put the postcards in, obviously destined to be replaced on her end but cute while it lasts.

Lots of fun bouting on Monday night. Last night's practice was just silly. It was a "games" night, but the games got dull, my attention span dried up, and no bouting meant no adrenaline to keep me going. YAWN.

Tonight I am ditching the boy, I just have too much to get together with the bout on Saturday. I'm going to Kohl's and Border's for some necessities, then home to clean some skate wheels, change laces, whatever I can get done tonight so I don't have to do it all on Saturday. I don't want to add more stress to that day.

In other news, why is it so difficult for people to make sheets with fun, cute, bright patterns that DON'T have a crappy thread count? Oh, and that don't cost tons of money (come on, Sin in Linen, have a damn sale!). And, since I'm scrapbooking again, it would be really nice to find stickers and embellishments with quad skates, not inline. Those are my complaints. For now.

Naptime, Milk and Cookies

Derby practices should all include naptime, and when we wake up we should all get milk and cookies.

I am so tired. I didn't leave J's until "late" last night - it's late when it's a half-hour drive home, 2 trips to get everything up the stairs, and then deciding your stove is dirty and cleaning it. My beautiful Valentine roses are on the table and will be pretty much the first thing I see when I walk in the door. They are lovely, I really don't know that I've ever seen such large blooms.

Other than that the weekend was not at all exciting. I went to an open house after derby practice on Sunday, or tried to - I get to the cul-de-sac and the signs are in front of the wrong townhouse. I went in anyway, it's part of a section with 2-bedroom units so I wanted to check it out - it was hideous. I learned that the open house I was expecting was canceled, as the seller had a fight with her boyfriend and (temporarily?) took her place off the market. Funny, but flaky. We went to the grocery store on Saturday, I ran some other errands on Sunday, but pretty much just watched TV all weekend. I can't wait for warmer weather.

Sunday practice was okay, b&w scrimmaging. Tonight is more bouting, last night before the real deal on Saturday. This weekend will be huge; our bout on Saturday, MNRG on Sunday. Better find some time to sleep between now and then.

Valentime's Day

Today is my birthday but I got the question wrong in kindergarten. I only knew I was born on "Valentime's Day". Valentine's Day is my second favorite holiday, in between Christmas and Halloween, mostly because it's my birthday and I get presents (see also: Christmas is my favorite).

Apparently Hit Man is cooking me dinner tonight! I am excited. I had thought to bake a Kahlua Cake but of course, the only night I could do so was Tuesday - too early! He got territorial about the oven when I mentioned baking tonight, so it might wait until the weekend. I already got a very large bouquet of roses for my desk, they smell very sweet. Too bad I can't place them where I can see them - damn gigantic monitor.

So tonight we'll relax. I have a nice romantic 1950s movie (An Affair to Remember), and last month's bout DVD (which is also damn romantic!).

Tomorrow night is crazy. An old friend is having a birthday shindig at the Shout House, and I really do want to see her and the dueling pianos. BUT NSRG is hosting our first-ever open scrimmage at the Hole*, and there's the possibility - although slight - of skaters from other leagues showing up to skate. So I would like to do that, too. I still haven't decided. Friday night is my fun, drunk, sexy night, and I learned last week that I don't particularly like going to practice and getting sweaty on a Friday. But it's an open scrimmage!

I'm also making caramel rolls this weekend. Wonder if there will be enough left over to share with the Bangers at Sunday practice?

FIRST POST!!11!!

Have to have at least one post to play around with this.