Derby/Life Balance

It is so obvious that I suffer from the same dilemma that the girl in the above commercial also suffers from:  skating has taken over our lives!  That last line in the commercial sums it all up:  "When you've got something better to do than cook!"  Every week it seems that my grocery shopping and dinner preparation chores get sidelined because I am doing something derby-related.  Last night, we went to Trader Joe's, which is not our usual grocery store, just because we needed food for the house that is quick, effortless, and (gulp) pre-packaged.  I am not a pre-packaged food kind of person.  I like the hours needed to read through the recipe, chop, marinate, broil, baste, etc.  I just don't seem to have the time for that anymore.  If I miss grocery shopping or cooking a big meal on Sunday night, then I'm rushing to (double gulp) Safeway right after practice on Monday night just for a few breakfast things, and for dinner I'm subsisting on whatever small morsels I have sitting around the cupboard.

There are other lifestyle changes besides meal preparation that have been lost to derby as well.  I no longer seem to read books.  I am weeks behind in my book club book, because instead of devouring that book over breakfast, I am on the internet looking up all things derby.  And what about sewing?  I'm supposed to make my sister some cloth baby wipes from old towels.  My little nephew must have a super dirty bum by this time with all the baby wipes that I have NOT made.  The only sewing I have done in the past few weeks has been, well, you guessed it:  derby-related.  I still work, of course, but driving to and from appointments has been consumed with thoughts about derby and practice and skates and teammates and...you get the picture.  And what about the poor boyfriend?  He wants to hang out on Friday nights because he has barely seen me all week and all I want to do is go down to the Palladium for some Open Skate.

The only thing that I haven't fallen behind on is laundry.  And why is that?  Well, I need to keep my derby clothes laundered, of course!  I have just so many workout pants to wear and if I don't keep them clean, then I will have to resort to (triple gulp) booty shorts and tights.  I need to also wash multiple pairs of knee-high socks plus my two name shirts so that people can tell who I am at practice.  (Apparently my helmet name sticker is not really working because the letters are too big and when directly behind me people can only see "ACHE", which is how their eyes and minds must feel after watching me skate!)

At a recent work conference they had us make a pie chart detailing our Work/Life Balance.  I really need to sit down and do a Derby/Life Balance chart so that I can deal with all these changes!  Otherwise, I'm going to have to go pick up a busload of those Take 5 dinners!