Santa Cruz Civic, Here I come!

Friday Night Scrimmage 7/23 7pm Santa Cruz Civic

Santa Cruz vs Santa Cruz: League members don black and white and duke it out with no announcers, no beer, no music, just derby. AND the debut of Dewey Decibel!

Yes folks, Tonight is my first time playing derby IN PUBLIC!

Maybe that is why I woke up at 3:30 am and could do nothing but wash dishes and pay bills. Yowie!  I've invited a ton of people, friends, family, co-workers, my library director, my city manager, Jose Luis Orozco, and even random strangers-- now I wonder if that was a good idea. My thinking is that having a crowd (loud!) rootin' for me will give me the added oomph to really kick ass. Let down my fans? Never! How will I face my teenage nephews if I totally bonk?

I'm taking this afternoon off work (to go take a nap, I hope!) to prepare and this mornining on the reference desk I plan to over and over visualize myself getting past walls, accelerating like crazy on my skates and blocking, blocking blocking.

Since Wednesday's practice I've been replaying Glitter HitHer yelling "Balls to the Wall! Balls to the Wall!" as she rounded the turns on our track at the warehouse. Balls to the Wall indeed. Please, derby gods, let me unleash my inner-amazon tonight!

So much to think about... what kind of face decoration shall be my trademark?  (I'm thinking a "READ" tattoo leftover from the Summer Reading Program), when will I get to play with my new team? (Seabright Sirens, along with Barbarian Librarian). And most pressing on my mind: Will I eat shit and look like a jive-ass turkey tonight?

This derby journey has been incredible. I want to thank Scarlett for making it all happen by simply saying to me "I want to do that" when we attended our first bout just over a year ago. Doing derby makes everything else in life so much easier. My world has opened up since I braved try-outs last year. I'm so lucky to be involved with such powerful women, dedicated coaches and off-skates bad-asses (I'm talking about you, Secret!) and amazingly awesome, gritty Groms (our junior derby girls). I hope to make you all proud of me tonight!

So if you're in Santa Cruz, come on down and watch for Dewey Decibel, hopefully skatin' like a mofo!

Set for Scrimmaging? Let's See!!

A couple of weeks ago, Cinzilla had these scrimmage tanks I ordered ready for me at practice. Seeing my name and number right there in black and white made my throat go "Ulp..." a little. Am I ready to don these babies and scrimmage with the big girls?

I've experienced various delays with time off skating--including sprained (not broken!) wrist, and laparoscopic (non-derby related!) ovarian surgery. Perhaps this has made me a little too comfortable hanging back a bit? Many of the girls I tried out with have passed their scrimmage assessment tests and even placed on the Hellcats team. I watch them with pride, (my sisters are kicking butt!) but sometimes wonder, shouldn't I be pushing a little harder to catch up to these girls? Don't get me wrong... I've been having an absolute blast at practice with the new batch of fresh meat. (Birthing the Baby, anyone?) But time has flown and oh my gosh, now they've gone and reached their 90 day mark and aren't so fresh anymore themselves. I'm feeling like very moldy, maggoty meat, indeed.

Gotta move along! It's time for me to take things to the next level and push myself into the land of the scrimmaging--aka: the skaters who have been cleared for practices that involve full contact--aka: hitting. In order to be cleared for scrimmaging a skater must demonstrate a bunch of stuff including:

• good form (good, good. I can do that),
  
• that she is a safe skater with clean hits and clean falls (Pretty sure I've got that down)
  
• that she can conduct herself appropriately in a pack (Yeah, I'm good with that too)
  

• Oh, and show aggressiveness. That's where the "ulp..." comes in. The pacifist, non-athletic part of my brain whines, "I've always been a lover, not a fighter! I've never been mistaken for Sporty Spice--I didn't do soccer (or any other sport) as a kid. There's no hitting in salsa dance!!"'

As much as old voices in my head argue, I cannot deny that derby has taught me a lot. Physical and mental challenges abound. I've skated way past the point where I want to give up, shown up for practice absolutely dead-tired and left rejuvenated, and launched myself at girls trying to go 'through' my target--trying to channel every irritating library interaction of my workday into one big wallop to the quadriceps of my drill partner.

There is so much in derby that is absolutely nothing like anything I've ever done before in my life. It's been a challenging and interesting process on so many levels and I'm loving how strong it makes me feel. Really, it makes sense for me to push for this thing I really hope to master: feeling like I can really be an ass-kicker to be reckoned with. So, with that I say "Bring on the Scrimmage Assessment!"

Wish me luck at tomorrow night's practice where I'll kick off the scrimmage assessment process by having Coaches Shammy and Crushed N. Slayedher look at my skating form and determine whether I'm ready to move to the next level.

And if all goes well, I'll be able to post a picture of me wearing those scrimmage tanks soon!

Billiards Bash!

Hooray! Something to do with all the pre-bout energy!

We're holding monthly fundraisers-- building a travel fund to get our players to away games. This one is hosted by my very own committee--Spirit! Fresh Meat Franny, one of our dedicated newbies worked out the details with Surf City Billiards and it's on! This gorgeous flyer was produced by one of our newest deckhands--Thanks Cailin! Come on out and play pool and/or eat and/or drink:15-25% of what you spend on any of these activities will go to our hard-workin' girls. Yeah!

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

This is not my wrist.

There are a whole lot of bones in the wrist and the scaphoid is being pointed at here. It does not get much blood flow to it and when broken is hard to heal. It can be very difficult to detect a fracture in it, therefore MRI is frequently used.

My wrist is feeling...ok-ish. Was hurting a bit the other day, but doesn't generally. I'm not sure how long the sprain will take to heal. When I take my splint off and try to move it the mobility is pretty limited. Happy to have a splint rather than a cast and hoping to keep it that way!

A small piece of good news about my injury adventure... My insurance will indeed cover an MRI of my wrist so I'll be having that done on December 7th. If we find out the scaphoid bone is Not Broken (please please please please) then I can start the glorious rehab process... If it is broken, I will probably wind up getting a cast and that may put me out of the derby game for another 2 months... yikes!

Still gimpin' along with one arm and missing skating like crazy--staying with a friend across from Echo Park in LA and keep looking with misty eyes at the path around the lake... *sigh*. I say we have an 'injured list' support group and happy hour real soon!!

What's the verdict, Daisy?

or

 

Hope your doctor appointment goes well today!  Let us know the outcome and how much longer before you can skate again...   Sending you lots of hugs and kisses!

Setback!

A picture is worth a thousand words so I'll just say this: Be careful how you fall, deja-vu is a bitch, and I find out Friday if I'm gonna be getting a cast on my wrist.

My grandpa wrote "Super Bracelet" on the one pictured here and my mom drew a cute l'il skate with "Breakable Skater" underneath. Wah! 30 years later and here I am again! I've never felt so hungry to skate! Pigeon tells me that when you come back after not being able to skate for a while you're even better... I hope so! Bonding over painkillers with FM Jennipher (dislocated her shoulder at last week's Monday practice) has been fun but we are both itching to pass our scrimmage assessment.
Oh, and last but not least, FM Rachel's knee is hurting like the dickens tonight and FM Nikki has some bruised ribs. Yow! Yep, it's a contact sport!

Oh, and in other news.... we have some new freshies! Our (July Tryout) group is coming to be known as "Medium Rare" (or Maggoty Mouldy Meat if you've been talking to SuperFan VINdestructible) and this group of 20 some-odd new gals includes a Niki, a Rachel and a whole slew of Jennifers... Derby name usage may be in order. We'll keep you posted.

Skate on THIS?!?!?

Yesterday I finally got back on skates after what seemed like an never-ending hiatus due to an extremely persistent cold. I skated the levee with FM Jennipher and FM Alayna, telling them to not worry about leaving me behind because I imagined my stamina would be next-to non existent after such a long period of not skating. Getting back on skates was absolutely heavenly. It seemed like my entire body was tingling! And lo and behold, I was actually able to keep up with those 2 hotshots! We made it down to the boardwalk (fit in a little visit to a neighborhood rollergirl with an awesome array of stickers on her car) and most of the way back until I noticed my wheel making a funny sound. NOW, if you EVER hear your wheel 'making a funny sound' STOP AND INVESTIGATE!! I skated blithely along, hmm, wonder what that sound could mean?... until my wheel popped off! Whoa...whoooaa... whoooaaa!!! I twirled around in circles to come to a stop while the gals grabbed my wheel and found my bearing. Unfortunately, the nut to keep the wheel actually on the skate was nowhere to be seen (probably way back where I started 'making a funny sound'!) I was gingerly making my way along the levee on 7 wheels when it occured to me that this would be the perfect time for the shopping cart drill. With Jennipher in front and Alayna behind me we choo-choo trained our way back to the car. Keeping all my weight on my left foot made it cramp up a bit, and getting down the slope to the parking lot felt a little sketchy but all in all, not so much of a calamity. Phew!
Lesson learned: bumpy trails can loosen things, check your nuts 'n toe stops! Now off to buy a new nut (do I need to get a whole set?) so I can keep myself in one piece at practice tonight!

We Review Whip It

On Friday night we went out to the Whip It premiere in Santa Cruz...here's what we thought:

FM Rachel: I went into Whip It expecting to totally identify with Ellen Page's character, Bliss, a bit of Fresh Meat with TXRD's Hurl Scouts. I wanted her to struggle more and to be really bad at skating (like me) and then to triumph, but after a three minute training montage she just seemed to start flying around the track. How is that possible??? There were some other things that bothered me, namely: the food fight (who is going to clean that up?), the underwater sexy scene (why aren't they drowning?), people not wearing seatbelts (what kind of message does that send our youth?), love-interest Oliver (take a bath and do your laundry!), and on-track fighting (we don't do that!).

For all the things that I didn't like, here's what I did like:

• Kristin Wiig (Maggie Mayhem): I have a big fat crush on Kristin Wiig. She makes me laugh every time I watch her in something. Plus, in Whip It, a film with a lot of characters and very little character development, we actually got to know a little bit more about Maggie Mayhem and I liked that.
• Andrew Wilson (Razor): Another Wilson brother? Who knew? But this guy may now be my favorite one!
• The dad: Daniel Stern (think tall villain from Home Alone) was great as Bliss' father. He was sweet, funny, and tender. I absolutely loved the scene at the end with the lawn post. So touching.
• Alia Shawkat (Pash/bff): It's Maeby Funke from Arrested Development!! I thought she was just slightly underutilized in Whip It, but she was still adorable and funny.

So that's pretty much it.  My recommendation: See it if you love all things derby and are willing to overlook the movie's overall cutesiness.

FM Daisy:  I went to Whip It hoping to see something I wished I could have seen as a 12 year old. I was not disappointed. The tag line "Be Your Own Hero" is something every girl (perhaps of any age!) needs to hear. It's a great antidote to the message girls get about staying in the background. Don't limit your dreams! Be Your Own Hero! Kick ass for yourself! (And kick your own ass!) Push yourself and fight for what you want to do in this life... not your mom's antiquated picture of what femininity is!  Seeing it with skaters and other fresh meat was great, but hearing the Junior Derby girls cheer at their favorite parts was what really made my night. Those girls are being their own heroes!

• I agree with FM Rachel. The quick-training sequence did not show an accurate picture of the trials and tribulations of fresh-meatdom. I felt a little redeemed when Iron Maven said she's 36 and has had to work her ass off. I could definitely relate--It's hard to be in your late 30s and see some young whippersnapper have it come easy!
• I liked that Bliss was afraid of hitting... (not that I can relate with that At All...*whistling*)
  
• I thought the different derby personality types were pretty accurate renditions of real phenomena: Maggie Mayhem was wonderful-- tough, encouraging and hilarious! (My friend Vin says she reminds him of FM Alayna.) Smashlee Simpson didn't give a s*&$t about much... and I've seen girls like that--acting crazy and having fun and not worrying about rules or even knowing that tryouts are coming up. It was fun to see Drew Barrymore having a good time--especially beating up her 'fiance' and him loving it! Iron Maven (the divine Juliette Lewis!) was a great nemesis. She was the scary, scrappy girl--the loose cannon aimed right at you! Yikes!
  
• I loved the parents. The mom really was trying (willing to buy combat boots "At least they don't have duct tape on them") and good movie dads almost always make me cry. I loved how he looked up derby on Google. Awww!
• The Love interest: *slight spoiler alert* I really liked how the romance part of the story turned out. Was relieved that Bliss followed her bliss--put herself first ahead of some stupid guy who didn't respect her. Are there any movies besides this and White Men Can't Jump where a girl doesn't settle for a loser guy? Let me know!!
• I liked that people looked real. Dude (Oliver) had a big nose and bad teeth, Maggie had wrinkles, Bliss was super pale and Pash was super freckled. Movies are more realistic to me when people look like people I might know rather than supermodels.

All in all, I say see it! To make it even better, when you sit down in that theater seat, tune in with your inner 12-year-old girl and soak in the reminder to Be Your Own Hero!

Whoopsy Daisy!

It happened. My ass smack down on the ground.

Last night's practice, led expertly by Raven Von Kaos, was everything a good practice should be. It challenged our endurance with a pyramid sprint drill and suicide drills. It built our skills with 20 laps (in each direction) skating as a pack. It bolstered our confidence--Raven had us one by one, take the track and show the group something we're good at while the rest of the group cheered. Foxee Firestorm busted out the sweet dance moves. Pixie Painful did that trick where you balance on the front wheels on one skate, and the back wheels on another. Mildred Fierce displayed mad storytelling skills with a lovely knee-slide finale. Others did impressive Figure 4 Falls, Knee Dips, and some very cool Rexing!

And we had time for fun at the end of practice. Ever play "Freeze Tag" on skates? You should!! Raven had us divide into 4 groups (wearing colored pinnies) each with one jammer. As we all skated around the track, our jammer tagged other team members (minus jammers) while other team's jammers tagged us. Once tagged, we had to stop until another of our team members could come by to tag and 'unfreeze' us. So Fun!! During my turn as jammer I must have had the craziest look on my face as I tried (many times unsuccessfully) to tag Heather Headlocklear as she flew around. It really pushed me to skate my fastest like nothing else has.

Great practice right? Well, perhaps the cherry on top of that great practice sundae was breaking the sudden vertical drop barrier. We were scrimmaging, I was blocking in the back of the pack and suddenly, completely out of nowhere, I was DOWN! Right on my ass! I fell so hard I felt like I might find that there was a hole in the floor and my butt was sitting on the concrete foundation of the palladium! It was such an absolute surprise. I felt this fall throughout my entire body--it completely shook my entire world. My mind was working overtime. Thoughts flying through included "Did I hurt my coccyx like FM Jenipher? Did I get a concussion? Am I gonna get a super hemotoma like Roxy?" The wind was knocked out of me, my head felt really zingy and I could feel tears pushing out involuntarily... not like "I am not gonna cry" involuntary tears, more like tears that were a body function--like sweating or sneezing almost. I crawled to the middle of the track, there was no getting up from this doozy of a fall. I felt shocked and scared. People asked me if I was o.k. and I couldn't respond because I didn't know. It was a very strange and otherworldly feeling. The weirdest part was that my butt didn't hurt at all! What I finally noticed hurting (a lot!) was my neck. Derby Whiplash? I looked to Millie to try to figure out what to do. She asked if my upper body was tensing up. I thought, oh yeah, I should lie down so that I can relax my neck and not have it seize up. I lay on my back and listened to the continuing scrimmage---the sounds of shouting and the loud crash of someone else taking a fall. I lay there on my back, looking up and trying to relax. Millie stuck by me and told me to breathe, exhaling fully and letting my back relax down to the floor. I swear, that woman should market her own guided relaxation recording! Her kids must love when she reads them bed-time stories 'cos that woman really can encourage calm amid chaos. Listening to her voice, concentrating on breathing and relaxing (and not freaking out) was really completely turning things around. After a while I was able to sit up. I slowly rolled my shoulders, moved my head from side to side and couldn't detect any concussion-like feelings or other signs of major injury. In fact, I was able to block in one more scrimmage! Glad I could get back on the horse that threw me. Wasn't ready to jam, but held my own and actually did a couple of decent positional blocks (making sure my butt was in the jammer's way).

So all-in-all, the falling experience was a pretty good one. The best part was seeing that my girls had my back. Right away, people were checking on me and FM Rachel looked me right in the eye --always helpful with people who are out to lunch!--and asked if I needed ice or anything else. My derby sisters stuck with me up until I was feeling better. I got to learn firsthand that "Derby Hurts" but that we survive. Our world can be completely rocked--even stop for a moment... but we can start back up again and be ready for the next challenge. Go me!

Go Nor Cal!!

I'll be attending this out of town bout, wearing green and supporting our Silicon Valley sisters as they battle Orange County. In an interesting parallel, Rachel's attending SCDG Boardwalk Bombshells vs San Diego Derby Dolls in San Diego tonight. We'll be sure to post the details!

Boil 'n' Bite Bites Back

I have No Love for my little blue mouth-monster. I'm not sure, but I think tonight's incident with my mouth guard was the grossest yet. No, I didn't drop it in the toilet... though I do think about it, I hate it so. I was skating along, minding my business, chewing on my mouth guard as I was trying to perform any number of challenging drills tonight at Fresh Meat practice (more on the chewing later) and low and behold, I got to experience what it's like to have a mouth guard AND a hair in my mouth. YECHHH! So I'm skating and chewing along (BAD IDEA, don't engage in this nasty habit, I think I have a permanent mouth-sore on my left upper gum) and NOW I'm trying to dislodge aforementioned hair from the mouth guard with my tongue as I skate. Disgusting. And the first attempt at extracting both mouth guard and hair from my mouth (with my hands...) didn't even work. I found myself skating around the track waiting for another break in drills to make the attempt again. 2nd try was a charm. Phew!

Daisy's mouth guard experiences so far:
-Dripping drool down my front after taking it out-- check.
-Dropping it on the floor and putting it back in--oh yeah.
-Mouth sores from compulsive cud-like chewing--yep!
-Washing the thing only once. Ever.--mais oui, that's me!
-and now the hair.

Just. Plain. Gross.

Beyond Co-Dependency

One of the great things about joining a derby league is all the cool women you meet. You find yourselves working on committees together, shopping for 'Boutfits', cheering for each other through each grueling practice. Sweet, right? Well now imagine this: this girl may take major falls and sustain serious injury because of something you did. Yes, that's right. Derby is a place where you wind up hurting your friends. Now there are the normal dings and dents that happen because of a well-placed block and then there are accidents. These are the ones that kill me. As I lumber along learning to be a cleaner, better skater there is inevitable fallout along the way. There are the times my skate gets 'locked' with another girl on the track, there are the times I fail to "fall small" and poke somebody in the eye, and there are the times that I try to receive a whip from somebody in the pace line and manage to drag them to the floor. YOW!! These are the moments that break my heart. We keep getting reminded that "There's No Sorry in Derby." We're supposed to roll right by anyone who has fallen, don't apologize, don't help anyone up and keep playing. We're supposed to let it go and not let these things compromise our game. I know it's not useful to to feel this bad about hurting my new girl-friends... still there's this gut-wrenching guilt and sheepish tail between the legs shame and knowing my lack of finesse has caused another's bruises and bumps-- it causes me anguish that I can practically feel in my chest when I've done something sloppy or unskilled that results in one of my derby sisters lying on the floor. So, since I'm not supposed to say it at practice I'll say it now:

Time for Timer

Fresh Meat Girls just love to be helpful!

Went and demonstrated my go-to-it-iveness at practice on Monday night by timing scrimmages with the stop-watch function on FM Nathalie's Iphone (or was it a blackberry?) and somehow that must have prompted Head Ref Bronco to ask me to time the actual jams of the SCDG vs Tuscon game tomorrow night!! Yikes! Practiced with my very own newly purchased stop-watch and regulation Fox-40 Whistle at last night's practice and I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be. No time like the present!

Hoping I'll be as chill as these guys pictured here...

They tell me that the only thing I need to worry about is getting the heck out of the way i.e. backing up super-duper fast in my platform boots, so that I don't get run over by Hue Refner.

I think I'll be too busy focusing on TIME to notice the bout, so please, help me out and let me know how it went. Going to go make some 2-minute eggs now to practice my skills.

Do I Really Want to Hurt Me?

Sooner or later it happens to the best of us...

Call them what you will, Boo-boos, Owies, Rink Rashes--what have you. Injuries are part and parcel of the derby life.

(For this and other lovely injury photos see: Rat City Rollergirls Hall of Pain.)

SCDG Injury Status Check:

FM Rachel: plum-sized booty bruise (and btw, honey, thanks for showing me, it's adorable!)

FM Nikki: shoulder pain galore last night after a taking a spill.

Barbarian Librarian: Hurt knee from skating like a banshee (and falling) at tryouts on Monday.

Roxy Scarmichael: Daily butt bruise update: which elder statesman or rock star does her salad-plate-sized bruise (gleaned from the CA State Fair 'assphalt') look like today?

And that's just in the past week! Yikes!

Now I'm not a big faller. (Oh great, here I go jinxing myself, right?) In fact, I don't have to go past my two hands in counting the number of times I've fallen since I started this whole derby insanity. But as Coach Charlie Redstick was explaining last night, this is not necessarily a good thing... Some of us don't fall because... well... um... because we are scared to.

Unfortunately, we 'fraidy cats with our fear of falling are more likely to do things that are not in our best interest, and thereby hurt ourselves in order to AVOID a fall. In fact, Charlie says back at that fatefull practice where she tried to catch herself instead of just falling she should have embraced biting it and thereby would have avoided dislocating her shoulder.

I don't like getting hurt. My knee has been complaining to me for the past couple weeks and that's scary enough. (Apparently players of 'a certain age'--mine-- can expect constant aches and pains. Oh yay.)

But even more so, I don't like being out of control and therefore I do not fall.

While learning rock climbing I was supposed to practice 'falling on purpose' (don't worry, this is while you're geared up with harnesses and ropes and such) and I HATED the VERY IDEA!! Fall on purpose? Right, next I'll be sure to cut off a cop on the freeway and willingly slam my hand in a door! But, as Coach Charlie was saying last night "Good jammers are good fallers." I'm afraid that to become a good player I'll have to get to know the hardwood on a more personal level (isn't picking up my mouth guard off of it and putting it back in my mouth intimacy enough?). This is probably where I'm going to be (another Charlie quote) 'pushing my comfort zone'--something we Freshies should be doing as our skills improve. Somebody, sing Weird Al's "Eat it" with me and let me revel in the ensuing bruised flesh and bruised dignity!!

For now, I'll try to reassure myself with the words I used to 'drop the derby bomb' on my mom: "Don't worry, this is a much safer hobby than motorcycling!" Yeah, but for a while could I wear my leather chaps on the track?

Derbrarians

Move the hell over, 
I've got patrons to serve!

I've been getting a lot of support from my co-workers about my new obsession and many of them sent me this CNN story that was in the headlines recently.

Stereotype-smashin' derby librarian, "MegaBeth," a reference librarian in Akron Ohio, is 53 year old player for the Rubber City Roller Girls.

This article is bringing up an age-old battle for us librarians... Having to prove that librarians are actually cool. Well guess what folks. We are!

MegaBeth isn't the only librarian rolling around and taking names, let’s see more of these brawlin' biblio babes!

Judy Gloom plays for the LA Derby Dolls

Take a look at her blog, Hollywood Librarian.

Kiwi Derby Librarian, Bonne Fire from the Pirate City Rollers of Aukland, New Zealand!

See her wonderful video on the reference interview here at her blog, Derby Librarian.

Dame Deviant, a Young Adult librarian, plays for the Bend, Oregon Lava City Roller Dolls and likes to do library-supportive booty blocking!

And in Santa Cruz, we're lucky: Our league has the privilege of having 2 librarians (both in public libraries) and one retired player in library school!

Here's our very own Barbarian Librarian

Soon-to-be formerly known as Fresh Meat Kim.
She is a public library reference librarian and derby a** kicker.

*Side note* Yes folks, we have to earn our names. We spend 3 months as Fresh Meat, then need to pass our scrimmage assessment to be eligible to 'crossover' to the other side. Meanwhile, our chosen derby name gets sent to the name goddesses who have 2-3 months worth of names to get through. You better hope that your name gets approved, because if not it's back to the drawing board.

And then there's me... 
SCDG FM Profile Preview of Fresh Meat Daisy:

Tagline:
My Other Set of Wheels is a Book Cart

Why derby? 

They wouldn’t let me knock people down in salsa dancing.

Theme song:

I Was Born Making Noise- Suzi Quatro

Support your local libraries, folks, and the women who help them rock!! Oh, and please let me know of any other derby librarians rolling around out there!!

Oaks Park in Portland Rocked My World!

What's a wanna-be derby girl to do when she's out of town and has to miss practice and the joys it brings?? -- Ok, based on the description of Rachel's last Monday night practice, maybe missing wasn't such a bad thing-- Anyhow, only one day into the trip, Daisy felt the need for speed. That derby bug gets its disease into you and you find that roller rinks can beckon to you, with a flashing neon light reminiscent of demonic taunting from a cartoon character's craving. With the moon over the rink, Daisy was ready to let out a howl! Aroooo!

Oaks Park Roller Rink: http://oakspark.com/skating.html scratched that itch, and how!

But really,I was just looking for some Safe, Wholesome Family Fun! Live Wurlitzer organ music made it feel especially wholesome! The teens (also rentals) were great skaters and actually asked me when we could go skating again! Yeah!! (and contrary to the pictured sign it was not "heck" in there!)



Persistent Daisy "please, please, please will you take us to Oaks Park????" pictured here with one of her (affable) Portland hosts, Kevin. What a trooper! Thanks for making my vacation skating dreams come true!



Rental Speed skates made Daisy a happy girl. Made it easier to practice a derby stance as Artistic style skaters elegantly danced by on the palatial sized floor.

When, when, can I go back to Oaks Park?

Not yer grandma's Do-si-do

Today while I was 'on desk' my co-worker spoke to me and I made the huge mistake of turning my head toward her-- slowly about 30 degrees to the right. Aaaaaaaaa! My neck/shoulder/right arm juncture is killing me from all that whoopin' it up at practice with FM Alayna doin' the derby do-si-do: one partner whips the other from behind her to directly in front, then the other returns the favor... and on and on for what feels like about 20 laps. Super fun, but ooh that smarts! This is my first more-than-fleeting derby inflicted pain so far (I know, lucky!!) and though I was movin' kinda slow today, I did feel pretty butch. I figure if I take the pain doses incrementally I will get acclimated. Slow boiled frog, anyone?

Appropriate Dress

I was stoked to get my Bumperboy and Bumperpup Fist Bump t-shirt in the mail right before practice # 2 and wore it proudly to the rink. When Charlie (our coach) announced that we would be doing our first "bump" drills I beamed!! I was in (drag queen/girl) Heaven, my outfit matched the drill!! The 'bumps' were the babiest little hits to your partner on the hip (think 'doin' the bump' to the mellowest of motown music--perhaps the Temptations 'The Way You Do the Things You Do'). I was in a delightful hip-bump threesome and as they were baby bumps, I don't seem to have any bruises to show for it. Thanks, Debbie!

Find this and other great products at

http://bumperboy.net/