Tick Tock

I have ten minutes before I have to leave for Fresh Meat practice. I am dreading it, of course, because last night was another fiasco of a practice. I could not even hold in the tears until the end of practice. I started leaking probably less than 45 minutes into practice due to my absolute inability to do a turn stop and due to multiple crashings to the ground while trying to execute said stop. Eventually, someone noticed my discomfort and I was then given some personal instruction by Charlie. Then the turn stop seemed nice and easy, but I was doing it slowly while also holding onto the handrail...but then we had to do it during suicides and it just would not come. Blah.

I had a bit of a break when I was called out of the pace line to have Pigeon look at my skates. That was actually really nice, because I made her narrate the entire process so that I could get my Skates/Wheels 101 fix. I rejoined the pace line only to eventually fall and trip a girl or two behind me. My knee got pinched in the fall, so I skated to the side to shake out the pain. Shamrock N. Roller then skated up to me and asked how I was doing and we talked about how derby is an emotional sport and she said that even though she yells during practice, she is really nice one on one. That was nice to hear, because she is intimidating when she yells. She also reminded me that I was there for a reason, because there were some girls who did not make tryouts and that I am not the only one who has ever been a beginner skater. That was also really good to hear, because it does seem that everyone else must have emerged from the womb with skates attached.