~Ninjas~

This was posted on Barbarian Librarian's Facebook page and I had to share...

Who knew that ninja skills and roller skates could be combined?  Awesome!  Though I can't help but think that they need quieter wheels to stay in true stealth mode.

Someday

I am under the impression that if we cannot successfully execute a turn-stop, then derby life, as we know it, will abruptly come to an end.  Okay, well maybe we'll still be allowed to practice if we can't do this, but we will be shunned by polite society and we will be banned from team playing.  You could feel the ripples of panic wash over the turn-stop-challenged skaters at practice on Monday night when this edict was given.

The following video demonstrates three types of stops, the T-stop, the Plow, and the Turn-stop (or Tomahawk).   The lady clearly states that the turn-stop is an "advanced move" (1:22) and is "difficult to execute" (1:28).  I can do the plow stop and am very wobbly when it comes to the T-stop.  So I'm one for three, because the turn-stop reduces me to tears of frustration each time I attempt it.



I'll get it eventually.  I mean, I eventually got the crossing over thing after a loooong time.  Of course, I'm pretty sure that I still look like a doofus doing them and the WFTDA minimum skills requirements clearly state that one must not look like a doofus when doing crossovers (1.3.3).  In short, I am personally not in a complete panic about these turn-stops.  I haven't even passed the scrimmage assessments yet, so the chances of making a team at the end of the month were slim to none to begin with.  So, I'm just going to plod along as Slow N. Steady Sue and I'll get there...someday.

Coastal Trail and Belly Rash

I just washed off seven layers of sweat after a very, very long skate along the Coastal Trail from Sand City to Monterey.   Eight of us gathered at the Borders in Sand City this morning to gear up and skate what could have possibly been a twelve-mile roundtrip excursion.  This trail was great; there were exciting downhills, challenging uphills, gorgeous coastal views, and the weather was fantastic!

On those exciting downhill slopes, however, I tended to be a Nervous Nellie.  I wanted to go fast, but I feared plummeting to my death off the embankment and into the ocean.  To prevent the aforesaid death, I took a dive into the pavement on the first major downhill slope.  I just kept gathering speed despite my attempt at plowstopping all the way down and when the speed became too much, down I went.  I ended up skidding on my stomach along the pavement.  It was a pretty hard hit and it definitely knocked the wind out of me.  I now have a 1x2 inch patch of road rash on my stomach just below the belly button.

Soon after recovering from this bit of treachery, my forward progression was hampered by sand traps along the trail.  There are these fantastic golden sand dunes along one portion of the coast and they tend to meander....right onto the path.  There were a number of these patches along the pavement and  I quickly discovered that you cannot go through these sand traps with any sort of momentum and must either walk through them or get onto the roadway, which will thus cause little old ladies driving red cars to honk incessantly at you to get out of the road.

Otherwise the skate was pretty uneventful (in that there was no additional damage to my body).  We stopped for lunch in Cannery Row and skipped a big ol' uphill on the way back to the cars.  I ran into a coworker (Hi Phil!) who recognized me because I was wearing my Scarlett O'Feral track jacket.  The whole experience was a lot of fun and definitely worth another try!

     (This is the only picture that was taken with my camera. We stopped for a very pretty one with the marina in the background, but the kind photographer could not figure out my camera.  Oh well.  And that's me in the shark shirt.)

Track Jackets!

The Derby Santa delivered our personalized track jackets today!  I'm still a little bit nervous about going official with Scarlett O'Feral, because the derby name registry has not been updated since November 9th, but I went and got my name emblazoned across the chest of my track jackets!  Yikes!  Hopefully it will be official soon.  I skipped putting the number on them, because I just can't remember which number I chose.  

Transitioning

I have been a little reluctant to go the whole hog and fully transition into using my derby name, Scarlett O'Feral.  I changed it on our derby internal forum and then I added it to my Facebook profile, but took it off soon after.  I also haven't yet changed over the name on my helmet from FM Rachel.  I guess my reasoning is that I have not yet passed my scrimmage assessment.  I had to work late at our last assessments so I missed them and I still have doubts that I would even pass the next set and until I do pass I have this feeling that I don't deserve to use my derby name.  Maybe I am being silly about it, but I have this idea that the scrimmage assessment is a sort of rite of passage.  I kind of want to feel proud of earning my name and not just getting it because I've stuck around for 90 days and the new Fresh Meat group has some duplicates of our names.  I'll admit that it was confusing hearing Rachel-this and Rachel-that at practice last night when people were not talking to me, but I managed.  But I suppose I have to just get over this reluctance and peel the old name off my helmet and stick the new name on.

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!!

Pervert Alert

So, here I am in Cary, NC visiting my family for the Thanksgiving holiday.  This morning I decided to whip out my skates and skate to where we'll be having Thanksgiving dinner and then back to my mom's house.  Of course, I have no idea where I am going in Cary, and looking at the map now, I realize that I went the completely wrong direction, but that is besides the point.  Anyway, so out I skated into the foggy morning with only knee pads and wrist guards for protection.  It was rough going at first, because the sidewalks were covered in pine needles and fallen leaves, but eventually I made it to a pretty nice stretch of cement.  I turned around after diving into a grassy little hill in front of an old folks' home when I got nervous about stopping on a steep hill (hey!  that's why they teach us the monkey roll!).  I was wet, dirty and getting tired, so I started going back home.

When I was halfway back home, I came upon a little office complex inlet and a white car was at the stop sign.  I waved for the driver, who was talking on his cell phone, to mosey on, but he waved back at me and even backed up a bit to let me pass.  How polite!  I waved my thanks and skated on.  When I came to the next inlet, the same little white car was there with the same driver still talking on the phone.  I laughed and shrugged at him, because it was strange, but all these little inlets always seem connected somehow.  I didn't think anything of it, until I looked back and saw his fist moving quite rapidly up and down in his lap.  Seriously?  Again, I say, seriously?

The sidewalk ended just a little bit after that, so I had to skate across the road to the other side.  I turned back and saw the white car pull out of the inlet and up into the next street right in front of me.  I paused on the sidewalk to fiddle with my skates and to see if he would drive on.  A little orange car pulled up behind him, so he had to drive away.  What a relief!  I skated on, but saw the little white car again with the same driver on the phone at the next street! This was getting a little ridiculous.

I kept having to pause to fix my toe stops, which were jingling quite a bit, and I was really hoping the guy would not follow me all the way home.  I was coming up to a big intersection, where I would have to turn to the right.  I looked back and the white car was waiting at a street watching me.  When I turned to the right, he pulled out and also turned right.  He pulled into the next housing development inlet.  I paused, got my phone camera all ready, and when I skated past I attempted to take his photo!  His left hand was holding the phone (still!) and the right was very active in his lap.  When I held up the phone, he raised his right hand to cover his face.  By this time, I had started yelling at him.  I called him a [expletive deleted] pervert and, because I had had a chance to memorize his license plate, I started yelling that out at him too.

When I paused after passing the car, he backed up into the development.  I decided to chase him down the road.  I was still on skates, with loose turn stops, so I kept to the grass for some traction.  He continued backing into the development and then backed into another road off to the left.  I backtracked up the hill and decided to hide behind the bushes at the opening of the development.  When he slowly pulled up, I jumped out and clicked my phone camera.  I wanted a photo of his license plate too, but when I tried to skate over to that, I noticed that he had opened his car door.

This is where I decided to retreat.  If I had been in my sneakers I could have been a little quicker about getting the license plate and running off, but on skates I just felt so limited in my mobility and not in control of my feet. I also was not stable enough on my wheels to stay and engage this pervert in debate on the pros and cons of stalking wannabe derby girls! I started to skate on and he closed his door and drove on up ahead of me into the next inlet.  This guy would not give  up!  Luckily, I was really close to home so I was able to lose him by timing my escape into my mother's development while he was turning around to wait at the stop sign.  Once in my mom's development, I skated as fast as I could to get home and then I lost a toe stop!   [Expletive deleted.]   I frantically skated back for it, sliding along the damp blacktop.  When I got home, my mom encouraged me to call the police, which I did.  I made my report and they are now on the lookout for the pervert.

So this was the start of my Thanksgiving.  I know it will get better, because I have some really good food and wine waiting for me.  And after all that, this is the only clear shot I got of the sex fiend.  I submit to you Exhibit 1 for evidence:

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!

For Hardcore Derby Enthusiasts

Okay, so I'm getting married next October and have been perusing all of these wedding sites.  My favorite is the Offbeat Bride and a recent post featured a roller skating wedding!  This is definitely for hardcore derby enthusiasts and I cannot imagine my groom or some of my guests attempting to skate around the Palladium!  Plus this wedding took place locally in San Ramon!  Read all about it here.

(this photo was lifted from the couple's Flickr page)

Fresh Meat Craft

I am so excited by how many crafters there are on our team.  We have sewers, bakers, jewelry makers, paper crafters, sign artists, and so many more!  With our new batch of Fresh Meaties, I'm sure we'll discover that we have recruited a whole bunch of crafty women.

This blog post features a few craft items that feature meat.  Why not use these ideas to throw a Fresh Meat Support Group party?  Or with the holiday season rolling around, why not make your fellow Fresh Meat gal something from this selection?  I know our status as Fresh Meat is (in theory) only temporary, but these things are still pretty neat:

Meat Cookies

When we had our Fresh Meat graduation party, I went downtown to look for  a T-bone cookie cutter at ChefWorks.  I could not find one!  I was so surprised, because one would think that that is a pretty popular item.  I mean, who wouldn't want meat-shaped cookies  served at a backyard BBQ or baby shower?  Anyway, I continued my search on the internet and found this blog post featuring a line of meat cookie cutters from Avedano's of San Francisco.  I don't know if they are still available, because they were a limited-edition piece, but wow!  The blog post did a fancy mixed dough cookie, but I envision just a plain sugar cookie with red, pink, and white royal icing swirled together.  The downside to these cookie cutters (and the reason why I don't have one in my arsenal of baking supplies):  they cost $30.00 each, according to this website.

Embroidered Meat

My new-found sewing addiction is embroidery.  Sublime Stitching has a new line of meat embroidery patterns, called Meaty Treats.  How neat is that?  There are T-bones, sausage links, bacon, drumsticks, and much more.  You could make your FM derby sister an embroidered pillowcase to rest her weary head after a grueling practice.  Or perhaps your FM derby sister could use an embroidered towel to dab the sweat from her brow during practice.  Or perhaps she needs a canvas bag to carry all that new gear.  The possibilities are endless (and fun)!

Felt Plushies
These felt meat steaks are wonderful.  I found a blog post of a woman who is making them as toys for her baby.  Babies, schmabies!  If you love handsewing, felt, and meat, why not make some for your FM sisters!  You know that she can use them for...well, I don't know what for, because I don't own any plushies.  Though, when looking up the term plushies (to make sure I was using it correctly), I discovered that it also refers to a paraphilia.  Well, that's an idea...

And if you don't craft yourself, but appreciate the fine art of handmade goods, why not visit Etsy for some meat-themed crafts.