packing packing all the packing

so I have to pack tonight for the tournament this weekend, since I'm leaving tomorrow AM when I sneak out of work early.  It's going to be crazy packing because I have to pack stuff for refereeing *and* for NSOing, so I'm making a list of all the stuff I need to bring (pencils/erasers! contact lenses! whistles! something to wear over my stripes when I'm ALTing!) but the more I make careful lists of things to bring and things to do (make sure my sports bras are clean!  cover the screwed up backplate on one of my stripes with a new one!) the more likely I am to be OMG JUST THROW EVERYTHING I OWN INTO THOSE BLUE IKEA BAGS five minutes before I have to be out the door.

Tonight's scrimmage night too, so I can't pack my pads and whatnot early.

a little bit of reffing and a lot of crafting

so Sunday was a juniors game in Buffalo, which I JRed.  At one point this happened - we were both okay afterwards though I'm still kinda feeling it.

There was also a few jams where sun glare made it impossible to see what was happening in turn one without shielding your eyes - at one point I came out of that brightness to see OH HEY THERE'S A SPRAWLED SKATER RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.  Yay for being able to do the kind of skating where your feet are at a 180° angle from each other.

Yesterday I was puttering around at work when I got a text message from the apprentice tournament head ref for River Valley Riot (who also happens to be our league's Head Referee) saying "hey, one of the alt refs for a crew rolled an ankle and there's an opening - would you like it?" and I was like OH HELL YES so that means I will be an NSO on one crew and an alt Ref on another and I will most likely die afterwards but REST IS FOR THE WEAK or something like that.

In the meantime, I've been making myself some nameplates and personalizing some NSO shirts -

I'm always worried I will spell "OFFICIAL" incorrectly

I would've liked to have used this for my name, but the spiderwebs would've been really tiny
(and this is a pink shirt - just funky lighting here)

This is with glitter HTV - yay glitter HTV!

simple but fanciful all at the same time
(this is the same shirt with the spiderweb "OFFICIAL", so that shows you how different lighting can be)

The NSO dress fits okay.  Unfortunately, the fabric is just a little too sheer for my comfort - I don't like being HI I'M QUEENIE AND THIS IS MY BRA - but I can wear a camisole underneath it and it turns out ok.  So now I have to hem it, which means I'm never going to finish it.

I also need to make myself some finger bands for scorekeeping, so the jammer referee can see my fingers.   (I know when I (I had a set once out of bright orange spandex but I made them a bit too big so they kept flying off my hand.) 

Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I realized that today is the 8th anniversary of my first derby bout.  Wahoo!  I remember being just completely overwhelmed.  Not much has changed.