...

normally this time of year I would be doing a year in review thing, where I'd post links to some entry from each month that encapsulated my derby experience of that month

instead I'm just going to sigh very heavily

I do want to say that I was lucky to have the experiences I did have this year - I got to be a THR!  I officiated three games, which is three more than a lot of people this year!  I got to see my son be a frickin' awesome NSO!  

so yeah, wear your goddamn masks and hopefully we can get back to this sport soon.

some people are optimistic

 my son and his best friend exchanged Christmas presents early

he was given a pair of black combat-ish boots

he said he probably wouldn't wear them on a daily basis but would definitely wear them to derby things

I said "if there are derby things"

and he said "there will be.  don't worry."

I will hold onto that

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decided to read through past entries

"Then we're on break until September, so it'll be three weeks of no derby.  That will be odd."

TRY EIGHT MONTHS OF NO DERBY WEEP WEEP WEEP SIGH

still here, sorta

I'M GETTING REAL TIRED OF THIS, YO

our league is inching ever closer to meeting baseline, but I'm not going back to indoor practices until there's a viable vaccine

which probably means my derby days are over

but I'm not thinking of it like that

I'm not sure what I'm thinking of it like, TBH

 

helmet decoration ahoy!

 

(the black sticker is covering the S1 logo)

the Miffy design is one I created a few years ago, based off a "Queen Miffy" design (I added the stripes and the wheels)

I have a sticker that says "YOU'RE HECKLING THE WRONG RULE SET" that I want to put on the other side so badly but I should probably refrain.

optimistic? for once in my life, kinda

I bought a new helmet and wrist guards last week.  I do occasionally* skate outdoors, so I have them for that, at least.

I HAVE FOUND A LIPSTICK THAT WILL LAST ON MY FACE FOR MORE THAN THIRTY SECONDS.  Revlon ColorStay Overtime LipColor.  The glossy topcoat is gummy AF but once it dries, it legit works.  With it on, I have eaten dinner, wiped my mouth with a napkin, drunk from a water bottle, spit my whistle out repeatedly, pulled my whistle out of my mouth while creating as much friction as possible on it with my lips, and only the tiniest bit of it wore away.  

So of course I find it when (a) I'm not officiating and (b) when the lip part of my face is covered with a mask any time I am not at home

---------------------

*Skating outdoors is nice in theory, but in practice it turns into "sweating up a storm in 85° weather with all my safety gear on" and the roads right around my house aren't very smoothly paved.  There's one street about two blocks away that was paved not too long ago, so the last time I went I just went up and down it about twenty times.

happy derbyversary to me....snif snif

I've spent the last twelve years of my life involved in roller derby

hard to believe, sometimes

it's all becoming a misty memory now....

like....I used to officiate roller derby?  what was that like?

anyway, I guess there are a few things I can update -

the games on 2/29 went well.  I didn't HR either of them, which was a nice change of pace.  My son was, apparently, a frickin' BOSS in the penalty box - there were 109 penalties for the game and he didn't miss a beat.  (I asked him about it, and he kinda shrugged it off as not that big a deal.) 

Unfortunately, as we all know, that was kinda it for his 2020 derby career.

so......yeah.

this weekend I was SUPPOSED to be going to Official Relief, for my first time being a crew head referee.

whomp whomp....

eight thousand things to do in the next fifteen hours

League's home opener is tomorrow; yay!  I am not rostered (even as an ALT!) for the sanctioned game because we have SO MANY visiting referees.  (And these are all, like, playoffs-level visiting referees.)

Meanwhile, my kid will be making his Roc City debut as an NSO in the penalty box.  That's weird, lemme tell ya.  He was seven years old when I started.

no one died!

Yaaaaaaay!

It went pretty well, from my end.  A few small fires (of which I was aware) that got put out quickly and with minimal hard feelings.

One thing I do need to work on - giving feedback.  I've never been good at it.  Part of it is "how can I give feedback to these officials who have so many more years of experience than I" (though that is becoming less of an excuse as I accumulate more years as an official) and part of it is not wanting to step on the toes of the crew heads (as they may have told the officials do to something contradictory to what I would tell them) and part of it is just not wanting to be overly picky, and part of it is "I have spent the last eight hours watching derby games and my brain is fried right now."

So yeah.  I'd definitely like to do it again, but for a shorter tournament.  Four days is lonnnnnnnnng, yo.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

no big deal, just leaving in about five hours to go my first Tournament Head Referee gig

how can it be February already I mean srsly

went to Buffalo for another game over the weekend - I was rear OPR this time.  THERE WAS ONE JAM WHERE ALL THREE OF US OPRs HAD TO DROP OFF TO KEEP UP WITH THE PACK WTF SKATERS Y'ALL NEED TO SLOW DOWN FOR US OLD-FOLK-TYPE REFEREES.

2020 baby!

Did my first game of the year, as front OPR.  Went pretty well, except for the part where I fell in the first jam (I skated waaaay too close to the track boundary and tripped over the rope) and the jammer happened to be going the outside so I was like must scootch must scootch must get up mustn't get run over by the jammer but fortunately she called the jam so it was ok.

That and the fact that the pack was FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST and there were a few times I had to do actual backwards crossovers.  Should probably work on those.

That and the fact that it was crazy loud (lots of people + acoustics) and I had to call my penalties a bazillion times (and I don't think I did the finger swoop at the end of any of them, MUST WORK ON THAT).  I know I got screechy instead of louder, too.  MUST WORK ON THAT.

Planning for Battle of the All Stars continues.  SO HARD YO.  Hopefully it will not explode and no one will die.