wow!

HOLY COW I'M GOING TO BE AN OPR AGAIN ON SATURDAY!

hope I remember how to do it

I don't have a title for this post

Front IPR at last night's scrimmage.  It went ok.  I need to not look at the track lines to determine 10'.  It's so hard, though, when THE LINES ARE RIGHT THERE!

Got to call a uniform violation on a skater who didn't have her numbers on her arm, that was exciting.

in other news

me: I took the referee rule test again last night, and failed it again, but I feel a lot more confident about it
my sister:  good lord
me: ?
my sister:  I don’t know, I didn’t realize it was like the bar
------------------
I only got seven wrong this time.  Some of my mistakes were really boneheaded, some I'd narrowed down to 50/50 and chose the wrong one (but realized the rationalization behind the correct choice as soon as I saw it) some were just a matter of "I really need to review this section of the rules a lot more closely".

So onward and upward then.

Game #29 under my belt

I've done so much jam reffing lately I forget what OPRing is like!

And is this where I can admit that I get very OH NO WHAT DID I DO WRONG when a team calls an official review, and how relieved I am when it turns out it has nothing to do with anything I did?

I enjoy calling the obscure penalties

Got to call an equipment violation on my jammer last night - she disengaged her mouthguard from her teeth mid-jam. 

like I said, not much going on

My birthday was on Tuesday; I'm 42 now, yay?  I'm now the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.

It's been pretty quiet in refereedom; our league is hosting an open scrimmage in our new venue in a few weeks.  I was asked if I would be interested in head reffing. 

Y'all seen one of the most recent episodes of Doctor Who, "The Girl Who Died?"  When the Doctor decides to trust the definitely-not warrior-type Vikings with real swords, and then there's a Gilligan Cut to their town in flames? 

That's what me being HR would be like.  Only with more shrieking.

Anyway.  The league I help out with to the west posted its schedule not that long ago; they're doing a *lot* of games.  Hopefully I can bolster my resume and get some good potential references.

Yeah, references!  Tournaments!  I've applied for Siege of CNY and am contemplating applying for B Cup, which is in Indiana (about 9 hours away).

Gearing up to retake the referee certification test.  I have completely forgotten which questions I got wrong, but hopefully they will ring bells when I see them again.

doodle doodle dee, wubba wubba wubba

Now we enter the long dark tea-time of not really having any bouts to ref for a while.

In addition to retaking the certification rules test, I have to re-take the skating skills portion (as I didn't do as well on a few things as I usually do).  Unfortunately, this means re-taking the 10 laps part, and this time it would be on an entirely different surface than the last time.  I tried sprinting at last night's practice and got very OMG I AM GOING TO DRIFT AND DIE in some of the turns, so I may need to go to a slightly softer wheel, as much as I really don't want to because my wheels are perfect in every other respect.

I wish I could just cherry-pick pieces from all the different assessments that I've done (formal and informal).

Oh!  At scrimmage this past Thursday I was front IPR.  It's tough, water is wet, fire is hot, salt is salty.  I'd call someone out of play and then they'd immediately be back in play and it was a communication nightmare.  I'd also drift into the JR lane and have to step out of their way.  I'd also get caught up in a play that drifted towards the back of the pack and I'd have to stop and say NO YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON THE FRONT OF THE PACK 'CAUSE ALL THE STUFF THEY'RE DOING IS LEGAL AND IT'S NO LONGER YOUR JURISDICTION.