ok so it's been a while again

God, it's been over a year?  my bad.  anyway.

I have been very bad about attending practices; that needs to change.

I've done a buncha games since my last post - a tournament in State College, PA, jam timing at JRDA Playoffs and at a tournament in Waterloo, ON, mentoring a crew at Fresh & Furious.  

ok so it's been a while

 let's see what's happened

1. went to a few outdoor practices until it was getting dark too early in the evening

2. stopped going to practices once they were indoors because, well, COVID

3. over the last few years? months? who tf knows at this point, I had this squishy bump between my skin and my left kneecap.  If I put any pressure on it, it would hurt like a mofo for about a second, and then it would be fine.  In January I finally had enough and had it removed - it turned out to be a big piece of fibrous fat.  I decided to stay off skates until the beginning of April.

4. went to a practice for fresh meat skaters to assist with rules-related teaching.  Everyone was masked.  Went to a restaurant afterwards with everyone.  Masks were removed.

5. I got COVID (along with six other people who were at the restaurant).  I was fully vaccinated (J&J) and boosted but it still happened.  

6. got really annoyed with everyone and everything

7. felt like a really bad cold that left me even more tired than I usually am

8. eventually got better

9. tried going to a practice on-skates at the beginning of April

10. fell a few times due to (a) the floor of our current practice space isn't the greatest, (b) not being able to find my indoor wheels and having to put really old hard wheels on and (c) trying to do toe-stop work

11. my knee got really ickily squishy and fluid-filled afterwards

12. decided to wait a few more months before going on skates again

13. went out to Buffalo to be an NSO for one of their games (penalty box timing, something I haven't done that often.  it went well)

14. bought new wheels (I like my wheels like I don't like people - as narrow as possible); see Section 10(b) above.  Just need to put them on my skates.  

15. NSOed a bunch of juniors games and a scrimmage this past weekend (jam timing, which was fun and resulted in this which was just amazing, penalty box timing for level 1 juniors which was THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVARRRRRRRR), scorekeeping which I had missed more than I thought, and scoreboard operating, which went pretty well except for the few times I fucked up stopping a jam because I kept hitting the "start jam" keyboard button

16. the league is going to be practicing in a space with a much better floor soon, and once we're there I'll go on skates again and be very careful, and wrap my knee and wear a gasket and all that and hopefully that will do the trick

I.... have derby practice tonight

outdoors, and no contact, but....

I have derby practice tonight.

I HAVE DERBY PRACTICE TONIGHT!!!!!!!!

will we ever return? IT IS A MYSTERY

so the weather is starting to get nice again, I should probably start skating outside again

I should start seriously checking out the paved trails near me

(lots of "I should" sentences)

ow and ow and ow

 so on New Year's Day I dropped the edge of a table on my right big toe

toenail is a lost cause

I suppose if it had to happen, I'm glad it happened while derby is not happening

...

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

--------

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.

goaly goal goals

Let's see how things went:

• "Take a big ol' step back.  I don't need to officiate every game.  I don't need to apply to every tournament.  I have a family and I do like seeing them every once in a while.  This one will be tough."

Didn't really get this one; had a lot of weekends in a row where I was away doing things.  

• "Part II of this: Take as little time off work as possible.  I'm a paralegal who is the only support for a sole practitioner, and while there are other people in our office who can help out if necessary, it's just a lot easier if I'm here. I took a lot of time off this year, and I kinda need to make up for it, so I can...."

Failed on this one, but due to sickness rather than derby (Thanksgiving and Christmas were the worst).

• "2020 Goal - Officiate a game in Australia.  Aw yiss."

Don't think this will be a goal for this upcoming year.  It will be at some point, though.

• "HR a sanctioned game.  This is more of a second half of 2019 goal; I'm still not 100% confident on HRing yet (though in a scrimmage this past weekend, I tried HRing from the front and I really liked doing it) and while we're encouraged to reach for the stars, I want to make sure I'm not setting myself up for a crash and burn."

Didn't do this, but only on a technicality - I HRed a game between WFTDA charter teams, but it wasn't sanctioned.  With the level of gameplay our league has in sanctioned games (almost D2), I'm not comfortable doing our sanctioned games yet.

• Apply for certification, if it's open.  Durrrrr.

Did it.  Did not get the result I was hoping for, but received good feedback and was encouraged to re-apply early.

• "Be a good teacher/role model/whatever.  I'm Co-Head Referee for the 19th Wardens for 2019, and we have several newer officials who are starting out on skates.  I want to provide them with the support and training and whatnot that I received when I started as an official, because it was top-notch."

I tried my best on this; don't know how successful I was.  I'm not the best teacher; when I'm asked how to do something, I'm just sort of like "um....I just do it."

Geez, looking back, this year was kind of a big flop when it comes to my specific goals.  It didn't feel like one, though.  Anyway....

hmmm

so apparently I need to only referee in very cold venues, because at Tuesday's practice I was nailing hockey stops like a motherfuckin' BOSS

my left toe (for those of you scoring at home, that's the one I was having issues with and had the sides of the nail removed) has started to bug me. I figure it's probably because I had the sides of that nail removed, and the sides are digging into the tender flesh of my toe that is supposed to be covered by nail.

I CAN'T WIN.

I haven't tried putting padding around that toe to see if that works.  That'll be my next step.