2018 in Review!!!!

January

• I get a Head Ref thing right

February

• "I'll apply to this tournament, but I'll never get in."

March

• Another year, another parade

April

• The beginning of Derby Insanity

May

• Sounds like something out of a bad dream, but it's not

June

• "I'll apply to this tournament, but I'll never get in."

July

• "I'll apply to this tournament, but I'll never get in."

August

• Still no idea where I got that simile

September

• Started wearing a mouthguard again

October

• Derby Officiating, the Second Generation

November

• Pockets are not necessarily a good thing

December

• "Profane, abusive, and obscene language is unsporting and degrading to the sport, but should not always be penalized. If said language was audible to the audience or via broadcast, [the Jammer Referee] is penalized."

So yeah!  2018!  Yehaw!  Let's take a look at my goals for this year and see how I did:

• HR a game (I've been told this will happen at least once) Happened five times, in fact, including once at ECDX!
• Go to one of the "bigger" tournaments  Got into a D1 tournament and a Continental Cup!  
• Apply for certification, if it's open Not yet, but soon.  I did get the Recognized NSO thing, though
• Do more NSOing Ten games this year; mostly scorekeeping, though I did do jam timing and liked it a lot
• Learn how to run the scoreboard Tried it for a game at which I was a fan and for half a scrimmage; nothing exploded 

I'd call that a big honkin' success.

Sooooooo......what are my goals for 2019?

• 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.  
• 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....
• 2020 Goal - Officiate a game in Australia.  Aw yiss.
• 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.
• Apply for certification, if it's open.  Durrrrr.
• 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.

So, yeah.  71 games officiated this year (61 SO, 10 NSO) for a grand total of 241 (202 SO, 39 NSO) in my career.

Onward and upward, as they say!

whoops

THIS PAST THURSDAY NIGHT'S SCRIMMAGE:

QUEENIE realizes she has been following the wrong jammer.

QUEENIE: (very loudly) FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

mini-recapish type thing

So it took me a while to remember, oh, maybe I should update here, too!

Continental Cup was amazing.  Our crew only got three games, and I had to alt one of them, but the third game was the championship game! (Unfortunately it was the one I was alting, but whatcha gonna do.  I'm proud of the fact that my work helped my crew to get the championship game.)  I met so many cool people, had so much fun, learned some valuable traveling lessons (if I have too many pockets in my clothes, I forget where I put things and proceed to freak out.)

eeeeeee!

This is a thing that’s gonna happen soon

OMG I LEAVE FOR LONDON IN LESS THAN A WEEK

I hope I put my passport where I think I put it

And I should probably pack

And I can’t really just shove everything into IKEA bags this time around

yay!

So Saturday Kid Queenie and I went down to Ithaca to NSO a juniors' game.  We got to the venue and discovered that the humidity of the day (their venue is semi-enclosed) and the relative chill of the floor resulted in the WHOLE THING BEING A LAKE OF CONDENSATION.  They tried to dry it out with big fans, but it didn't work, so they switched the game to be a scrimmage at their practice space, a few miles away.

I was jam timer, and it went relatively well, except for the part where I could not for the life of me remember when on my stopwatch I had started the jam (thanks to an official review, I'd started the jam at an odd number), and since there was no scoreboard, I couldn't tell how long it'd been, so I just kinda....ended it at a random point.  (And got called out by one of the coaches for doing it.  Oops.)

Anyway, that's not the point.  Here's the point.  Kid Queenie scorekept, only the second time he'd done it.   After the game:

OTHER SCOREKEEPER (running into the room, talking to the Head Referee): The other scorekeeper, I don't know his name, he's only 17 but you need to get him for every home game you can

(meanwhile, the two of us were standing directly behind the scorekeeper as she was saying this, and I was like, in my head, THAT'S MY SON HE'S AWESOME, ISN'T HE?)

So yeah, looks like I'll be volunteering for a lot more junior games in the next few months, to get him out there.
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twelve days until I leave for my Grand English Adventure (hgahagggaahhhhhhhhhh!)

wheeee!!!!

I got to operate the scoreboard for a half of a scrimmage on Saturday.  It was fun!  I had to do things on the trackpad rather than use a mouse, and I missed stopping the clock on an official time out once, but other than that it went really well and I hope I can do it again soon. 

Nineteen days until I leave for London.  Twenty-six days until the Continental Cup.  Gaaaah!  So excited and nervous and whatnot.