WE WON! 149-95!

HOORAY WE ARE AWESOME!

On Saturday October 3, the Thames Fatales faced off against Ottawa's undefeated Slaughter Daughters. Incredible. You can read about it HERE and HERE. Oh, and Whip It came out. Read about that HERE.

But let me tell you about my experience this weekend.

It started with going to see Whip It on Friday night with the girls. We were originally supposed to go see it at Rainbow Cinemas, but they didn't get the film last minute. So, we were stuck. Where to go? Fortunately, I go to a church that holds its services in Silvercity, so my pastor hooked me up with a contact in management. They agreed to things beyond our wildest dreams! They let us skate outside, flyer everyone who came into the theatre, rope off seats and give an announcement to the crowd. Awesome! The movie was also amazing, and you can read my review of it HERE.

I felt so much camaraderie with the girls that night. Nia Capps and I split a cab home after, talking the whole time about how she was going to play her first bout the next day. I have to admit, I'm totally jealous. Nia deserves to be on the roster -- she's a better skater than I am, and her devotion to derby is unsurpassed. But my latest knee injury has made it impossible for me to even strive to still make it into a jam this season. Them's the breaks, I guess. At least I don't have a broken collar bone like Mirambo. There are worse injuries. Besides, I just have to be patient. Another few months of training will only make my debut more exciting!

There have also been lots of new girls coming out on Tuesdays, which makes me hope that maybe we'll get a second team going again. Some of them will be training for a long time, like me, but there are others that might be ready for spring. I can't wait to see how they all grow, and it's a real confidence booster on Tuesdays to be able to help out others using my own skills.

Saturday before the game my husband was in a wedding. In the wedding. That means I had to go, no matter what. Don't get me wrong, I think the bride and groom are great. But I would miss anything except my mother's funeral for a game (love ya mom!). The groomsmen came to our house in the morning to get ready. I ironed three shirts and tied four double-Windsors. Then they were out the door. I got ready, up-do and all. I think I looked really pretty :)

Then I went to the wedding out in Melbourne. It was really beautiful. The bride looked lovely, as did the groom and the setting was gorgeous. I figured that the wedding was at 4, we'd be eating by 5:30 or so, and I could vamoose at 7 unnoticed during the reception. But when 7 o'clock came around, we were still eating the main course. I was totally humiliated, but I ducked my head down low and walked out, without even a kiss to my hubby -- he knew where I was going. I got in the car and drove fast to London to be at the bout.

I ran into the Canada Building in my dress, with my hair up and tore my way through the crowd to the bathroom where I quickly made-over myself into a derby girl, short skirt and all. I was just in time! It was 8 o'clock, time for wheels to roll.

Because I'm not skating, I'm doing scoreboard. Now, I've been doing scoreboard for two seasons. I know my way around the box. It's this little digital box from circa 1982 and there's a demon monkey living inside of it. THE BOX makes running scoreboard challenging, so I was really glad I was there on time, and that no one had to cover for me, because if they had, they would have found that the demon monkey was in over drive. We have two 30 minute periods. From the clock counter at 30:00 to 20:00, you have to press a different button to stop the clock than from 20:00 to 00:00. Oh, and at the 20:00 mark the clock just stops. It just doesn't want to go any more. So you have to keep an eye on it to start it again. This, coupled with the ever changing experiments for reffing and scorekeeping have made my job at bouts a challenge, and it's my own little personal drama. Honestly, who cares about the scoreboard keeper? I mean, they want to cheer on the girls and there's more exciting drama on the track. But I had my own little jam, me VS. THE BOX on Saturday night. And with the challenges on the points that kept happening, it was an adrenaline filled night.

Not to mention the exciting game. Exciting is an understatement. I put it to someone this way:

"This is London, Ontario. Kurt Cobain could come back from the dead, play a show at Call the Office, and the crowd would just . But for this game, they were cheering so loud! It was incredible! I was like, are we in London?"

I can't wait to see our game on November 7th against the Tri-City Champions. I hope to be in it, but that's a tall order considering I still can't put weight on my right knee. Killson calls this "maid's knee," and showed me stretches, so I'm on the right track, but it still might be next spring before I skate my first bout.

After two years of training, I WILL BE SKATING IN THE SPRING.

When the game was over we found ourselves at Scot's Corner witnessing Commiekaze's transformation into "Anastasia," where she sang Pink at the karaoke. We toasted Nia's first win, and laughed our asses off. This was a great weekend. Roller derby is amazing, and I wouldn't give it up for anything.

Vansterdamn XXX

FREAK SHOW!

ROAD TRIP TO A FREAK SHOW!!!!

What does a rollergirl road trip look like? Metal and Manicures!

We hit the road to go to our game against Tri-City on Saturday, loaded up with Peaches, L7 and a little bit of green nail polish. It was a great feeling, piled in the car together and laughing all the way. The way home was a little more sombre. The game was tough, our girls did well, but we all really wanted to win. You can read some great details here. The score had a pretty wide spread, 124-45, but it was an exciting game to watch and the score doesn't really reflect how well matched the teams were in terms of skating skill. I can't get enough of seeing Mirambo roll out of a fall and jump back up on her feet to run on her toe stops. Elle Boes jammed awesomely! And Jemecide is showing some mad blocker skills. I swear, I thought I saw Beyonslay out there once or twice.

But, it's not always about winning. Sometimes it's about supporting each other, and those pitfalls can be a chance to build that support system. I was so psyched to see Assacin at the game, and Ms. Behavin', Kurl Up 'n' Die, and Dawn Kashane--all girls who were off the track for one reason or another. And lots of Fresh Meat were there, including my carful, and Reaping Willow. Our group is turning out to be pretty viciously loyal to one another, and it's true that derby is like a drug. It gets under your skin. When life stops you from skating, you feel it itching. Going to a bout to support the team is like a little bit of sedative. But I'm getting really anxious to skate. Right now I feel like my knee is all that is holding me back. That and some much needed scrimmaging.

People loved our calendar, and we had a really good showing of fans in the crowd. Drummed up lots of interest in our upcoming bout (more on that later).

Plus, Tri-City puts on a good show. The crowd wasn't huge, but it was passionate. I felt like a lot of people knew each other. They have great spirit and that spirit is was we all have in common. I even ran into a regular from book store where I work. He's going to be in town next weekend, so I think I got some business for the bookstore and the bout at the same time. One big advantage of our space over Kitchener's: we have beer.

I think Nia Capps and I are courting to become derby wives. Aren't we cute together?

-Vansterdamn XXX

Update on Aggravation!

Just in case you were going to suggest it, I have called my doctor.

Twice.

I just got off the phone again.

Nothing.

"We'll call you."

ACK! M***er F***er! I could spit scream ack ack ack! If I could skate, I would take out my frustration that way. Instead, all I can do it go home and read a book. DAG NABBIT!!!!!



Vansterdamn XXX

Aggravation!

My freaking doctor has not given me the results of my xray yet!

If I have a broken knee cap, then I can't skate. Apparently it takes 6-8 weeks to heel, no cast, you just walk around like normal, and that's how people break it without knowing it, cause it doesn't hurt. And if I were to fall on it while it's broken, I could cause a permanent injury and end my derby career. So have to wait. It is making me insane! It's amazing, when you can't skate you realize how deep derby gets under your skin.

I'm missing so much! We have three games this fall, and there is promo work to do -- I can flyer on my own, but other stuff too -- and organizing, and hip checking...and I can't be a part of it!

This has been a really painful awful lesson to learn, and I will never put on a pair of skates without knee pads again in my life.

Mangled Knee!

I'm a bit behind in my posting, so all apologies. A week ago last Friday I fell at open skate and mangled my knee. Let me explain: I was testing out my wheels for the Smarty Pants boot camp. We always skate on a concrete floor, and I wanted to check which wheels would be good for the wooden floor at the North London Optimist Community Centre. It was a Christian skate, so when I fell down and screamed the F word, there was an added humour factor. My pal who was skating with me encouraged me to keep it moving. I skated to one more song (it was numb and tingly, and really hurt -- but I used my "game face"), and then we left.

The next morning I got up determined to skate at the boot camp. I did, although I avoided pack drills. I was too scared to fall again on the same knee. Good thing! The limited amount of skating I did filled my knee with blood and bloating. Still determined to "walk it off", I biked to Nia Capp's birthday party for a few beers.

Well, that was a bad idea!

My knee got so bloated and sore I could barely move it. (The picture above was taken after boot camp, pre-cycling, so it got even blacker than you see here). I spent the last week elevating it, compressing it, icing it, and finally went to the doctor. I'm off to get it xrayed today, just in case. It's looking a lot better, nice and yellow. The darkness has traveled down to my foot, which is a sign of healing, I guess.

On another note, the Smarty Pants boot camp was great. I was really encouraged that this practice, labeled "intermediate/advanced" was in my range of skill. This made me feel really good about my skating -- a double edged sword. Because who knows where I would be if I hadn't missed so much practice in the last two months? We have three bouts this fall (two away, one home) and I want so much to at least skate in November. This gives me about six weeks to train if my leg isn't fractured.

Cross your fingers,

Vansterdamn XXX

Smarty Pants in London!

Smarty Pants, the derby girl from TXRD who you might have seen on A&E's Rollergirls, is coming to London! It's short notice for a post, but if you want to see her she'll be running a boot camp on Saturday from 1-4 at the North London Optimist Club (Cheapside & Highbury in London, Ontario).

I'm so psyched! Part of the reason I joined derby was that show. Well, first I read about it in Bust Magazine, and then I saw that show. And then I saw a poster for recruiting in our city. When I saw the show, I had thought wow, I wish I could do that! And then when I saw the poster I thought, I'm gonna try that! And now I do it. Feebly, but yes, I do it.

Another great thing is that I know one of the TXRD refs from highschool. Her name's Dee Toxin, and she's a total hard ass. When I say I know her, I really actually do, not in the way that I went to high school with Luke MacFarlane and kind've know him. I actually talk to Dee pretty often, so I'm happy to have something to say to Smarty when she comes--if I don't chicken out like I did with the Gotham Girls :)

Vansterdamn XXX

A Capital Time!

This past weekend we bundled up in a bus to make our way to Ottawa, our country's capital. Our goal, of course, was to see the Slaughter Daughters get pummeled. It didn't quite work out that way, but we had a blast no matter what!

I can't wait to see Terri's pictures. We stayed out a little later than the other girls at the after party, and ended up outside the motel without a key to get in. This led to a few antics--Terri climbing 15 feet in the air inside a hedge, Carly letting her ass get some fresh air and Anya pretty much just laughing so hard I thought she might pee herself. 

If you've been following my blog, you'll know I was a bit trepidatious about this trip. My husband encouraged me a few days before. He said, "You've been hanging out with these girls for a year. If they didn't like you, I think you would know." He was right. It was all in my head. I went into the weekend with high hopes and low expectations. My hopes were surpassed, starting with Back Alley flashing cars on the highway and me making myself nauseous braiding Mirambo's hair. Maybe what I was looking for was a chance to let everyone see who I am really, not just at practice but when I'm on my fifth beer and making dirty jokes. What's not to love :) 

Better yet, I've discovered a lot about the other girls on the team. I feel closer to them. I feel like there's something to work for, and a lot at stake. 

Next time we are in Ottawa, we WILL slaughter those daughters!