Purple Tinted Glasses

Alright, so the weekend stared off kind of uneventful. I stayed in bed from Friday night on into late Saturday. I was just trying to make myself get over -sick- as soon as possible. Little did I know that I would need the extra hours of sleep in the days to come.

Will and I were out enjoying dinner and drinks with one of his bike buddies (the other computer/bike nerd named Will that wears glasses). On the way from one location to another a couple of people decided it would be fun to race there. Well, Will took off (in his biking shoes nonetheless) and took a nice spill on a grassy concrete rubik’s cube looking area.

I’ll leave the most of the describing up to the other party involved, but I will say that this was my first Emergency Room adventure (that I can remember, anyway). I guess it’s what I expected, but not anything like you see on the tv shows (duh.). He was seen almost immediately (initially) and we were out by 4am with three stitches, crutches, stabilizers, a prescription for vicodin, a super strong antibiotic and the makings of a very fancy “J” shaped scar.

Luckily there is at least one 24 hour pharmacy back in New Orleans a mere two years after complete devastation (thank you Walgreens). I was up and out the door by 7:30 am on Sunday to get rx’s filled and grab some breakfast. We then proceeded to pick up the bikes that were left chained outside the bike shop, make groceries (lots of microwaveable dinners) and watched Real Genius — which, I’m pretty sure is where Will got a good chuck of his smart-assness.

Now see, I have also been slated for a surprise for the last two Sundays. I was not going to be striking out on the third one… bandaged up broken knee or not! (Seriously, just kidding, but SO happy it was followed through).

So, one day a while ago, I let Mr. Busted Knee take my car for errands while I was at practice. He came back telling where he went, including Best Buy where he played Guitar Hero. I was kinda very much a little jealous.

This is just ONE if the reasons that I love Will so much:
The surprise… a borrowed playstation II with copies of Guitar Hero I and II! Holy crap, it was a blast! We took turns playing and by the end of it all, my fingers had gone numb and we knew it was time to turn the game off. But seriously… it’s my new favorite way to waste time. Maybe I’ll even try to get back into real guitar playing one day when I grow up and stop playing derby.

The day wrapped up with a visit from an assortment of people and dinner cooked by Chef Diamond Grrrl, herself. I was thankful. I was tired (no sleep) and claw handed (Guitar Hero) and not really in the mood for a Lean Cuisine. Finally, we played scrabble. I cursed and screamed (because of my gosh darn competitive nature) and came in second place.

Best word of the night, “eh” and “eh” followed almost immediately by “er”.

I notice I’ve kind of glazed over the last couple of derby matches, I think because I either run out of time or I feel like I’ve said the same thing over and over again.

Our last game was a travel game against the Caroilna Rollergirls Tai-Chitas. I guess there’s not much to say about this one either. At least it didn’tturn into the Philly Tournament manslaughter that we went through last year. It was still hard and we still lost, but we put a good number of points on the board.

I had the worst shin splints for this game starting at warm ups. Everyone keeps telling me that I skated very well. From what I could tell, I was slow as all hell, in a lot of pain and ate floor more often than not.

Without saying too much more, I really was almost just going to post this photo without saying much else. Thanks Scott, for always catching the moment!

Such an exciting Friday night. I spent the night at home doing laundry, congested beyond belief and watching a LOT of TV. I finished up Boogie Nights (it only took me 4 viewings of pieces and parts of the movie) and I finished up Dexter Season 2.

If you haven’t seen it, I recommend that you check it out. I’m not sure about the CBS version. I’ve read that it will be “edited for time.”

As for Boogie Nights, well, I finally saw the rollergirl and now understand the comments that I get from my dear friends in the 80s cover band. I’ll never hear Sister Christian the same way again.

These guys were doing it like it’s never been done before. I guess that’s a pretty bold statement, considering that I’ve never seen the Beatles play nor have I seen very many Beatles cover bands in my life time.

I’ll take you now to a little town called New Orleans on a tiny street called Frenchmen in a cozy bar called d.b.a. Small enough for ya?

Now throw in some fancy Beatles titles, a brilliant vocalist (I like to call him Clint) and a smorgasbord of musicians (10 others total - 2 guitarists, 1 bassist, 1 drummer, 1 keyboard player, 1 cello, 1 violin, and a brass section consisting of a trumpet, sax and trombone) and you’ve got yourself a high class once in a life time kind of night. The keyboard player was on FIRE during his solo (Get Back - Will thinks), that I didn’t even realize was over and should have started clapping.

The crowd was radiant. I saw a guy with a blond mohawk and a shirt that read “F@&* You” having the time of his life dancing with everyone including a tatted up goth girl. I sat atop my nice little perch (an old movie theater seat) toward the front of the crowd and just took it all in. Every song ended with so much energy and left you with the cold hard desire to hear another, and another, and another.

To the average person, I probably didn’t look like I was enjoying myself much, but I was tired. I really had a blast and I wish I could remember ever single detail of the night.

And just when you thought everything was over, Clint pulled out the the British accent, gave the crowd a little speech, one of the guitarists gave me a ever so mean 6 chords worth of a Black Bird teaser, and the band broke out into Led Zeppelin’s Fool in the Rain.

Lesson learned for the night? I don’t know half the F’in Beatles songs out there. My iPod was updated almost immediately upon getting home.

So here’s the night’s play list (compliments of Will’s blackberry and nimble fingers that took notes during the show)

[the one we collectively can’t remember]
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Oh! Darling
Something
Good Day Sunshine
Happiness is a Warm Gun
Martha, My Dear
I’m so Tired
Getting Better
Got to get you into my life
Don’t let me down
Get Back
Lovely Rita
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Carry that Weight
Led Zeppelin - Fool in the Rain