Purple Tinted Glasses

The message below was sent to me which has sparked my interest in reviving my bloggy-blog thing. I can honestly say that I have not been happy with the things I have posted and the drafts that sit unpublished. I often times feel like I am forcing words on to the page just to have something to say. I guess that’s why I haven’t said much lately.

So much has been happening and I haven’t had the time or wherewithal to mention any of it. So here we go. Grab a shovel and dig in.

Accomplishments/Mentionings:

• I did the MS 150 last month. That was exciting. With hardly any training (see reason here) and on an alien blue bike, I made it through all 149 miles! Yes, I got SAG-ged for 1 mile because of a series of flat tires that nearly drove me off my rocker. I think I have finally regained all feeling that I lost in unmentionable places from that ride too. Special thanks to Will for sticking with me.

• I’ve played my first home game with my new team at our new venue, and we won.  I don’t particularly care for the new venue. It reminds me of a high school gym and smells like one too. I miss our flashy lights and being surrounded by quintessential New Orleans (Mardi Gras). We outgrew our home that all of our fans came to love. Now we just need to finish working out the kinks to get this one just as fabulous. Ibeatya painted banners, one for each home team and they are just amazing - as is she! We also need to sell tickets. They’re cheaper than they’ve ever been - $10. So, for those of you looking to do something this Sunday, Nov 9, you should come out and see the Big Easy Rollergirls’ Crescent Wenches and Story Villains duke it out. Centerpunch will be playing at half time and I have a feeling this is going to be one hell of a game.

• The house is CLEAN! It’s 30% my doing and 70% Will’s. I’m hosting some team meetings this week and next, which as Will says lit a fire under my ass to get some stuff put away.  We have company coming at the end of November anyway, but this just got me to focus on it sooner.

• I painted the back porch… all by myself! I’d like my gold star and my cookie now.

• I entered my late 20’s. This was #3 in a string of good birthdays. It felt really special this year and I have my other half to thank for the most of it. I also went to the DMV and officially became a New Orleanian. Bye bye Jefferson Parish.

• My house is rented… finally. The rent doesn’t cover the note, but I won’t be eating Ramen and mooching off friends for drinks… at least not as much as I was a month ago. The renter has also assured me that she is interested in purchasing in an undetermined amount of time. I guess I’ll save my official good riddance until then.

• I’ve been to an addition 2 or 3 Molly Ringwalds shows and have enjoyed all of them. One of them was even a festival down in… um… Well, I cant remember right now, but it was crazy and they were like rock stars out there. It was kind of weird. I had sworn off festivals because it just never is the same, but Sally and I made the trip for the sake of others’ sanity (sanities? saniti?)

• The rollergirls participated in the Voodoo Music Festival parade. We were officially “artists” for the day. Free drinks and back stage access is something that’s hard not to abuse.

• My best friend is having a BABY! I’ve been knowing forever and I’ve already been through the stages of denial: WHAT?! My friends can’t start having babies! No one can have babies! Babies are scary… but at least it’s you, not me. Ok, fine. You can have your baby, but you know the rule… Auntie Sherri doesn’t take them until they’re potty trained.

Ok, bored with me yet? Until next time… hopefully sooner than later.

(more…)

I decided that today I would start riding my bike to work in an effort to 1. be more environmentally friendly, and 2. step up my training for the MS 150.

Well, a little over two miles into it I got “tracked” and ate concrete in Lee Circle. Apparently it gets even the best bikers. I thought I’d just come home and take a shower, have Will patch me up and head on to work in the car.

Instead, I blacked out at least once and before I could start to lather up the shampoo in my hair I almost blacked out again. Will packed me up and brought me to the ER. After a first attempt at Tulane/LSU, we wound up at Touro and I was stitched up by the same doctor as Will back in January. The grand total, sweet 16!

Since then, I’ve pretty much been laid up on the couch. My left hand is swollen, my left forarm is bandaged up, my left leg is throbing and the shampoo is still in my hair. At least I got to eat a bagel for breakfast, Wendy’s for lunch and who knows what for dinner.

So, when can I start skating again? Dunno. No joints were hurt, but I don’t want to pop a stitch or anything. Below are some photos for your viewing pleasure.

Boot Camp, Derby Style One month into training for the 2007-08 season, the league decided to kick it up a notch.

Thursday kicked off the start of Boot Camp at the normal practice time. The Carolina girls were welcomed by a slew of students, professionals and mothers turned derby chicks in a matter of minutes. Practice was followed by some drinking and squat contesting at the Bridge Lounge. Yes, that’s right, derby invaded preppy for just a couple of hours. (Warning: Do not try to do a victory dance straight out of a squatting position after a minute and 30 seconds while holding a beer - you will wind up ass first on the floor.)

Friday was an odd practice time, starting at 4:30! I left work early and was late, so I had to do warm up twice. I get livid when I have to do warm ups twice, by the way. I’ve never been more than 30 seconds off the track. But late is late and I only bitch about it when I’m one of the ones stuck warming up twice.

Saturday was running in the park followed by dry land exercises and an ity bit of yoga. Skating at Airline should have followed immediately. Alas, schedule conflict and we wound up in Audubon park where we practiced strategy amidst a huge family picnic complete with BBQ, some kind of boiling seafood ad line dances. I managed to squeeze in a $10 burrito, and a couple of laps before going home to shower only to run of to something else derby that I can’t quite remember right now.

Sunday was skating (again at 8am), followed immediately by more skating across the river for another 2 hours, some running in the park, some tricep-dips, MORE squats (holy crap, Em had everybody for SIX minutes!!)

We bid our Carolina mentors good bye at Savvy Gourmet and wound up wrapping up the weekend about 6 hours early. Let’s just say I had me some good sleep and a kick ass massage on Monday evening (which revealed that, although my right side hurt the most and had the least neck movement range, my left side was indeed much tighter and much more painful - in a good way- to get rubbed out than the other).

My favorite moment: getting complimented by Leadfoot long after the fact for a PERFECT hit I landed on a newbie. Yes, I felt bad for hitting her, but I bet she’ll always look over her right shoulder from now on.

To top it all off: I suffered through banged up knees all through boot camp with neosporin and bandaids. For those of you who don’t know, you can find pieces of my knee skin probably still stick to the pavement on Decatur where I went over the handlebars of my bike and landed the perfect derby fall sans knee pads and wrist guards. The rest of that story I’ll save for another time. I’m still waiting for my left knee to scab up and GO AWAY!

I was a bit behind schedule today, but I couldn’t resist. I believe it was Zephyrus that was messing with my mind as I rode my bike to work this morning (for the third time now). I keep thinking that it will get a little easier than the time before.

Yesterday I didn’t help, wearing blue jeans and these cute little (extremely unstable) brown shoes. Today, I picked out a sensible arrangement of a black tank top (the shirt to go over it later neatly tucked into my bag), skirt (with biking shorts) and my airwalk chuck wannabes.

I think no matter what I do, I will be sweating uncontrollably by the time I get my desk. But as some of you know, my office is a meat locker, and it should only take a few minutes to bring the temperature back down.

It’s funny to think, the first time I rode to work (merely, last Monday), all I could think was: Oh, what the hell did I get myself into! Now I rather enjoy my morning and afternoon rides. Let’s see how long it lasts.

p.s.
my bike :-)