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 I can honestly say that I have not been happy with the things I have posted and the drafts that sit unpublished.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 was going to describe yesterday’s 8am practice as “the worst practice ever”, but after sitting on the couch following a long day of not sleeping, I’ve decided that practice wasn’t terrible but the night kinda blew. Friday night, however, is about the most fun I’ve had in a while.

It was like I quit cold turkey… going to Molly Ringwalds shows. I’ve just been either busy or tired or broke. Well, I’m still all those things, but I gave in anyway, took a “drag” and went to Southport. The show was great. After was better and I got to see a lot of people that I haven’t seen in a couple of months (some people even longer).

Like they say, time flys when your having fun. I didn’t get home until after 4:30am. I didn’t care nor did I even realize how late it was. I swear it could have only been 2ish!

Anyway, yesterday in addition to the crick in my neck, my head hurt. Bad. I had to show my house semi-smelly (after taking a bath in the sink and quickly brushing my teeth) from derby funk and the alcohol seaping out of my pores. I got stuck in traffic between practice and the house, so I also learned how to change pants in the car while stopped at a redlight. The showing went alright. I just wish the damn thing would sell.

Today my neck STILL hurts. It’s leaving me feeling depressed and anxious. I just want to be healthy. Between the leg stitches and the neck, I haven’t been at 100% in over a month… 5 weeks to be exact, starting on week 6.

We’re halfway through the BERG Austin trip and so far it’s been pretty interesting. We’ve all been up since appx 3am (Luna, Diamond and I) and we’re all on the verge of delirium. We’ve met the opponents, raided Target, and enjoyed some pool time. On the way to dinner at Magnolia Café, Luna dropped a text book the size of Texas on the top of her foot and busted something. We’ve named the GPS device Babs (short for Barbra) and have had a love/hate relationship with her ever since.

Now, It’s almost midnight, I’ve been up for close to 20 hours and all I want to do is tell you these things that we said:

Luna: Gross Tete? In Arkansas, they would have just called it “Fat Head”
–
Bea: If I were a musical bobble head, this would be my song!
—
Diamond: My first car was a 1988 Volkswagon Fox
Luna: I can see that. Bea what was your first car?
Bea: A 1990 Honda Accord. I miss it.
Luna: I can see that too!
Diamond: What was your first car?
Luna: A Chevy S-10 pickup truck
Diamond/Bea: I can see that!!! (jinx)
–
Luna: HOV, like a hug, but of
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Diamond: If you’re gonna live out in the middle of nowhere, you might as well have a tennis court in your front yard.
–
Diamond: Look at that developement without any homes… with a beautiful vista of the I-10 thruway.
–
Diamond: That’s Business 71. Like.. that’s business time and this is the rest of the week.
Luna: Business in the front, party in the back!
–
Luna: Who’s this?
Diamond: [insert artist title here]
Luna: Oh, it sucks.

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 hosted my second annual “get rid of crap and see how much people will pay for it” sale.

• This time I wasn’t hung over (from a long night of watching the Molly Ringwalds).
• This time I had everything pretty much set up before my first customer came in (when last time I wasn’t yet out of bed when the first customer strolled up — coincidently, I had the same first customer both times).
• This time there were no big ticket items (chairs and sofas and all that fun garbage). The biggest item was treadmill that we sold for twenty bucks. My mom paid a total of 40 for it to start, so I guess she got what it was worth.

Can you believe that no one bought the Ab Isolator, or the Pilates DVD for 50 cents? I’m also still left with Girl Talk, presumably the original introduction to color theory and crafting in my young life. Now I will be forced to go find this book in the garage and share excerpts at random. Be prepared, this book is circa 1989.

The LNK was in full stride. One of them even drew me a picture:
((procrastination is fun… coming soon))

(I guess my titles aren’t making much sense lately.)

I want you to close your eyes for a moment and pretend. We have fast forwarded to Monday morning. You’ve had your cup of coffee, you’re checking email, you’re bummed that the weekend’s over. Happy Birthday Em!

Ok. Now we’re back to Sunday night and the LNK has just participated in a day full of brunches, music, sun, beer and crawfish bread. I’m wiped. The last stop of our Jazzfestifities was the New Orleans Bingo Show. I’m hooked. I can’t wait to go see them in a non-fest showing. My favorite part: Clint’s nifty little music maker (that sounds a little like bzzz bzz bzz bzzz bzzz bzz bzz bzzz…but much cooler, which I found out upon further investigation is some kind of child’s saw). Apparently, this outing will also require some kind of costuming, which makes me even more excited.

I just came to a recent revelation. Occasionally I will have to miss out on some things and it won’t be the end of the world. In fact, it will be much better for my mental and physical health. I’m sure the rest of the crew went on to do something fabulous. As for me, it was a hot shower, clean sheets, my laptop for a bit and then b-e-d. Hopefully before 10:30. I guess it depends on how much Harry Potter I want to make it through tonight.

On another note:
It was a week ago today that the black team took a hard loss to the white team in our championship bout (Spy vs. Spy). We were up most of the game and played our hearts out and worked together, but alas, the last couple of jams turned the tide and the white team beat us. Again. Except this time, they got to take home the golden skate.

It was this game that I received my first ever fish net rink rash. It was the coolest marking ever (and apparently “hot”). That is until I tried to go to sleep with an oozing bottom and a shot of pain to go with that. It’s much better now. I bet I’ll think twice about letting someone knock me ass first into the crowd next time.