Purple Tinted Glasses

Bea: Hey, do you wanna look in this mug and see if the spider is still in it?
Will: Really?
Bea: Uh, Yeah. It’s been in there for a week now.
Will: You’re asking the arachnophob to see if the spider is still in the cup?
Bea: Mmm, hmm.
Will: …
Bea: Ok fine… (opens mug and closes quickly while holding arms length away) … uuughh. It’s STILL ALIVE! Man that’s a big one.
Will: Wait. You knew there was a spider in there. You knew how big it was. And you still asked me to look in there anyway?
Bea: Well, yeah.
Will: Seriously…. (insert more that points out my extreme insensitivity to my boyfriend’s fear of spiders)…

Spider’s still in the mug, btw.

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.

Yes, another link to something I think is cool that you will probably think is boring. I’m a graphic designer, proficient in the world of print. I love paper and ink and fonts and colors and all that crazy stuff. I have never worked on the press side of it all, but I’ve made enough trips to my vendor and have sent  more jobs than I care to remember to get the idea. At least the machines are electric and you can work at night, probably all thanks to the same man.

There seems to be a trend developing.

If -and only if- I am out of town on a derby trip do I seem to participate in the karaoke action. Tulsa was a failed attempt. No one knew the song and it’s WAY to hard to keep up with (Don’t Stop Me Now - by Queen). On this latest trip, I got back to the basics. Stinky, Diamond and I belted out Journey - Don’t Stop Believing.

The crowd in the tiny outdoor tiki room went crazy (all 10 of them). How much fun is it to crash the banked track derby league’s after party! I think we left a lasting impression. I even got us this the hook up to go try out the banked track (thanks Dixie Sanchez!), even though I couldn’t go.

As for our game, we lost.

Yes… again. What do you expect when we keep playing derby veterans of 5 and 6 years? That and we played against one of Texas Rollergirls’ home teams, The Hot Rod Honeys. Rice Rocket scored 20 points in the first jam, easy.

After the first half was over and we all got the bout jitters out of our systems, we went out there and played with perseverance and the knowledge that we were just NOT going to win (with a half time score of 29-102, I promise we were not being hard on ourselves). The mantra for the night turned into “each jam is a new jam”.

On this particular night, one jam stands out in my mind. I lined up to jam with a clean slate and guess I decided that I wanted to get through the pack - no matter what. So around the second turn, I sped up and hit their jammer. I think I might have slowed her down for a millisecond. I proceeded into the last two turns… on the outside, hitting someone with every other stride. I couldn’t catch a whip, but it didn’t matter. I skated my way past the pack on the outside and by the time the first turn came up again, I was called lead jammer. I saw our loyal league members sitting by the track start yelling and screaming and that’s all I needed to keep going. I got back to the pack, scored maybe 1 point, got knocked on my ass and called it off.

Man, that was amazing. It felt so good to get lead jammer against those girls. Small victories.

In another instance surrounding the last jam, Squirt passed the torch. I opened my mouth and said, “I’ll jam!”

Well, the score at that point was 60-166. We all joked about how I only need to score 67 points so that we’d only lose by 99. When I lined up, I looked at the opposing jammer and jokingly made this huge visual sigh. She gave me a hand tap (what are the kids calling that these days?)

I tried. I guess I decided this time that there was only a minute-thirty left and what the hell did it matter (not so much… I wanted to score that one last point so bad). I never made it through the pack and instead wound up contracting a pretty bad case of whip lash from knocking my head on the ground. I got up, skated for the remainder of the jam and remembered thinking, “No… it’s not over, oh who am I kidding. Thank GOD it’s over!”

I love this sport.

Probably time for a new helmet too.

Final score: BERG 60, Hot Rod Honeys 172

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
–
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.

For the first time in what seems like an eternity, I enjoyed myself a good ole’ fashioned Molly Ringwalds Weekend! Well, I enjoyed myself a Molly Ringwalds Friday Southport show and followed up with a weekend long hang over.

I’m serious. Nauseous until Monday morning.

How many drinks did I have?
Well, four.

What did I drink?
My usual. Kettle on the rocks with a lime.

What hangover remedies did I try?
Water, alkaseltser, Rock Star (energy drink — it’s got b vitamins), junk food, greasy food (will never eat crystal burger again… bleh), more water, diet coke, gas station chicken salad sandwich, more water… Can you believe? I completely forgot (when having an excuse) to DRINK PEPTO BISMAL? I bet that would have worked.

Was it worth it?
Um… Yeah. I got to see the Molly Ringwalds for the first time in what felt like… well, you know…

The rest of the weekend was consumed by derby, both practice and bout viewing.

Yes, I actually skated practice. I wasn’t ready to gouge someone’s eyes out until after I cooled down.

The bout viewing was in Mobile (vs. MSRG), where three of our top BERG refs went to lend their services. And as it happened in our first few bouts, so did it here… by the end of the game, everyone was angry with the refs. They’ll learn. It took our girls about three games worth of point counting and scrutinizing. It’s easier to just leave it on the track.

Pictures would follow, except I’m pretty sure I lost my camera at some point since Saturday at 6pm. Can’t find it and have no desire to look for it right this second.

And quit talking behind my back because it only took four drinks for my stupid hangover.

I often do this: laugh at myself. Today it’s because I’m listening to Queen at work via ipod and headphones. One of my favorites was playing, (I want it all, of course) and I noticed myself start to sing out loud - particularly humorous because I work in cube land.

Some of you know that I tend to compare myself singing to cats crying. I will continue to listen to my Queen via ipod and headphones at work and save the singing for when I’m driving around in my car with the windows rolled up and music blaring.

Currently hopped on a dose of caffeine as well.