Assessments and other musings...

Warning: I am going to ramble. There are a lot of derby-flavored things on my mind tonight so it will all come out in a likely incomprehensible order while I eat some beef stroganoff (YUM!).

So we freshies have hit our 8-practice mark (yay us!). This means it's assessment time. I'm a little apprehenvises because I *want* to do well but I know there are a couple of things I still struggle with (balancing on my right foot, T-stopping with my left foot, getting off the ground in 3 seconds, etc). Transitions also fall into the "bane of my existence" category but that's a level 2 skill.

I'm trying to stay positive - "Do or do not. There is no try" and all that but I know that I'm going to run into some challenges. It's difficult to think positive while mentally/emotionally preparing yourself for the possibility that I might not pass on the first go. The competitive bitch in my wants to do EVERYTHING on the first try but it doesn't always work that way and I need to make sure I'm ok with that.

That being said, I double checked with Empress tonight and she said that she or Vicious will talk us through the results of the entire assessment afterward so that's really helpful for me. I feel like I've gotten a LOT of encouragement (thank you, by the way) but not all that much constructive criticism so I'm really looking forward to the "review" bit.

Pause. God I love this Beef Stroganoff recipe. Rachel Ray *actual* 30-minute meal that is fabulously easy and super yummy.

One of the toughest things for me to get used to/deal with is the fact that I currently feel like I'm going through life with one of those marshmallow-man snow suits little kids wear permanently bonded to my body. I wasn't always this size. In my head I feel like I should just be able to unzip this fat suit, step out, and everything will be fabulous. Yet another thing that doesn't quite work that way in practice.

I *know* this will help me lose weight and I *know* it will get better but, as usual, I'm impatient. I was describing trying to do crossovers to L-Train today. It quite literally feels like I have pillows welded to the insides of my legs. It's not that I have clunky knee pads or anything, it's literally that my legs get in the way. I can do them (crossovers) but they feel clunky and awkward.

Progress is being made though. I think I mentioned last post that the first time we had endurance week, I was a puddle of cooked spaghetti that couldn't get up off the ground, despite Bettie and Hazel's help. This week, it still takes me a bit to get up but I *can* get up so hooray for small victories. This was also another practice without substantial back pain. I don't think I've seen the last of it but I'm hoping that I'm doing something right.

Pause. Lick stroganoff plate before the cats get to it.

I am amazed on a nearly daily basis how many people are interested in roller derby. I was at an offsite work meeting today and we had to say one interesting thing about ourselves. While there are lots of interesting/quirky/weird things about me (saved for another blog or ask me on facebook) I decided to say that I am learning to play roller derby since, looking at me, it's something somewhat unexpected.

At lunch time, I had a group of about three or four people from the meeting sit with me and ask me non-stop questions about derby. One older woman said she used to love watching it in the 70's and 80's and had no idea people were still doing it. "I would love to see a game!" Insert pimping of our first home bout in April. I ended up explaining everything I knew about it from the basics of the game to how we get assessed for safety purposes. The people I was talking to couldn't get enough. The more I told them, the more interested they were.

Looking at it from a marketing perspective there is massive potential out there to not only increase our number of skaters and volunteers but to grow our fan base by miles. It has me thinking of what could be done to raise awareness of roller derby as a sport and then pull the multitudes of intrigued people into our lovely world and get them hopelessly hooked. I will have to ask the old stinky meat if we have any sort of "roller derby basics" flyer on hand at bouts for the uninitiated. If not, I would love to design/write something like that. I think that people will be more likely to come back if they knew what was going on during the bouts.

Again, I tend to get really wound up about ideas and get carried away. Derby just has me TOTALLY excited and I want to help other people get totally excited too. That was why I joined the PR Department. Since I can't stop talking about derby, I may as well put my mouth to good use!