Far Too Long.....

So I have been away from blogger for far too long and missed writing about some of the most amazing things that have taken place in the last few months. So I guess I will just write about the most amazing thing that has happened. I am no longer FRESH MEAT! That's write I graduated and I am now a rookie along with my 3 amazing freshie sisters. Seriously, I love them each so much. It was such a huge deal for us. Immediately following graduation we also got to play in our first real bout against the Pinellas County Roller Girls. Don't we look cool.

We all got a lot more playing time than I expected and they even put all four of us in at once to block and they didn't even score one point. I am so proud of my derby sisters. This was the last game of the season and also our only win this season. It was a really amazing feeling to be part of it all. I just remember every part of my body trembling after going in the first time. It was an amazing rush and it is amazing how you just seem to remember to do certain things. There is so much more that has happened but I will save that for another post so I am not overwhelming you with information and text.

Re-Inspired!

So recently a friend of mine had posted on Facebook that she made cheese...Yes, MADE cheese. So, when Walt and I went over to her house I had to ask, "How do you make cheese?" She explained that she had made ricotta cheese and she had used the recipe from this lovely blog. I have since been clicking the Surprise Me! link on the left hand side of the Smitten Kitchen blog for about a week. There is a lovely array of recipes from Homemade Oreos to Couscous and Feta Stuffed Peppers. This blog has rejuvenated my love for cooking and all things homemade. Roller derby has put the brakes on a lot of my home cooking. On Mondays I leave for work and I don't return home until after practice at about 10:30pm, who wants to wait on or cook a 2 hour meal. Wednesdays run about the same, although there is a bit of a break between work and practice not enough time to prepare and eat a proper meal and practice runs even later on Wednesdays. Tuesdays & Thursdays I am so tired from late practice and early mornings that I don't have the energy to cook. So that leaves mostly the weekend. Most of the time I can't even find the time on the weekend to go grocery shopping let alone cook. There is more skating to be done, pet stores to be shopped at, laundry to be washed, etc... However, I am going to try and work around all of this. I miss cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. I miss the satisfying feeling of eating something absolutely delicious. So my goal is going to be to cook more, try and balance my old (pre-derby) life with my new life.

On to some more derby news. We are not graduating yet. We are going to skate with the Vets for 3 more weeks and then be reassessed. Which is kind of a bummer. Partly, because I just want to know and I am not looking forward to doing my time trails for my life again. Also, because my knee is still unskatable (not sure that is a word) and if it is something that takes a while to heal I could be repeating fresh meat again. The primary reason they gave for this was basically "you guys got a really shitty training experience, so we are making you wait longer and hope you learn something". It's frustrating and scary. Hopefully, it will all work out well.

Well I was trying to wait....

Well, I was trying to wait until the official announcement as to whether or not we passed fresh meat. Still there is no official word if we passed. We did get to practice with the Vets on Monday and we did get back our written rules test. Pleased to say that I got a 97%! So on to the not so good news. I fell pretty hard on my left knee Monday night at practice and well, I sprained my knee (at least that is consensus for now). So frustrating to be injured during our first practice with the Vets and to not be able to participate in practice tonight. I will still be attending practice...don't want to miss anything important. So basically my knee just really hurts if I bend it to far, today it is much better. Yesterday I couldn't really move it at all with out shouting in pain. And yes, because I am so absent minded I would occasionally forget that it hurt to bend my knee so far and let out a good shriek. Excited, that I am able to walk relatively normal on it today...it makes me feel that it really is just a sprain and not a PCL injury. So that is all for now. Maybe tonight there will be an official announcement!!

Derby Update!

Okay so I know it has been forever and then some since I last posted about Derby, but I just haven't been inspired to write anything and work has been busier than usual. Not exactly sure where I last left off so let's just talk about where I am.

These last 10 weeks of Fresh Meat training have gone by so quickly. There have been lots of cancelled practices & some practices where we lacked a real coach. Nonetheless, I have had a blast practicing and getting to know new people. Derby is teaching me to be more vocal and how to talk to strangers. Assessments will take place the week of July 11th with the skills test being that Monday and the rules test will be that Wednesday. Since this Monday is the 4th of July there will be no practice so we only have one practice left before assessments and there are a few that we haven't been shown yet that we will be expected to do. I have been feeling very angry about this lately and have been venting with so fellow freshies  about this. Well, I am done with that. I am done complaining and I am going to practice as much as the rain will allow me to practice before the 11th. I will either pass my assessments or I won't. I will not be kicked off the league for failure to pass the assessments. I will just have to repeat fresh meat training again. Do I want to repeat it? No, but if I am not ready, then I am just not ready. I am mostly afraid of completing the 25 in 5. It is the one thing I don't feel confident about and the one thing I think my nerves destroy.

Tonight we have 1st Friday to promote our league and help recruit some more people for the league. I am excited to get out with my sisters and promote this sport that I have truly fallen in love with.

Roller Derby Catch Up!

Okay so I had this grand idea of blogging about each practice. Well, to be honest that is going to get really boring for you. Our FM coach has missed a few practices and we have had a few canceled due to the last bout, so we have been working on a lot of the same stuff for a while. I can only say so much about crossovers and tstops.

So for a quick catch up of practices. Nothing new has been taught or learned except for last night we learned how to do turnaround toe stops and we got into some pack skating. I am feeling like this class started at a really bad time for the league and there hasn't been a lot of time devoted to us.

The bout: What a weekend that was. We spent about 12 hours getting everything set up over 2 days. I worked the merch booth with April. It was a good place to be. Got to see all of the action. :) Watching the OSDA game was very interesting. The have 4 quarters instead of 2 halves and the pivot can become the jammer at any point without having the swap helmet panties. Now, one to our bout. It was bad, really bad. The first 5 jams or so, our jammer ended up getting sent to the penalty box for various reasons. Also, our best blocker was sent to the penalty box for the first 3 jams I believe. So it started out really rough for us and I think we had a hard time coming back from that. There was also lots of things that were not called and maybe some things called that should not have been, but that's sports. We also beat ourselves. Lots of track cutting penalties and a no mouth guard penalty. All very preventable and since these were all penalties on our jammers they were very detrimental. On the upside there were lots of big its and it was a very passionate game. One of the best that I have seen and one that derby fans love!! :)

I am going to stop here. I have another post to rant about practice, but I will save that for another time.

Fresh Meat: Week 1: Practice 3

So I know I am way behind on my practice recaps, but this particular practice was way less than interesting and for the most part not effective at all. So I showed up for practice Friday and there were maybe 4 people there. That number increased slightly, but not much at all. There was a lady there that was showing the fresh meat stuff and while she is a good skater, she knows nothing about derby. She used to be a figure skater and where a figure skater keeps her weight and where a roller derby girl keeps her weight are completely opposite. There was a lot of random skating and no specific instruction. Although, I did get to see Cam and Bo do some leg whips. If you have never seen one...check out youtube. So that was Friday. Nothing special.

Fresh Meat: Week 1: Practice 2

So practice was much, much better last night. I feel like I got so much more out of practice last night than I did Monday night. GB our fresh meat coach was not there so we were left with the speed skating coach and his brother. They have both been skating for longer than I have been alive. It was nice. They broke things down into smaller parts. Since there were only 5 of us in the pond there was a lot of 1 on 1 time. I feel like my crossovers improved quite a bit, enough that I finally started to realize just how slippery the crappy wheels on the crappy skates I have are. We did more of what we did on Monday; crossovers, tstops, falls & skating on one foot. He had us trying to change direction on one foot which really made me nervous, but I was able to do it pretty well. Candy was there to remind us to stay in derby position. That is one thing I really need to work on. I always feel like I am pretty low and then Candy yells get lower. It is so hard when you can't see yourself. That was the other thing I liked more about this practice than the last one. We were constantly receiving feedback from someone. It's nice to know when you are doing something right or wrong. On Monday we just skated in a circle for hours with out anyone saying anything other than let me see you do a crossover, which, IMO isn't very helpful. If there is no one giving you any feedback are you to just assume that you are doing it right. I guess this week I will be breaking down and ordering some pads. My knees are taking a pretty bad beating from all of the falling with my crappy pads. I am feeling less tired today than I was Tuesday after practice. Looking forward to Friday's practice...wondering what we will be doing. If we will be skating with the big girls. Loving it!!!