Shiner!

One thing you may know about playing roller derby, is that it is a very bad idea to hit your own jammer. If you did not know that here is the basic structure of flat track derby:

There are two thirty minute periods that are comprised of "jams" that can last up to two minutes each.

Each team has 5 players on the track, 4 blockers and 1 jammer. After the first pass, which only establishes lead jammer (the lead jammer has an advantage because she can call off the jam when it is most advantageous for her.) the jammer scores points by passing each opposing blocker. The blockers are trying to prevent the opposing jammer from scoring points by hitting her and blocking her. They are also trying to help their own jammer by giving whips and creating "clears" (or moving opposing players out of the way).

Knowing this, it is pretty obvious that when one is playing roller derby she does not want to HIT HER TEAMS JAMMER.

It is an even worse idea if your jammer is about a foot taller than you and her teeth are level with your eyebrows when you are both in derby stance.

Things like this can happen:

It may be hard to see, but after my brow collided head on with my teammates teeth at scrimmage last night I had a lump on my brow about the size of a golf ball(thank goodness for both of us she was wearing proper protective gear, including a mouth guard)


This is what it looked like this morning:


These are two pictures are very rare photo's of me as I am usually wearing make-up and I think I have only had one other REAL black eye in my life. That was when I was about five and I broke my nose- great story, for another day.



It will be kinda cool to have a black eye for the tournament this weekend, but I am not looking forward to going to work like this. Even though I work for my dad and outside traffic is minimal it is a little embarrassing to have people wonder how it happened. My dad and co-worker both know I play roller derby but many of our customers do not.

I started a post yesterday, should be able to put it up tomorrow. I am sorry I have not been as diligent with my blogging lately, but I am sure you all understand that life happens.

Xoxo,

Erica

Happy Friday everyone!

Well, it is Friday again, which is wonderful. These weekends come and go so fast now.

It seems like a good day for an update.

First off, after about a year of being deficient in the skating rink department the rink formerly known as Roller King is being re-opened as Roller Skate World. Albuquerque has A HUGE bingo facility. To not have a roller rink would truly be a travesty. The newly renovated roller rink is having its grand opening tonight, and Duke City Derby is planning to be highly visible and out in force tonight! I can't wait. Part of the reason I started playing roller derby is because I really LOVE to roller skate.

Also, I got the blood tests back from the doctor and everything a came back normal! It is devastating. I know that I am working harder than ever before to lose this extra baby weight and I find it impossible to believe that there is not something wrong that is causing me to retain this weight. Unfortunately this means whatever is wrong is not an easy find, or fix. In the mean time I can't really exercise more than I am during the actual derby season (we are having our off season right now) so I will have to reduce my caloric intake again, which seems ridiculous to me because we have a very healthy diet, but is the only thing I can think to do. I will also start recording my meals again. I have a follow-up appointment with the doctor in December.

I am thinking about joining weight watchers and I am also thinking about starting a fitness blog.

It has been a little too long since my last post, I apologize!

I played a game in Portland a week ago and we lost by A LOT. After living there Portland had left a pretty awful taste in my mouth, but I had so much fun visiting and I loved playing the Rose City Rollers Wheels of Justice, even if they kicked our ass.

I actually was not ready to leave when it was time to go.

This past weekend Adam and I finally got a weekend *kind of* off of derby. I mean I helped with newbies on Friday, helped with newbies again on Saturday and did some counting of merch to get the website prepared to start selling it, and had travel team practice and a league meeting on Sunday, but- compared to being out of town playing bouts, it felt like having the weekend off of derby.

Obviously, I love it or I wouldn't do it, but I was so happy to get a few things done!

I finally tackled that art room- which is good, because I have lots of projects floating around in my head that I want to get started on. More on that, later. I will also put up some more pictures soon of the new and improved workspace!

We also finally started putting the art up. For some reason we are having more trouble deciding where to put things this time, even though we have a ton of wall space. I am not sure what to do about the paintings that are not hanging, maybe I should have a big etsy sale. Paintings get ruined when they are stored for too long.

Duke City Derby is Homeless Again!

WE had some excitement at the beginning of the skating season when Duke City Derby started skating at the Santa Ana star center, especially after two seasons at midnight rodeo, which can best be described as a death trap. We had more people show up to Santa Ana games than any of our games at midnight rodeo but the long drive to nowhere didn't draw the crowds that we needed to pay back Santa Ana and DCD went massively in debt because of it. I am glad that I got to play one game there after I got back from portland. (SPEAKING OF DCD BEING MASSIVELY IN DEBT WE ARE HAVING AN ART SHOW FUNDRAISER AT BLACKBIRD BUVETTE THIS MONTH AND I WILL BE DONATING ART, those in burque should check it out)

Anyway, we are not going to play at Santa Ana Star center any more. That's fine... except for one thing... WHERE WILL WE PLAY?

All is not lost though, I have several games schedualed. Taos, Portland, Kansas... and I am sure I am forgetting some. There is a game coming up in Tucson, but I am not going to that one. (work, baby... you know... pretending my life does not revolve around roller derby-even though it does)

In other news, DCD is now inactive. I wise woman once said "Fuck the WFTDA" and I am kind of feeling that right now.


These Pictures are from my game at the StarCenter... and my first Game after autumn was born!

A Doom by Any Other Name Would Smell as Rank

I have never liked my skate name. I liked it enough when I registered it, and I thought it was kind of cute, but I have always felt kind of silly and stupid repeating it out loud to anyone who asks what my skate name is. Since I transferred to Rose City this year after Autumn was born it seems like a good chance to reinvent my skate persona with a new name. I get to register a new name sometime this month, so I thought I would share all of my stupid names, and how I ended up with one I hate.

In October of 2005 I saw my first roller derby bout. It was Duke City’s Big House Brawlers v/s Dead Mans Curves. Never heard of them? That is because those teams only played two games. I found out about it after finding an old friend on myspace. She had a weird but hilarious name as her display name, Dahmernatrix, which I learned was a cool Roller Derby alias. I am pretty sure there are a lot of fun things I would have never known about if it weren’t for her, including roller derby. That first bout would seem very archaic by today’s standards. There were tons of egregious fouls, and I think there were three play fights. I was never an athletic person, but when I saw bad ass girls in cute outfits on skates beating each other up, I was in LOVE. It was bold and sexy, and just what I needed at that point in my life. I started the very next day.

I was ready to be drafted by the second Big House Brawlers V/S Dead Mans Curves game and had come up with a name that I really loved for the Big House Brawlers, which is still my favorite skate name and is the one I plan to try to register. I was advised not to publish the name all over the internet until I can try to register it because someone else might snatch it up. I will say that about three months before I started with RCR someone registered a name that is similar enough that I may have to ask permission to have the one that I want. I ended up being drafted to Dead Mans Curves, so I went with Whip Lass instead.

At that time it was not uncommon for people to have a different name for every team they were on. When Duke City’s Munecas Muertas played their first travel game against Sin City’s Neanderdolls I got to join them, and went with Cannon Eyes (that open and close) as my Munecas name for that first inter-league bout, and kept it through our first Dust Devil Tourny. That name was stupid. There isn’t much else to say about that name. I thought it was clever then, but I don’t know why. Stupid, stupid, stupid. If the name alone was not bad enough, I also spelled it Canon Eyes, changing the meaning entirely and making me look like a complete tard.

When our first real season started (the two BHB v/s DMC games were an exhibition season) we had more skaters and more time, so we restructured our teams. I became a DoomsDame. Not that it really needs to be said, but I fucking LOVED my team. They were amazing. My team mates were dedicated, hard working, and they totally minimized the drama. The Hobots were another team, which I think was Dahmer and R2 BeatU’s brain child. Awesome, right? Right. The third team was the Derby Intelligence Agency, who ended up with an amazingly large percentage of the prettiest girls on the league. To go with my teams post apocalyptic theme I went with Agent Orange Crush, but didn’t check the roster before trying to register it and it was rejected. I didn’t have much time to pick a new name and at the time I thought Doom Dee Doom was cute, and it was ok with my teams theme, so I went by that for my remaining time with Duke City. It never really grew on me, and I think I am one of the few roller girls who introduce myself as my regular name almost always.

Here are a few of my favorite names that skaters have already taken:

Sara Problem (Seattle)

Aja Consent (Tucson, she had another Saddle Tramps name… Hoot’n Annie?) This name actually appears to be available?

Molotov Cocktease (duke city’s founder)

Suzy Homewrecker (AZ renegades)

Sparkle Ninja (Minnesota?)

Of course those are just a few.

If I were skating for the emerging Salem, Or league, it wouldn’t be a problem. I read yesterday that they have decided to forgo the “often raunchy” roller derby handles. What a shame!

I can’t wait until I get to submit the name I should have registered in the first place, of course this time I have a list of (top secret) alternates if it is rejected. If all else fails I can always skate as Jenny Tullwarts. Changing my name won’t change much, having a baby already changed enough. It won’t change that I hit hard, or that I skate as much as I possibly can and love trying new and creative drills and techniques (bring on the vag. assists)- and it is VERY UNLIKELY that it will change that I don’t wash my pads.